Influential?

Some of you might have heard about Fast Company’s project to document and determine influence on the web. Mucho clever interface for illustrating relative influence. It does demonstrate the reach of various social media, but one might question what the reflection is of actual influence? Is it who ya know? Is it the reach of my company’s rolodex? According to them and the 80/20 rule, I am doing OK.

Apparently, I have some modicum of influence.

BTW, If you would like to spread my influence and just click on this link: http://fcinf.com/v/c27a. I would certainly appreciate the boost.

So I’m in the top 20% of influencers on the web according to Fast Company. That’s neat, but the follow-on question is how I can monetize that influence? That is, how does this popularity measure drive business? It doesn’t, unless you have a plan for using all of the various social media outlets in a coordinated fashion to help promote your brand and, most importantly, engage prospects and customers so that your influence is reflected in sales or billable revenue.

A fascinating experiment, that I hope helps you imagine the possibilities that the people’s forum that is the web now presents.

’nuff said.

Marketing Sherpa continues to drill down into the real challenges that small and medium size businesses face when marketing their products and services to other businesses. This recent chart

illustrates the overarching drive for rustling up decent leads in a rough economy. What is interesting to note is the emphasis on old school marketing notions of “creating perceived value” and “generating PR buzz” apart from articulating what’s truly in it for their B2B customers. The most effective marketing organizations whether in-house or services like Visible Innovations Marketing focus on what really matters most to buying customers, that is, how will they really benefit from the product or service, especially when every dollar counts during times like these. Discovering what truly motivates your existing customers and using that insight as the springboard for delivering the juice is the key to generating high-quality leads and to closing them quickly. Don’t trust what you THINK your customers are thinking, ASK them…you might be surprised.

Just saw this fascinating map of the Internet from the standpoint of number of users. It presents a fascinating look at how social media fits into the scheme of things.

Check it out:

2010 Social Network World Map

So who is your neighbor? And how does it drive business to you?

These guys have loads of great insight into marketing and emarketing best practices. I read them all the time. It is actionable, good stuff for small to medium as well as large size businesses. They are doing their annual B2B Marketing Survey and I invite you to participate at:

Share your B2B insights – 7th annual B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey @MarketingSherpa
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/341299/8gnpw

If you give them your email at the end, they will send you the executive summary.

Now get out there and SELL!

Get ready to make more money when the Visibly Innovative Blog relaunches next month.