In preparation for the last event on the Social Media Masters 2011 Tour (Kansas City, Oct 21st 2011), discussion leader Shelly Kramer, CEO of V3 Integrated Marketing has me thinking about social media and sales. It’s my opinion that many organizations fail to leverage the power of “social” because they equate it to marketing and relationship building.
Certainly engaging through social media channels does market your business and does build stronger customer relationships but they must be a means to an end, not the end goal. Social marketing must support the entire customer lifecycle, which goes beyond marketing. Social relationships without the intent and strategy to drive sales will only result in an empty business wallet. Understanding how to connect the dots from engagement to sales is step one.