SOCIAL MEDIA’S “LEVEL PLAYING FIELD”

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SOCIAL MEDIA’S “LEVEL PLAYING FIELD”

Written by; Jerry Nihen

In business, you will often hear something along the lines of “who you know is often better than what you know.” Knowing connected people will benefit you in the long run a lot better most of the time than being the “genius in his basement” that no one has ever heard of.

As business owners and marketers continue to grasp the effects of social media on their sales and marketing, it’s often thought that you can level the playing field of connecting and meeting the right people.

For example, If a big time business owner is set up on Twitter, it will be a lot easier to contact him and demonstrate your expertise and portfolio on that platform than by cold calling – especially if you have an “underdog” company.

You may have heard that the internet has allowed for a more level playing field for businesses. These platforms give the “little business” a chance to compete with the largest corporations because the tools (like Facebook, Google Rankings, Twitter, etc) are the same for everyone.

But they’re not!

A corporation with a million dollar advertising and research budget is going to have a lot easier of a time establishing and creating a web presence than the guy with a thousand dollar (or even ten thousand dollar) advertising budget

. The “big guys” in business have also had a lot longer to establish their business offline, which means integrating online is that much easier.

You might ask if setting up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn necessarily level the playing field?

The answer is No way! It’d be crazy to think that. “If Steve opens up a corner grocery shop, he’s going to have a heck of a time trying to compete with Wal Mart—on the internet or off the internet.”

So especially if your competitors are high in the Fortune 500 list, their going to have a hard time going after the thousands (or even millions) of small time customers that they would need to compete in their respective market places.

However, it is a lot easier to go after the bigger fish now than ever before. When used correctly, B2B companies can go after their dream clients a lot easier than ever before.

You however have access to direct contact with some of the biggest names in the industry (all of the Fortune 500 companies have executives registered on LinkedIn, for example) and stand a better chance of impressing and setting up a meeting with your dream client than ever before.

The expectation is this: if you are B2C, and expect social networking to allow you to compete with someone with a million dollar advertising budget – then you will be disappointed.

• However, B2B consultants, sales teams, and more can effectively use social media to “beat out” their large scale competition, if they play their cards right.

THE END.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23679420@N00/4846690755/