They talk about blogging, Twitter, social media; why it’s good for business, why not, how to do it, and why. Humbug. The topic is off base. It’s not whether its good or bad, but does it fit with everything else you’re doing. Does it fit with your strategy? Does it match?
A couple of generations ago business discovered toll-free telephone numbers, the once-famous 800 numbers that most of us take for granted. There was a rush on toll-free numbers in the beginning. Then businesses started to discover that a toll-free telephone number did them no good without marketing to make the damn number ring. The number itself was neutral; a pipe with no flow.
That’s the deal with blogging, Twitter, etc.; none of these is either good or bad for business, in and of themselves. It has to be related to the rest of the business. What does blogging do for your strategy? Where does Twitter fit into the marketing mix? What are the metrics? How will you know whether it’s working or not?
Here’s a thought for you: if you are into this new world (which, I suppose, is likely, since you’re reading this) then start figuring out how you’re going to measure the impact on your business. Try this exercise: look at your bank balance as it is with the new media efforts. Consider what it would have been if you hadn’t been working the new media. Which would be higher?
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Comments
Yup, Toll Free Numbers are tools like anything else and they take a little promotion. But having a toll free number on your website, especially any commerce site is a plus. Sure the answers to their questions are probably on your website, but half the calls are really just to make sure you're a real company and that somebody's there if they have a problem.
Getting a toll free number is a very easy step to make your business more legitimate. You can point it right to your cell phone or any local number you want. They are as little as two bucks a month and three cents per minute.
We will help you find numbers related to your company name or website too at TollFreeNumbers.com A memorable word or phrase will increase the response rate to all your advertising.
Like this post says if you don't use it, it won't help that much, like a good domain name that you don't promote. But a good number will increase the return on all your marketing efforts.
Bill Quimby
TollFreeNumbers.com
Hi,
I'm trying to figure out how to best use these new tools (Twitter, Flickr, Facebook etc.) to promote a new website being launched. This new website is designed to be a virtual museum (displaying photos/videos/multimedida from physical museums across the country), so marketing it with these tools seems to be a good fit with the overall strategy. In particular, in your article you mention metrics – how would I calculate metrics in order to decide whether spending time promoting via a particular blog or networking site truly benefits my website?