Swiping new customers with social media

General news0

aibSocial media isn’t as mysterious as the myriad of business seminars indicate, according to a new article by Geoff Ebbs in the February edition of Westender

We all know that it is easier to sell something to an existing customer than it is to find new customers and we all know that eighty percent of our business comes from twenty percent of our customers.

We can’t grow our business, though, just by selling new things to the best one in five of our existing customers.

The challenge is to find and convert new customers without breaking the bank.

The core message

Many local business owners have attended seminars in the last year extolling the virtues of facebook, linkedin, twitter, tumblr or pInterest. I know. I’ve seen you there.

Most of these seminars provide compelling evidence that social media works.

Facebook’s Australian small business marketing manager, Nick Bowditch, is a three time netrepreneur who built and sold his three businesses from his PC. Two of them sold for more than a million dollars. Addressing the Small Business Summit at Rydges in July, Bowditch pointed out that searches are increasingly local and predominantly mobile and that social media is the glue that underpins an increasing proportion of communications.

Andrew Bleeker spoke passionately at DNA://13 in Sydney last year about the lessons learned in three US presidential campaigns and how they impact on business.

Most of these seminars leave business people feeling that they somehow missed the point.

Geoff’s article goes through the connection between using social media to connect with your potential customers and actually making a sale.

In the meantime, Westender is keen to hear your stories, successful or otherwise and share them with our business readers through our online weekly business eNews and the business pages of our print publication.

Geoff Ebbs is the author of the Australian Internet Book which sold 45,000 copies in 1995 and went on to a fourth edition, the pioneer of online content management systems and a management consultant with the Ebono Institute.

Declaration of Interest: The Ebono Institute is a shareholder in Urban Voice, the publisher of Westender.

Andrew Bleeker’s talk is available at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/browse/video_popup.htm?vidURL=/tv/bigideas/stories/2013/03/04/3702777-mediarss-full.xml&vidTitle=Andrew%20Bleeker%20on%20Social%20Campaigning&vidLength=Full

The Westender’s coverage of social media issues is available at http://westender.com.au/tag/social-media/

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