People soshalize. They don't care how it's spelled. They just do it.
Klout recently unveiled the newest addition to its website that claims to measure “social influence”. Klout’s formula puts most of the weight on a user’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Then it measures that user’s social “Klout” based on a variety of factors such as how many “likes” a user’s posts get or how many retweets they receive. Basically, Klout considers you to have a high Klout score based on raw numbers, not on content.
Despite the vast and utter hugeness of Facebook, Twitter has a few more Fortune 500 companies on their platform instead of Facebook. The difference isn’t much and the circumstances behind the fact are unknown (not every company should be on Facebook or Twitter), but it still makes for an excellent tidbit that can be used by Twitter fanboys.
There is little doubt that social media has an impact on sales. Companies use it every day to generate leads, increase branding, and improve public perceptions. As a marketing tool at the company level, few would contest the potential. What about at the salesperson level?
Many of the most successful marketing campaigns of the last couple of years have been entirely focused on social media. As the masses flock to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, some businesses are starting to put nearly all of their eggs in the social media basket. As dangerous as it may sound, this is actually a good idea for some businesses. The ROI for many verticals is much higher through social than any other form of marketing.
There are three camps into which every company in the world falls:
If you were to break it down by percentages, the “Social Media is the Backbone” camp would most likely be the smallest. While business owners are starting to agree that social media has a place in their business, few would be willing to bet the farm on it. They are prudent, thoughtful, and wise.
Then again, many of them (depending on the type of company) would be incorrect.
