Your website is your identity.   Like your face or your fingerprints.  It defines you in the minds of the people you attract.  How do you attract them? Through activities outside the work you do with your website.

So, Do you Prefer Paper or Plastic Interactions?

Bob Bly reviews survey findings on social media use inTarget Marketing Magazine this month: What’s working in B-to-B Marketing.

The survey asked 131 Target Marketing.com subscribers about their use of print brochures, blogs, social media and their own website for marketing.

The results might surprise you.  Print (at least among this crowd) is not dead in 2010.

Many Many Business People Still Love Print

Among 131 who responded, 90% report they have print brochures.  Branding and conversion are deliberate goals for the website for over 50%.

Only 18% say social media are an important part of their marketing, though participation belies that a little — 42% have LinkedIn profiles.  57% don’t operate blogs or worry about running one for their business.

Brochure As Welcome Mat

So where does the brochure send prospects?  To the company’s website.

I would agree an appropriate goal of a website is branding and conversion.  Social media and blogging are other (paperless) ways to send someone to your website.

And more.

Social Media As Meeting Grounds

Social media aren’t good marketing tools unless they help you ‘make friends.’

Social media open channels to ask your friends (once you have them) “do you know anyone who does x.”  Some people just aren’t ready to make friends online.  That’s okay.

In my view, being active in social media does 2 things.  It connects you with like-minded people, and enables you to refer them to the help they need, as you’d help a friend. It fosters both human interaction, and brochure-like traffic routing to your website.  You can’t hand a physical piece of paper to your friends and contacts via social media.  But you can send them to your website, via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

People See the Potential, Even If They Don’t Use It (yet)

I believe that understanding of  how social media are supposed to work is growing.  The survey showed that while 18% are active in social networking, 24% plan to become very active.

It would be interesting to see which of the 131 companies are doing as well or better than they are now, in a few years, and compare their social media activity levels.

It may be that some businesses don’t lend themselves well to growth via social media. Sometimes, you just have to meet real people to earn their business.

Your Social Skills Are the Real Driver

I don’t think social media is a silver bullet.  It’s just a tool.  I agree that you have to walk the talk on your website and when dealing with people, for marketing to be worthwhile.

What’s important is to have a means to get people to find you, like you, trust you and buy from you.  There are probably as many (subtly different) ways to cook up a recipe for that as there are people….

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