Having had time to review the recent data points from April 2019 via 'Data Reportal' (link below) it seems that web growth, internet usage, and adoption of folks on social media around the world continues to grow at a fair old pace.

Seems there are many things driving that growth, and despite all the headline news and woes about Facebook's data privacy issues we even see increased growth from those guys as well.

With over £3.5bn people representing 45% of the worlds population seemingly 'active' on social media channels, it seems to me there is still room for even greater take up, adoption, expansion and usage.

We often hear from businesses who haven't deployed a 'Social Media' strategy (they don't really know what one is) that one of the reasons stated is 'our prospects aren't on social media' - WHAT, WHAT?

What they really mean is 'we tried it once and it didn't work for us'. So they continue doing the same old, same old because fear of the unknown is the biggest blocker to innovation, growth and opportunity.

At no time in the history of business, and the internet do you have the ability to connect (without being intrusive) with billions of people and other businesses from around the world who may, or may not be interested in who you are and what you do. But, to do that in right way is going to take you to 'unlearn' what you already do, and think about 'Social Media'

For some reason we arrive at our place of work, put on the 'work persona' and forget that actually most people behave like, well, you behave. So when we ask if they have other social media accounts and they nod their head, we ask so why wouldn't your prospects be doing the same?

There is a myth that people on LinkedIn don't do social media, its just for business reasons, my CV, or to find a job, and maybe let other people know I've now got one, yet every time we go and find a few of their potential prospects on LinkedIn we find more information about who that 'real' person is on platforms like FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Now I'm not talking about 'stalking' people, all you have to do is 'listen', understand what their interest and motivations are and you can kick start a great relationship. Why? Because it's not all about YOU.

Traditional 'outbound' sales and marketing was/is predicated on the ability to hunt out groups of people we 'think' might be interested in what we do, and what we sell, and then 'advertise' to them via multiple channels from TV, Newspapers/Magazines, Radio etc. 

Then came the internet with the ability for you to do more of the same, only at what you think is a lower cost. 

You pat yourself on the back when you get a sub 1% response from your 'remarketing' campaign, the sub 1% stats look great from your 'fraud ridden' impressions advert, you're overjoyed when your e-mail campaign gets you a 3% click thru, and you ring a bell when the call center gets that one cold call sale in the bag after dialing out 1000's of people. 

But what you don't really care about (its a numbers game right) is how many of that missing 97% of people couldn't care less what you do, how great your offer is, and actually just think your an intrusive pain in the ass. 

The world has changed, these stats are very strong indicators of that change, and from what we can evidence its not going away.

As with all forms of social activity its vital you build trust, integrity and authenticity when looking to establish new relationships.

At DLA Ignite we specialise in helping companies and the internal 'Change Makers' deliver on all of these points, and I'm pretty sure we can help you as well. 

We have a tried and tested methodology, we hold you and your colleagues hand throughout, ensuring we not only 'teach' you what to do, we also make sure its firmly embedded into your firms and employees DNA.

We don't do retainers, we are not an agency that creates and produces copy/content or sells ads for you.

We are active 'practitioners' of what we do, we already know and can evidence the ROI of a robust and internally aligned 'Social' strategy.

Part of that evidence it that you are reading this blog, just like many others - including your competitor!

We also don't do outbound pushy, salesy marketing, so if you would like to explore more, please contact the author of this blog.