Building a business, or an association, presents a continuing dilemma of just what things to do first. Part of the leader's job is to carry the big-picture torch.
I went to a meeting this morning with two very bright, aggressive real estate professionals trying to build a business-quickly. One is the leader, another the agent. One of their reasons for meeting centered around the question "What do we do with social media? How should it fit in to our "plan"?
Social media can be miles more efficient than the most sophisticated tools from the olden days (in the 80's). Think Hoovers, Standard & Poors, Lexis/Nexis, Dunn&Bradstreet, as examples. Remember? Volumes of hard copy books sat in our office or bullpen with descriptive company and contact information. It was already out-of-date by the time we received the volumes via postal mail. But it was all we had to get to the right decision-maker, or to determine connections.
In later years, Xerox had a department of its own with a hotline for up-to-date business information we could call to navigate a prospective corporate account.
Today, tools like this are accessible online. These profile resources are invaluable, and we can add tools like LinkedIn to the list. Social media can help make connections we only dreamed of in the 80's and in a fraction of the time.
That said, I can't stress enough the importance of setting tactics (activities) and specific clients aside, and starting at the beginning, with three marketing basics:
The WHAT: Your specific goals and time frame - To build [what area of your business] between now and [when] for [what offering or product]? This determines the connections you need to make.
The WHO: Your target market (by segment, geography or other descriptor). If there is more than one - prioritize them. EVERYONE is simply not a practical target audience. You can attend to most of your audiences, but listing them specifically forces you to think about the individual needs of each audience.
The HOW: The ways you get your message across (media choices - including social, traditional, in-house, outsource, live, technology use).
I could feel one of my coffee-mates thinking on a larger scale. He began talking about how to re-look at their next informational video for a particular area of his business, and how several activities could link together to form a campaign. He even talked about the prospect list and various components of the plan (video, email, postcard, and phone calls) based on the newly identified goals.
The other one could not get past a variety of ideas swirling around in his head and what he had to do today. And maybe, in the scheme of things, this is where his head should be.
I could tell one of them will probably carry the plan and keep them focused on the goal. That was the Broker. If the leader thinks ahead with a systematic approach, I think the team can make it work!
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