A New Media Maverick

There was a young man who jumped into new media. The established people in his industry didn’t want to do it. They thought it was beneath them.

They decided they didn’t want to play the game at all. They said it was just a fad. It didn’t have legs for the long term. No serious person would ever get involved in this silly stuff. It was child’s play.

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But the young man didn’t listen. He saw his bigg opportunity. So he jumped in with both feet.

Something interesting happened. This new media had more impact than the old pros would have ever dreamed. By the time they realized it, the young man was established. The old pros never caught up.

The new media we’re talking about here is television. The young man was Walter Cronkite. He said he didn’t become who he was because he was better. He became the most trusted person in the United States because he was there early.

History repeats itself

You may have thought we were talking about social media. And you would be right to think so. We hear a lot of the same kind of things said about it. A lot of people think it is just a passing fancy.

Because they don’t get it. They don’t understand that the genie is out of the bottle. That business communications have changed forever again.

Social media’s impact on sales

There was a study released a while back that looked at large company performance. More specifically, it looked at social media activity and sales growth.

It was conducted by Wetpaint, a social media platform, and Altimeter Group, a digital consulting firm. They looked at the top brands in the world and rated their social media activities. Then they compared the level of activity to the change in sales over the last year.

On average, they found that the more active a company was in social media, the more likely they were to see an increase in sales. The most active companies increased sales by 18% while the least active saw sales decline by 6%.

Companies with dedicated teams performed the best. However, these teams take social media to the whole organization. They view social media as a tool they can’t live without. They are conversational, not promotional.

How does this apply to small businesses? We think the opportunity is even greater. But you, the owner, have to get it. You have to learn how to use these new tools to increase your sales.

Walter Cronkite found his bigg opportunity by jumping on the train early. You’ll find bigg success by integrating social media into your business communication strategies.

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