Why Social Media and Inbound Marketing Make Sense

Do you remember back when you graduated from high school or college and you were looking for that first job? What did you hear more often than not?

What experience do you have?

It was frustrating wasn't it? If you're lucky, at that point maybe you had a few part time jobs you could point to. Bottom line, you were looking to get your foot in the door, to get that first big opportunity.

Well when you think about it, how is that any different from the way you relate to potential customers? When you were looking for that first employer, they wanted to know what they were getting before they brought you on. Similarly, your potential clients are no longer satisfied to see empty braggadocio in the form of your advertisements and press releases. Your potential clients want to see what you can do, concretely, before they invest in you.

Using social media as an inbound marketing method achieves this purpose. Using Twitter, potential customers get to know you. They can judge you by how you interact on a minute to minute basis.

When you put that "squeeze page" on your web site, you're not simply collecting an email list to send empty advertisements. Hopefully, you are offering something of value. An appetizer, so to speak, that shows your potential paying client what you can do. Now they can vet you much the same way an employer wants to vet a potential employee.

It may be hard for you to break out of the mold of the old advertising paradigms. You have to understand that consumers are more sophisticated nowadays and your ad, which is really just an opportunity to brag about yourself without proving anything, isn't going to pull people in as it once might have.

View your courtship with each potential client as a job interview where you have to provide concrete evidence that you've got "the right stuff". Social media is a key ingredient in making that happen.