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Great comment the other day from John Johansen on the discussion of when marketing becomes sales. John talks about “…the dichotomy of the social media focus on authentic content and conversations that don’t include marketing and the ease of using these channels for sales…”

He then goes on to ask, “Beyond just the blurring of sales and marketing, how do companies engage in authentic discussion with their audiences while at the same time looking to include their call to action that will lead those audiences towards a sale?”

It’s an interesting question, but a loaded one. Here’s why. Somewhere along the way, we’ve all come to believe the following:

Sales and marketing doesn’t represent authentic dialogue with our customers.

Why is that? Why can’t social channels allow for sales and marketing? Social channels allow for more honest dialogue, not less. The problem in John’s question is that he’s really asking, “How do companies use these tools when they have traditionally sold to people by pretending to be their friend?”

They can’t.

As this video shows, the rules of the game have changed.

For too long, marketers have built their promise around the idea that they’re here to be a friend, a pal, a trusted resource. Social channels require that you actually be that or stop pretending.

And that’s a very good thing.

After all, sometimes, we’re actually here to sell things.

What surprises many companies is that customers will often agree to let you.

@delloutlet - which Dell only uses to sell discounted, refurbished inventory - has over 1,200 followers on Twitter, more than “authentic person” (and good guy), @richardatDELL - and more than any other Dell business persona that I’m aware. HR Block has over 800 fans on Facebook. You might think, “‘Fans’ of a tax preparation company?!? For real?!?” Yes. For real.

Why do these - supposedly inauthentic - companies or marketing initiatives capture attention? Because they’re honest about why they’re there. They don’t hide behind fake personas. Notice, none of these pretend to be your friend. They’re authentically providing a service or offering you a sale, most likely information you can get somewhere else. But by going where their customers are and providing an authentic presence, they’re finding success.

So, really, the question is, when you use social tools, what’s your reason for being there? And do you authentically tell customers why you’re there or are you trying to hide the fact you’re selling something?

All right, Big Thinkers. Your turn. Tell us how you’re using social tools to grow your business in the comments below.

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Much ado on the Interwebs this week revisiting favorite thinks topics. There’s no time to waste. Let’s get right to it.

• Regular readers know thinks thinks splash pages suck. Well, now the search engines must, too, because Google’s search results allow you to skip Flash intros. You can argue that Google’s taking too much control away from site owners. But I think it reflects Google addressing common concerns of their users.
• While we’re on the subject of Google and its control of this series of tubes called the Internet, Fred Wilson take a look at how hard it is to move domains when you’re getting lots of Google juice. The key points are twofold: First, make sure you love the domain you’ve got. And, if you don’t, learn to love it.
• Continuing to explore Google’s power, FOT Mike Moran asks, “How Much of Your Site’s Traffic Should Come from Search?” One of the comments seems particularly insightful to me. But, admittedly, I’m biased towards that guy.
• Mike Moran’s on fire this week. He also wrote an excellent post, “Why Web Marketing Favors Small Businesses” that I highly recommend. And not just for the comments this time.
• Finally, since we’ve spent significant time on Twitter this week here on thinks, check out Stowe Boyd’s“A Bite Of Reality Sandwich: Twitter And Belonging” and Fred Wilson’s
• “Reading Books On Twitter” for two more views of Twitter’s emerging business - and personal - utility.

That’s all for this week Big Thinkers. See you again on Monday.

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Is social marketing overblown? Some critics claim that we’re reliving the late ’90’s, with hype replacing reality in choosing marketing channels. More importantly, is social marketing the right choice for your business? Probably. But let’s give the critics their due. Let’s consider why it may not be first.

Most conferences or discussions these days concerning social media ask the same question: “Is anyone making any money with this stuff?” And the answers often sound something like this: “Well, it’s more about customer engagement than revenue…” or “No, but, you should see how many ‘friends’ we’ve got on Facebook.” Hmm… not very encouraging, is it?

Worse, it’s fair to ask whether these tools are even ready for primetime. Whether it’s Facebook’s Beacon issue some time back or Twitter’s recent outages, it’s certainly understandable that some would think these tools provide limited value as a service and would question their utility and their business value.

These questions represent legitimate critical thought, legitimate concerns. What’s important is understanding the difference between constructive criticism - critical thinking - and what Bryan Eisenberg calls “BPU’s” or “Business Prevention Units.” BPU’s are folks who want to stop you from moving your business forward. If the people you’re talking to - like your partner, attorney or accountant - want to know how social media will benefit your business, that’s a Good Thing. If they’re telling you, “it’s stupid,” or “it will never work,” they’re probably functioning more as BPU’s than critical thinkers.

Here’s one example. This past weekend I watched an outstanding documentary about Pixar Animation. And one of the key moments in the company’s history revolved around hiring John Lasseter. Disney fired Lasseter because traditional animators were concerned computer animation put their jobs at risk. The animators - and their supporters in management - thought their job was drawing pictures, not telling creative and compelling stories using any variety of tools. That’s a common problem. For instance, Seth Godin had a brilliant observation about putting tools ahead of your business about a week ago. So Lasseter left Disney, got hired by Pixar and went on to rule the animation world as writer and director of the huge hit films Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life and Cars. Oh, and when Disney acquired Pixar, they made Lasseter their new chief creative officer.

