Twenty Set - Latest Comments in How do you find your customers online?

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Erik — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:17:21 -0000

Perhaps what we are learning most from SM is more about targeting as opposed to SM as the medium. When I hear people talk about SM as the ONLY way to market, I immediately tune them out. Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of SM, but the "SM only" crowd missed the point that SM is part of the mix, not all of the mix. The reason the Facebook ad model seems to work is the targeting mechanism, not the fact the advertiser has a fan page.

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Cary Ganz — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:15:25 -0000

It's funny. Most of the posts that are created in the wide variety of social networking sites are basically useless. Sure, they make people feel good but, for the most part, these sites are rapidly becoming, for better or worse, the next target for marketers of all types. However, are these site really suited to marketing either local or worldwide? Can you really target your market in ways that generate targeted leads? Do we need better tools to allow marketers to take full advantage of these amazing additions to our armamentarium?

Twitter is a perfect example. Millions of people leave tweets trying to sell all kinds of stuff but their efforts are seen, at best, for a split second. Is this truly the way to spend your valuable time even if you are able to "target" your followers?

Just a thought....

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Monica O'Brien — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:48:13 -0000

DShan,

I'm shocked that more brands aren't trying to work with 20SB, who I would consider the next generation of influencers (after the mommy bloggers).

The financial planning practice sounds like it's a bit stuck. It seems like marketing would be very important for the finance industry, considering that people are still wary of where they put their money and who they trust. We really have to move from prospecting which worked so well in the '90s to relationship marketing.

Thanks for the comment!

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Monica O'Brien — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:43:57 -0000

Thank you!

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Monica O'Brien — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:43:47 -0000

Ambrose,

Marketers assume they understand the target audience. I agree with you that teenagers are definitely one of the most poorly classified groups. We should not be targeting "teens" any more than we should be targeting "moms." We target moms of babies, moms in the suburbs, moms with jobs, etc. And for some reason we just target "teen girls" as if they're all at the mall with their parents credit cards.

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Monica O'Brien — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:38:21 -0000

Sounds good. Not sure I see the connection to the post, but I appreciate the comment!

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Derek — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:57:14 -0000

Monica,

Phenomenal piece. This is something I've been dancing around in my conversations with brands who are interested in engagement with @20SB.

I'm doing a lot of thinking lately around my small financial planning practice to these ends. If you saw the regulatory rules around 'advertising' in my industry it would make you cringe, but I firmly believe that any professional interested in building trust with his community and clients must leverage these mediums to do so. The industry is so caught in the archaic days of demographic data and blind mass marketing that 'prospecting' has essentially been put into a box in which cold-calling and seminars are about all that's allowed. I think that's an unattractive state of affairs for both planners and clients.

Re: How do you find your customers online?

aliciakan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:50:55 -0000

Continue asking these questions! Social media is definitely a game changer. Excellent post.

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Ambrose Li — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0000

“Are American teenage girls really as shallow as we paint them?”

I think this is one of the most brilliant things I’ve heard about teenageers for a long while. It makes me sick when people stuff teenagers/youth/whatever-they-want-to-call-us (whatever “us” means) into tiny (and often not so positive) little boxes.

Re: How do you find your customers online?

Millionaire Acts — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:50:53 -0000

I think one of the ways to find your customers online is to participate in forums and by leaving remarkable comments to other top blogs as well.

This is how I find my visitors to my blog. Since I have a niche blog which is concentrated on topics of entrepreneurship, personal finance, investments, and self-motivation, I usually go to forums and other blogs and start leaving my footprints.

Another thing is to participate in contests and media exposures. It should be both online and offline.