Volumes of blogs, articles and research have been written on the millennials.  My married daughters are members of that generation and have started families of their own.  I've watched them ditch Facebook for Instagram and have left them both in the dust when it comes to Twitter.  A text message will still get the quickest response, but an immediate reply is never guaranteed on any platform because their lives are busy.  Reaching your target market through social media and content marketing can be complex.

The mute buttons on phones and TV remote controls are very useful.  They are not without risk though.  Nothing life threatening, but the possibility of embarrassment and agitation exists.  Like the time you thought your cell phone was on mute and you carried it with you into the restroom during that conference call.  And there was that time you muted a TV commercial and missed an important part of the dialogue when your show came back on.

 

About a year ago Twitter introduced their “

How many social media blogs and white papers have you read where one of the first points of advice reads:

 

 

Finding key influencers is not that hard.  Engaging key influencers is much more difficult than most people realize.  In fact, most social media managers struggle with this task because they have never been trained on how to approach an important influencer.  OK, I can already feel the heat rising from that last statement and you may very well disagree.

In 2002 Nicholas Boothman penned a book titled “How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less.”  Pinterest wasn’t around in 2002, so yes, I mean he is the author.  It was a spin-off from a book he released in 2000 titled “How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less.”  In his books Boothman states that research has shown that we have approximately 90 seconds to make a favorable impression when we first meet someone.

 

You created a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter placing your small business on the social media party grid.  Free word-of-mouth marketing was supposed to take over and the cash register start ringing.  It hasn’t played out that way, so what happen?

Social media platforms can provide the foundation for growth.  Social platforms can help you and your organization be found, find, and engage your target audience.

· Be Found:To be found during the “search” process when a customer or prospect has a need or desire for a product or service that your organization is capable of delivering.

If you are a technology vendor or CIO don’t panic.  Chief Marketing Officers still love you.  We continue to think about and are concerned with technology and data.  But I’m starting to spend more time with HR this year.  Yes, I’m concerned with whether or not marketing has the “right people on the bus.”  That’s a challenge that never ends, particularly when the business environment is constantly changing.  What I’m bringing attention to, and becoming more concerned with, is the individuals we don’t have room for on the bus.

Imagine that you’re attending a major conference.  It’s time to head over to the networking kick-off session.  You’ve got your business cards in your pocket and your elevator speech is locked and loaded.  You’ve brushed up on current events and read the speakers backgrounds so you are ready to keep the conversation light and engaging.

 

And then it happens; you run into a social buzzkill.  He’s looking at your name tag now…

 

A choke point is a strategic channel which could be closed or blocked to stop sea traffic.  At the Strait of Gibraltar, where Spain reaches for Morocco, only eight miles separate Africa from Europe.  It’s a strategic location that links the North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.  When the world’s economy depended on merchant ships, control of Gibraltar meant control over the flow of products and profits to merchants throughout a large portion of the world.

Have your social networking messages sailed into a choke point?

The other night I told my wife that I might actually be a growth hacker.  She just looked at me and said, “You spend way too much time online.”

 

Sean Ellis, who is known for helping Dropbox grow in its early days, coined the term "growth hacker" in 2010.  In a blog post, he defined a growth hacker as "a person whose true north is growth. Everything they do is scrutinized by its potential impact on scalable growth."  In April 2012 the idea of growth hacking really took off when a blogger named Andrew Chen wrote a piece called “

Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM) today is both online and through face-to-face interaction.  At times we think of WOMM in terms ofmarketing buzz, the interaction of users of a product or service that amplifies the brand and in some cases goes viral.

 

In reality, regular old everyday “buzz” is not as glamorous as we marketers like to imagine.  Recommendations from friends and family don’t often come with viral like excitement, but from a place of more practical experience.

 

This perspective was driven home for me during a lecture with some senior business students during their capstone marketing course.