Talking with folks, my impression of social media  – all of it – blogging, podcasting, video, twitter, ning, Facebook – it’s all an experiment right now.

Social media impact is hard to measure – like, say, reputation management. But as @unmarketing says, “How do you ROI or measure your other business relationships?”

Right now, a social media experiment for a company would cost about $20K. But in 18 months to 2 years, it will likely cost 10x that. Get in now. Experiment. Fail. Try again.

Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, writes: “And how many of us know the questions customers are asking themselves?” He then continues on with listing some of the important Q’s:

• How will this product/service help my company?
• We’re doing OK. Why do we need it?
• Is there another company out there that is better?
• Will its solution really work? Can it prove it?
• Is the company credible?
• Can we afford it?

When you are for formulating your USP (unique sales proposition), it needs to be a one line answer to why the customer should look at you. Not a list of features, but a customer-centric answer to What’s In It For Me?

When you can answer that, you are on your way to better sales.

BTW: there are other names for the USP. Your Positioning Statement. Your Elevator Pitch. This is all part of your compelling opening statement that Keith Rosen discusses in this podcast (transcript can be read, too). Here’s a video of Keith Rosen discussing USP.

The first 10 ideas from the list of 50+ presented at ISPCON by Jack Brandt and myself. (It’s a podcast. Also, available Sales Compensation and 10 Marketing Ideas for WISPs).

These are the 10:

1. Plan- so you have a path
2. Strategy- not put out fires
3. Call your best customers just to make sure everything o.k., ask for referrals
4. Focus on goals
5. Marketing takes 6-9-12 months
6. Become info source- newsletter, podcast, blog, keep people thinking we know everything
7. Think tank for our biz, attorney, cpa, 2 best customers, 2 noncustomers
8. Hosted nonportable services- hosted exchange-makes you stickey, bells can’t do it
9. Get others organized
10. Phase out projects so goals met, not just GOAL

 

 Top 10 of 50 ideas presented at ISPCON [7:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download