What works in marketing? Getting the marketing basics right.

Do you use social media strategically? Do you question if it's even possible? The answer is a resounding YES!

Social media, when used strategically is targeted, and absolutely measurable. If you can measure the results of social media, you can determine its ROI.

What are the elements to strategically using social media ? 

Social selling is targeted social media. It's social media with a VERY clear target and absolutely measurable ROI.

Social media, in general, can be good when there is value to creating and nurturing a persona that wants to "belong" to a community. Some products and services work like that. It's a club that self identifies as "engaged with the brand".

But that's not "of value" for lots of business models. There's just no real ROI without a targeted strategy that integrates "social" as an effective selling or brand building tool with real measures of effectiveness.

It's not uncommon to hear colleagues say LinkedIn is the best social media platform to market their products and services. I can't think of another social media platform where people put their entire life's work history out there for the world to see, the way we do on LinkedIn. The full career disclosure approach most of us take when setting up our profiles is exactly why LinkedIn is such a robust database of potential customers!