Thank you Chase for your comments.

Those of us who are deeply enmeshed in the world of social media sometimes forget that there are still many folks out there who are not yet taking advantage of it, or even worse, don’t believe it really works.

I agree with you that (as in the offline world) building relationships online doesn’t happen overnight, and requires consistency and patience!

-K

Ken Herron
Chief Marketing Officer | Co-Founder
SocialGrow Inc.
+1 888 SOC GROW, x2 Voice/Fax
ken.herron @ socialgrow.com
http://socialgrow.com
http://twitter.com/socialgrow

This was a great read, thanks for posting Ken. I have been in my father’s ear about the value social media could bring to his Eldercare company that he runs. He has actually started listening to me and now has an inbound marketing person working full time for him.

I can’t stress enough the importance of consistency and patience when committing to marketing through social media. It takes time to build true valuable relationships.

Look forward to following the socialgrow blog!

Thank you Cheryl, great advice!

I just sent Tim a note to be sure he saw your comments.

And yes, I think all of us in the “social” community are big HubSpot fans!

-K

Ken Herron
Chief Marketing Officer | Co-Founder
SocialGrow Inc.
+1 888 SOC GROW, x2 Voice/Fax
ken.herron @ socialgrow.com
http://socialgrow.com
http://twitter.com/socialgrow

I had a similar experience with a friend not long ago – we take for granted how immersed in social media we are!

I’d add that since Tim has an ecommerce shop, and not physical store, he might think of online social channels as simply more and more touchpoints to both listen and have conversations with potential customers.

Also, for most merchants investing in technologies, new media or any new initiative – it’s all about that incremental sale (sales you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten). If you can prove you can get some incremental sales any initiative is usually a go (given the cost side of the equation makes sense). From that perspective I’d add the viral and WOM opportunities built within Twitter and Facebook make them ideal channels for driving incremental sales (not to mention visibility if Tim has a small shop).

Per Twitter specifically, I might add he try to tweak his mindset a bit to think about the platform as a way to meet new people (leads, what have you), and point him right on over to http://www.hubspot.com to learn some inbound marketing 101!

(This comment was originally made on Pinyadda: http://www.pinyadda.com/7424156)