As the economy shrink’s, Social Media grows!

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Seeing opportunity amidst mist:

What an amazing book launch Social Traffic has been. I will be posting a note tomorrow to wrap up the books pre-launch that will include a video montage we put together on the fly to articulate the launch, as it unfolded across social media. The idea of the video is to exasperate the power this medium represents to all of us in business today.


New Media

I have been involved with marketing my own businesses for 20 years now. I came onto the internet 4 years ago because I knew that it was the perfect platform for me to execute what I did locally to the world. Everything that we do offline can easily be extrapolated and amplified online - by reaching out to a larger audience using the same mind set with a different story, message and product. This is why, people who still haven’t seriously adapted to social media and the internet for marketing, need to do so now more than ever.

Because of the current economic situation, there is a huge opportunity in Social Media today. People who previously employed traditional offline advertising and marketing tactics are going to be forced to move towards adopting lower-cost internet marketing strategies if they want to keep getting their message out under much tighter sales and marketing budgets. Those businesses who were already active online, are now way ahead in the race for survival through this economic bush fire where weaker businesses will burn and only the strong, efficient and well capitalized business will survive. The actions already being taken by those currently applying social media and the internet as a delivery platform is a proof of their prudence.

When it comes to stock investing, Warren Buffet says that “we should be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy”. Warren Buffet is in a greedy mode right now whilst the world around him is gripped by fear, he is buying some great stocks for peanuts and he will earn billions as the economy claws it’s way back to value. You see, it’s the small business people amongst us: the entrepreneurs, the risk takers, who will slowly get the economy back on its feet through tough times - and throughout the process individuals who lead the way will be rewarded through their star rising when most others is falling with the economy.

The misled wayfarers:

Employees from the stock trading community, the corporate sector in property trusts, finance and banking will not. These people got us into this mess, they did it whilst enjoying all the prestige and accolades our society could dish up. Funded by unhealthy salaries and bonuses (bonuses they don’t have to give back now that their companies are hurting), driving prestige motor cars worth more than a lot of peoples homes, wearing designer suites, accompanied by fast women. It’s little wonder that, being allowed the latitude we gave them, that they managed to pump so much hot air into the economy that the ensuing bubble of nothing got so big it has very nearly bankrupted the world.  Those responsible for this bubble don’t have a mind-set that will lift the economy out of this mess.

Gartner Hype Index Curve

They will wait for someone to bail them out and will be praying that they keep their wages because they have no clue how to survive without wages. If their wages are taken away from them they will go in one of two directions from here; either they’ll hit rock bottom and never recover, or they will shift their mind set to a place where they can use their education and training to morph themselves into small business people, they will become entrepreneurs to survive and to do that they must learn to play whats in front of them like we do. They will learn to see opportunity where others only see adversity, they will learn to listen to the problems a market place is having and find ways to solve these problems through supplying goods and services. Above all else, they must learn how to communicate with the market place and succeed at building trusting relationships with people in order to survive in the new economy.

With this influx of sharp minds coming across to compete for survival in small business, it’s going to get really competitive. These people are tech savvy, they were well trained over the years by corporations who had hugely inflated budgets to train them well, all they don’t have is the mind set that is required to become successful small business entrepreneurs.

The big jump:

It’s not feasible for us to think that all these clever people will curl up and die. Nor is it realistic to think they will all start new business on models based on telephones, tele-marketers or fax machines. This influx will be coming into the social media and internet marketing space to find customers who they can solve problems for using these apps as their delivery platforms of choice. They are going to be joined by a growing list of small business owners who have (until now) not been forced to think outside their comfort zone when it comes to marketing solutions for their businesses. They have just enjoyed decades of prosperity in business in the offline world. Sure all these people have heard of social media in marketing but they have avoided having to understand it through not being forced to endure the hardship that comes with change. Here’s the thing, a couple months ago, a lot of people woke up one day and accepted their lives were about to change, they knew their sales will start dropping 20% to 50% for the next year, and today its already happening. It’s through tough times that the strong get stronger, ties become more tightly knit and loyalty becomes everything - whilst those who don’t enjoy such characteristics implode on one another in the scurry for survival.

Businesses who already understand social media and the internet in business are already ahead and those who are using it as a communication platform to build stronger relationships with clients and partners are even further ahead. When you think about it, any businesses throughout who can utilize the internet to deliver their goods or services should have embraced it by now all things being equal for no other reason than the sheer genius of it. Why would any business not adopt a model where they only pay a sales force after already selling a product or service and where every customer can become a part of that sales force, if they were not restrained by insecurity or ignorance. Last financial year 4% of Americas gross domestic sales were made online through affiliate marketers, yet in Korea 36% of their gross domestic sales were transacted this way. This indicates that America and Europe were due to experience a massive shift from offline customer sales, service and delivery models to online models is overdue anyway, the only thing stopping these western giants from acting was the comfort of enjoying good times in business offline, allowing them not to have to deal with the change every business owner knows was coming. The slowing economy means every business needs to market, sell and deliver their goods and services to as wide an audience as possible for the least possible cost if they are to survive a period of recession, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the masses will turn to the internet and social media to survive.

This influx of new players into social media over the next year or two coupled with an already growing need for a better code of practices and regulation throughout online businesses and sole traders, information overload, excessive spamming and a confused rational when it comes to relationship building online and we have ourselves a boiling pot of mayham.

The torch bearers:

To me, this climate represents enormous opportunities for those of us willing to see opportunity, cease the moment, and invest in solutions. They will come out the other side of this tough economic climate having established fare superior gains through our the pecking order of influence than they could never have realized in times when our economy is strong. Like Warren Buffet, I say “be pro-active in expanding  where the economy is retracting and save, consolidate when the economy is pro-actively expanding”.

Firstly the influx into social media are going to require training, they are going to want to learn practices that represent long term success, everyone needs to know how to deliver value in solutions that can be marketed, sold and delivered via a combination of internet and posts. I think this climate will demand an emphasis on quality relationships because consumers with money to spend will become like gold. In order to win their loyalty merchants are going to have to know how to treat them like gold. I think the days of running businesses off email lists that yield 1% open rates are numbered, as are the number of info products and training courses teaching people how to build businesses like this. People doing business online are going to need platforms that are targeted in their ability to provide solutions, communities that carry influence will be ones that represent the way online business should be done. Communities that use social media as their communication platform are already facilitating opportunities to build quality relationships that extend offline making the world a truly smaller place for all of us. I personally think an opportunity for a community of like-minded thought leaders in the space of social media, to consolidate themselves as an influential network; will rise to lead us through the times ahead is upon us. This is why I believe that together, the Social Traffic group can support, be supported and collaborate by sharing a common mind-set of adding value to each others efforts and through doing this, our movement will grow into one that can really make a difference through the times ahead.

What do you think?

Notice to those people who downloaded Social Traffic.

If you used the state of our economy as cause for not upgrading to the full 145 page version of Social Traffic, it may be worth another consideration.

We have planned a Social Traffic MP3 version re-launch in the coming weeks. All those who  purchased a (full 145 page) version of the ebook, as at, Friday 21st November 2008, midnight (EST North America), you will all receive a FREE MP3 download as a BONUS to go with it.

I will announce another, better bonus for all full (145 page) version book owners tomorrow.

Follow me on twitter and be the first to know about our bonuses and the Social Traffic MP3 re-launch;

http://www.twitter.com/SimonFord


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