The best way to predict the future is to create it. ~Peter Drucker
We often talk to B2B owners and CMOs who are thinking about funneling some of their marketing budget into social media. Many times, their main objection is the belief, either substantiated or not, that their potential customers do not use social media or would not think to look for their products/services on social media. Certainly, there are times when this is quite true today. If you have determined that your target demographic is 82+ years (that’s an actual best demographic for the hearing aid industry), you may have a point. And there are other demographics and industries where using social media won’t net you a lot of results today. But we like to think about the future.
Consider what Shiv Singh, Global Head of Digital for PepsiCo Beverages, has to say about social media when discussing Oracle’s acquisition of Vitrue and Salesforce’s acquisition Buddy Media: “No more is it (social media) something separate, disconnected, cute and experimental. It has just moved to the heart of all marketing efforts, and the stock price movements of Facebook will not change that. Social Media Marketing is on scale and needs to be at the heart of your marketing efforts right now.”
Investing time and energy into developing relevant and useful content and a large digital network now is preparing for your future. Pulling people to your website now by offering them something to read or watch on a regular basis is planting the seed for a later time. Just as in face-to-face business networking, you do not know where that initial Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook contact or posted article will lead down the line. The content that you place on your website and share out through your social media network doesn’t get thrown in the trash like a postcard. It remains to be found by your potential customers, today or in the future. They may even have to catch up to you. But you’ll be there already.