<strong>on</strong><strong>the</strong><strong>rise</strong>16 November/December 2009
Social media, such as Facebook,give your customers <strong>the</strong> opportunity totalk about your brand in a public way.You need to join <strong>the</strong> c<strong>on</strong>versati<strong>on</strong>.Facebook touts more than 250 milli<strong>on</strong> active usersworld-wide. Twitter is growing at a m<strong>on</strong>thly rategreater than 1,300 percent, according to Nielsen<strong>on</strong>line.<strong>com</strong>.And <strong>on</strong> a m<strong>on</strong>thly basis, roughly <strong>on</strong>ethirdof Americans are reading and interacting withany of <strong>the</strong> 150 milli<strong>on</strong> to 250 milli<strong>on</strong> blogs, reportsForrester Research. So how will this social networkingphenomen<strong>on</strong> impact <strong>the</strong> future of <strong>the</strong> independentbusiness products resellers? It all depends <strong>on</strong>how freely <strong>the</strong>y accept social media’s ast<strong>on</strong>ishingpowers and possibilities.“We’ve figured out that social networking isn’tgoing away,” says Mike Ockrim, president andfounder, Chicago School Supply LLC, Willowbrook,Ill. “We use Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, we blog,and we have various feeds <strong>on</strong> <strong>the</strong> Internet. We’reall over <strong>the</strong> place.” Chicago School Supply serves<strong>the</strong> educati<strong>on</strong> market and uses Facebook to disseminateinformati<strong>on</strong> it finds in <strong>the</strong> marketplace. “Ifwe see articles <strong>on</strong> new ways in which funding dollarsare being applied or new trends in educati<strong>on</strong>,we share <strong>the</strong>m as a way to start c<strong>on</strong>versati<strong>on</strong>s,”says Ockrim. “So<strong>on</strong> we find people starting to offer<strong>the</strong>ir opini<strong>on</strong>s <strong>on</strong> <strong>the</strong> topic.” The <strong>com</strong>pany usesTwitter in <strong>the</strong> same way, but in a more abbreviatedfashi<strong>on</strong>—yet all <strong>the</strong> while creating links back to itsWeb site and its product line.“I never really thought about applying Facebookto my business until my United account representative,Andrew Raab, re<strong>com</strong>mended exploring socialmedia as a new avenue for marketing,” says PaulMcManus, CEO, Office Supply Company, El Centro,Calif. “I created a Facebook fan page in July. Insix weeks we had 115 fans.” McManus initiated a“Buy Local” campaign as a way of getting his <strong>com</strong>panynoticed throughout his geographic regi<strong>on</strong>,as opposed to <strong>the</strong> medium’s less re<strong>com</strong>mendedhard-sell approach of distributing product informati<strong>on</strong>.A sec<strong>on</strong>d method used to encourage fansign-ups was to c<strong>on</strong>duct a raffle. “My message saidthat when I reached 200 fans, I’d raffle off $100.”McManus believes that within a year, every successful<strong>com</strong>pany will have a Facebook page. “Theopportunity is <strong>the</strong>re now for dealers to get in <strong>on</strong><strong>the</strong> early part of <strong>the</strong> curve,” he says. “A year fromnow, <strong>the</strong> field will be much more crowded.”Media DifferencesEssentially, social media enable people to tapinto each o<strong>the</strong>r, to link to each o<strong>the</strong>r, and to getinformati<strong>on</strong> from each o<strong>the</strong>r based <strong>on</strong> many newtechnologies and tools that are available through<strong>the</strong> Internet, according to Sean Corcoran, analyst,Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, Mass. Whiletraditi<strong>on</strong>al media was always thought of as a “talkat” approach, customers now have <strong>the</strong> ability to talkback to brands, and also to talk to each o<strong>the</strong>r in amore transparent way about <strong>the</strong> brands. “Word-ofmouthhas been a very powerful medium—perhaps <strong>the</strong> most powerful—yet now people areable to have those c<strong>on</strong>versati<strong>on</strong>s in a very publicway that every<strong>on</strong>e can see,” says Corcoran.“Social media brings people toge<strong>the</strong>r withbusiness in mind, and it really integrates <strong>the</strong> rolesof brand <strong>com</strong>munity and using a <strong>com</strong>pany ora brand to c<strong>on</strong>nect,” says Angeline Close, PhD,professor of Integrated Brand Promoti<strong>on</strong>s andMarket Management at <strong>the</strong> College of Business’Department of Marketing at <strong>the</strong> University ofNevada, Las Vegas. Traditi<strong>on</strong>ally, media has beena c<strong>on</strong>versati<strong>on</strong> of <strong>on</strong>e with many receivers. Nowsocial media have changed that by be<strong>com</strong>ingmore of a real c<strong>on</strong>versati<strong>on</strong> c<strong>on</strong>necting not <strong>on</strong>lyc<strong>on</strong>sumers to businesses, but also c<strong>on</strong>sumers toc<strong>on</strong>sumers without <strong>the</strong> businesses. “It’s a lot moreempowering to <strong>the</strong> c<strong>on</strong>sumer in that if you d<strong>on</strong>’ttreat your supply chain managers, partners, orcustomers in a satisfactory manner, social networkingenables those experiences to be easily shared<strong>on</strong>line, which can be a real deal breaker,” saysClose.Ano<strong>the</strong>r way of <strong>com</strong>paring <strong>the</strong> differencesbetween <strong>the</strong> two media, according to AmyDeLouise, principal, Amy DeLouise C<strong>on</strong>sulting,OFF CEL NE17
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