We are living through one of the most efficient times to build a business. The Internet, digital media, social media and more one-to-one connections than we could ever imagine are opening the doors of opportunity. It’s only been the last few years that a business idea could be validated with a couple a blog posts, a one page website and an email subscription list, followed by a by crowdfunding campaign to fund their growth. We can see examples of this with Dollar Shave Club and Baubax Travel Jacket.
All it takes to do this is a little savvy brand management and hard work. You have to be able to explain very simply why your idea is a good idea. But if you have that, you can rapidly grow a business of any size in today’s Internet driven world. Now you might be thinking yeah that’s great for an e-commerce company, but this is true for literally any type or size business, even B2B.
Future-focused businesses are reaping multi-millions dollar quarters because of their activity over the Internet. Companies like GE are investing an incredible amount of resources to establish their digital brand. A blue-chip company like this knows how to stick around through economic ebbs and flows. And they realize that by being the first in their space to effectively brand themselves online, they’re going to be at the forefront in their future customer’s eyes.
How GE is doing it
The remarkable thing is that you see them focusing on platforms that have high impact, instead of just high visibility. In a recent interview with AdAge, GE CMO Linda Boff explained, “We’re big believers in being where our audience is spending their time. And increasingly, people are spending their time on new platforms — that is where we will drive attention and impact.”
They are creating their own content. Content that connects with her audience. But it’s funny, when you think of GE, you don’t necessarily assume that their most valuable audiences are on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and these other new platforms. But for those of you out there that think social media isn’t where your customers are, Ms. Boff has a response to you– “We find Facebook is a terrific place for performance marketing. It is also one we feel is increasingly a great place to target CIOs who are on Facebook. We love the experimental nature of platforms like Snapchat — we are doing a great deal there.”
And that’s why they been leading Innovation for over 100 years…
It’ll work even better for you
No matter who you’re trying to sell to – whether it’s investors, customers, businesses, organizations or anyone else – they are all on social media. And in the slim chance that they aren’t, they will be next year and every year after that. If a behemoth like GE is targeting customers online, you can bet that a small-to-medium business like yours can do an even better job at connecting with them.
Some might jump on Facebook to check their grandkids pictures once a week. Some might be on LinkedIn to find distributors once a month. Some might check Twitter every day for their news. And whether it’s today, or in a couple of years, we will all be using Facebook and Snapchat to communicate regularly–even CEO’s, CIO’s and COO’s.
My point is that there are dollars floating around in the “cloud” that many people dismiss without realizing the potential. We say things like “our customers aren’t there”, Or “it’s not worth our time to invest in platforms like these”.
[bctt tweet=”By saying social isn’t valuable to my company, you’re basically saying “I’m not willing to invest in my company’s future”.” username=”johnnytimbo”]Because when you look at the numbers, both your current and future customers, clients or investors are spending more and more time there.
So to wrap up here, I titled this article to show you the opportunity for ROI on digital and social media platforms across the Internet. If you haven’t yet began to dip your toe into finding leads and potential customers on the Internet, this is your fair warning to do so now. Or year from now your competitors will be all in, and if you’re not, you’re going to be out.
