I simply cannot wait for spring to get here.  This has been an unusually long winter for us in the Southeast (snicker all you want, my Midwest and Northeast comrades).  But it has been unusually cool for unusually long stretches of time this winter.  When it is cool, potential clients stay inside and watch the Olympics. They aren’t outside raking or daydreaming of all the projects that they want to hire my team for.

Ours is an odd business to market.  For the most part, folks consider our service a commodity.  Potential clients generally think that Company A’s product and service will rival Company B’s.  This is even more true when they haven’t  gone through a bad renovation or home building experience.  But there is also something critical to our marketing efforts that is often overlooked - Social Networking.

As Generation X and Millennial clients become more and more the focus of our marketing efforts and an ever larger component of our client base,  it is important to realize that these age groups gather more and more information from non-traditional (electronic) means than ever before.  Social Networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) will not make you as a company.  But a lack of presence can break you.

Younger clients don’t just read your marketing material and ask close friends and relatives about you.  They dig online to find happy customers and disgruntled ones.  They use social networking to find the electronic “shadow” organization that depicts the real experience your company offers vs. the stylized version presented in your print marketing materials.  Like it or not, an electronic shadow company exists for each of our businesses.  Those companies behind the eight ball have this image controlled by those outside of the enterprise.  Proactive organizations are defining and monitoring their own image via means of the web and social networking tools.

I am not a big believer that social media will ever transplant standard marketing and face-to-face meetings. But I do know that as younger generations continue to control more and more of the client base, social media will become increasingly important to attracting and landing these clients.  Don’t be afraid to venture into social media and add your business to Facebook and update it regularly with photos and news.  The key point that I am making is that organizations today must control their electronic image, or others will do it for you.  Which position would you prefer?

I was a guest on a local internet radio show - Atlanta Business Radio (www.atlantabusinessradio.com) last week.  I was shocked to actually get a call from a prospect a couple of hours after it aired from a representative of a potential client and scheduled to meet with her after her vacation.  I was left in awe at how technology has changed the name of the game and allowed even the smallest or most obscure companies to get some air time that larger stations wouldn’t touch.  I pursued this avenue to possibly generate leads, but also to get more practice at public speaking, which I have never been fond of but find myself more and more required to do.  The format of an internet radio show also allowed me the chance to hear myself speak afterwards and learn what I can improve on and what important points I wanted to touch that missed.  I need to make my pitch more efficient.  Overall, it was a great learning experience.

Not a day goes by that I am not amazed at the advances technology makes - from concept to design, from sale to final walk-thru.  Technology has made our quotes more accurate, our billings more manageable and has helped to connect our people in ways not imagined even just a few years ago.  If we aren’t on board with technology, we are losing efficiency and opportunity.  I would dare say that statement cannot be argued with.

From a marketing perspective, technology allows us to search for and track leads without effort other than lifting a finger.  It allows us to virtually “meet” potential clients without actually meeting them.  Entire pre-engagement conversations can occur without physical contact.  This is great in many perspectives, but what it does is even more so set apart the face to face meetings that are such an important part of the marketing campaign of our companies.  Technology is the great leveler of our generation.  The system that allows small companies to have a larger presence than they could normally.  It also allows larger firms to break into smaller, more manageable customer focused sub groups without actually fracturing into an uncoordinated mess.

But there is still nothing like face time with clients and potential clients to help set your firm apart.  There is still nothing more effective at maintaining good word of mouth than a busy executive reaching out to past clients and discussing the projects that they have done for them.  There is nothing nicer than a handwritten note during the holidays expressing thanks for work past and hope for more in the future.  There is nothing better than getting to know your client a bit deeper than email allows. 

My point is that as technology allows us to become more efficient and capture more market than we thought possible with less effort, it also allows us to hide behind our desks and not build real relationships with our clients and potential clients.  Let’s not forget to network, talk with and shake hands with our clients, lead generators and prospects and rub elbows with them in more relaxed settings.  I say use technology and leverage it as much as possible as the benefits are amazing.  But the fundamentals of our business are relationships built over time and in person.  An internet radio show provided a lead to me at no out of pocket cost other than some gas and and hour and a half away from the office.  But that lead must be met with good personal follow-up in order to amount to an opportunity.  We should use technology for all its worth - but lets not lose the art of shaking hands.