Marketing and You

We are all in the business of selling. While our interests and main focus might be different, at the end of the day it's about the sale. "Coffee's for closers," is a famous monologue from the movie and play, Glengarry Glenn Ross. If you aren't familiar with this quote, it suggests that the fruits of our labor will be deemed necessary only by the final result. Now, I don't necessarily agree with all of that, however, it strikes a good point.

The current economic climate promotes a very competitive market in almost all fields of business. This day in age you must have a creative business mind to keep your head above water. I ran across a recent article in The New York Times that spoke to the recent epidemic currently affecting Napa and many other California wine growing regions. Many vineyards and grape producers have an overwhelming amount of fruit on their hands and no one to purchase it. Wineries have been seeing a drastic drop in sales, which hasn't happened in nearly 15 years. What used to be considered almost gold is now an overgrown commodity. What you're seeing now is saturation in a particular market. The businesses that are able to stay afloat are the ones that continue to harness creativity and stay ahead of the game. These are the businesses that that continue to sell.

The social media scene has reached an inflamed level to a point where even a Gen Y'er like myself has trouble keeping up. It's sad to say, but if you're not on the social media train, you're way behind. Many of you have probably dabbled with Facebook or Twitter, which means you've gone as far as to create a Facebook page and a Twitter account, but not much else. I'm here to tell you that it works! I have seen many examples in our industry where companies tweet or broadcast on their Facebook fan page about sales, promotions, etc. All of which have seen great success.

If you're lost in the world of social media, and unsure on how all this "Facebooking" or "Tweeting" works, there is an excellent resource on the web called Mashable (www.mashable.com). A fellow True Fabrication colleague introduced this site to me, which has opened up a whole new world in social media. This site offers a lot, so it might take some time to sift through the rich content to find exactly what you need. One tool that I found very handy was the Facebook and Twitter Guidebooks. They offer -- in laymen terms-- set up instructions, social media terminology, social media optimization, and a whole lot more. Because not everyone has the budget to hire a social media expert, this is a good place to start. So the next time you want to run a special, promote a new product, or let the world know your employee just had their first baby, try one of these social media tools. It offers great exposure, and the best part of it all, IT'S FREE.

Happy Tweeting!

Henri Schock