As many of us begin to understand how LinkedIn and Twitter work in harmony together, many companies have yet to understand the dynamics of these two very different mediums from a ROI perspective.
I find that organizations, even those with many salespeople, can’t seem to determine why they should be on either platform, from a sales strategy perspective. Some companies even discourage the use of LinkedIn and Twitter due to the misunderstanding of the possibilities. As we look to sell this strategy into the leadership of the companies we sell for, Marketing and Sales need to understand how to position the strategy from a revenue facing standpoint. By looking into each platform, there are distinct differences in how you drive interest in your company and traffic to your site.
From a Marketers perspective, using LinkedIn as the medium, allows you to determine with the advanced search tool to understand who your current customers are connected to unlike never before. Really, how often do you get to see who your customer actually knows in their personal lives and professional positions? Using parenthetical searches, you can easily see within your current customers, who else may be a potential opportunity that previously did not exist.
Twitter offers both Marketers and Sales many complimentary methods for finding and driving interest among current clients and prospects. Let’s look at how you also find other affinity audiences using tools like Tweet Deck, again using advanced Quotation searches, to see who else may be discussing similar products or services. This is similar to a Google advanced search, in a very tight group with the ability to reach out to others and determine if you share mutual business interests.
If all of this is a bit daunting, don’t fret, you are in good company. As a Marketer, there are many strategies that can co-exist into your current programs. Think of it this way, as a Marketer, LinkedIn and Twitter allow you to reduce sales cycles by 50% or more – not a guess but actual results that I have realized through my own experience.
Understand, you can drive revenue using LinkedIn and Twitter, however, selling it internally is more difficult than the actual process.
I look forward to your comments.