All that said, it still doesn’t answer whether social marketing makes sense for your business.

It’s true that few companies are making much money through social marketing tools. But Dell has sold $500,000 using Twitter. Search Engine Land often shares success stories of small business owners, most recently here. Hell, even my company has had modest success with Twitter, and other social tools, too.

The point is, these things are tools. You’ll get out of them what you put into them. So, understand where your customers are, set your goals, then look at the tools and techniques that work for your business. You can test the viability of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, widgets or what-have-for very low cost. It takes limited investment of time and limited investment of money. Track your results. Find your own answers. And don’t let “the critics” get in the way of doing what’s right for your business.

One of the more interesting observations in Josh Catone’s Read/Write Web discussion of “6 Ways to Sell Your Stuff Online” is how effortlessly he switches between sales channels (Etsy, self-hosted storefront) and marketing channels (classifieds, social networks). The internet, more than any medium that preceded it, has blurred those distinctions dramatically. Take a look at this:

You’ve got paid search, natural search, images, prices, customer reviews, customer ratings, meta-search, copy and maps all on one page. This isn’t some beta product. This is real. This is right now. And it’s not limited to travel:

As we’ve noted here before, you need to understand the right sales and marketing channels for your product. Yesterday, I talked about using a social tool, Twitter, to find a customer and lead to a sale. We’ve even looked at search engines as a distribution channel. Each of these channels has a cost, some of which you can track directly back to the sale and some of which are harder to measure. But - especially in small business - if you’re responsible for marketing and think sales isn’t your job, you’re not doing your job. And vice versa.

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Still up in the air about tools like Twitter? Not sure if they’re right for your business? Sure, I’ve been a big fan for some time. But social media guru Scott Monty and I both learned a fair bit more about using Twitter as a sales and marketing tool last week. Scott Monty tells this story about using Twitter to find a hotel last week. My company helped him find the hotel. Now, I didn’t originally follow Scott on Twitter to sell him - or anyone else - hotel rooms. He didn’t follow me on Twitter to buy hotel rooms. In fact, he didn’t follow LuxRes - who got him the hotel - at the time he sent out his call for help:

Scott simply reached out to his network and found a number of folks willing to help him. Notice the number of people Scott thanks in his post.

And that’s why we use Twitter. Because it’s a great way to learn from each other and from the community at large. It’s a fantastic way to make new connections and deepen the relationship with old ones. And, every so often, someone will give you inspiration for ways to grow your business. Read Scott’s tweet one more time. “This would be a great time for the hospitality industry to establish a @hotels account and shoot me some available properties.” How many times a day do your potential customers shout out loud, “Why can’t someone in <insert industry here> help me solve my problem?!?”

Trick question. Your customers ask for help all the time. Tools like Twitter simply help you listen more effectively.

Not sure where to start? First, search on Summize for things that matter to you, for instance, marketing, small business strategy or customer service. Read the results. Then sign up for Twitter and follow a handful of people who most interest you on those topics. (Don’t be afraid to branch out, either. You can even follow people who talk about your favorite sports team or, yes, cool travel destinations). Join the conversation. Talk about what interests you. Ask questions. Listen. Learn.

The point is Twitter is a great tool. And like all tools, you get the most from it when you use it well. Sometimes you’ll get new friends. Sometimes new information. And, every so often, new customers.

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Happy Friday, Big Thinkers. Good to see you all again. Once again, the crack staff here at thinks has scoured the web to provide you with the stuff most worth your time this week. Enough dilly-dallying. Let’s get right to it.

• Much goings on about how web design influences search engine ranking. For example, FOT (that’s “Friend of thinks“, don’tcha know) Mike Moran asks “Is Web Design the Next Search Marketing Battleground?”. Good question. If so, Jonathan Hochman at Search Engine Land has a great answer, offering “Twelve Simple Ways To Write Search-Friendly HTML Code”. And - straight from the horse’s mouth, no less - Google guru Matt Cutts offers up “Improved SEO documentation galore!” Cool.
• Since we’re deep in the land of web techniques today, another good FOT, Linda Bustos offers up “8 Stupid Things Webmasters Do To Mess Up Their Analytics”. As Linda shares at Get Elastic, she’s trying to win the Marketing Pilgrim SEM Scholarship contest with this one. So read her post, bookmark it, share it, all that jazz.
• Another FOT, analytics king Avinash Kaushik, takes a more direct approach to analytics this time, encouraging folks to“Pick One, Just One Web Analytics Report, Go!” And don’t forget, you can read the thinks interview with Avinash Kaushik here.
• Finally, the fine folks at Read/Write Web look at tying many elements together - adding a topical twist - with an Obama vs McCain Website Smackdown. Interesting stuff. And, yes, since there’s been a bit of a political theme here at thinks this week, we’ll leave you with this:

That’s it for this week, everybody. Look forward to seeing you all back here next week.

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