I’m not here to discredit all you social media “experts” because… quite frankly… I could stand to sub out some work to you! BUT… do NOT think that Social Media isn’t a part of my marketing strategy when it comes to clients. It’s just that my forte is Automotive… and Automotive has plenty to worry about with vendors already on the payroll producing before you jump off into the Facebook or Twitter pond. Now, don’t get me wrong… whoever the hell handles the SEO for Twitter is a genius and should be making Ryan Seacrest money! But I digress… I’ll be blogging more now… making it a goal to do so once every seven days. You’ll enjoy it… because I’ll be giving credit to all those who I am learning so much from! Some of them know me and some of them don’t. Stay tuned for more from the Timmy Hendrix Press.

I hate to tell you this… but the concept of a return on investment for social media marketing is really no different than traditional forms of marketing like tv, radio and print. Let’s take twitter for instance. Do you know every single person that is following you? Have you targeted the people you follow to only those who live near you or others in the same industry or business as you? Your tweets may be no different than your radio ad that ran at 3:12 am this morning??? Not a very big audience. And your facebook fan page has how many fans? 18?

You see, you have to first be consistent with your post. Have a good message, hook or whatever you want to call it. You also, at the same time, have to be searching and researching to build your followers. Have your sent your current customers an email or letter to let them know your social sites are there? Have you spent any time to develop a plan to qualify your current customers on what their social media habits and participation level is? There’s just a little more work to it than putting it out there. Much like your traditional marketing. Buying tv time because it’s cheap and the production was free is generally going to leave you with less than expected results. But a well conceived marketing campaign that includes multiple outlets to compliment each other can yield great results.

I feel social media marketing has the opportunity for stronger and quicker results in certain industries. The restaurant, night clubs and fast food industry have an incredible advantage in my opinion. But, once again, they have to develop a following and the have to be consistent with using things such as twitter and facebook. A couple of examples… one restaurant I know uses there facebook fan page to invite everyone to Ladie’s Nite every Tuesday. That’s a personal invitation to over 500 people each week. Another restaurant I frequent has $.99 margaritas on Monday night, but instead of twitter or facebook, they purchased an expensive digital billboard across the street to tell the people that drive by?

If you’re using it, use it consistently… and keep working your “database” for a bigger and more relative audience. If not, you’re going to continue to feel a little frustrated that you haven’t become the next @NAKEDpizza (it’s a twitter thing… look ‘em up). Feel free to call me, email me, tweet me or txt me if you’d like to talk more about your social media marketing… or your traditional marketing for that matter.

Half of 2009 is over! Can we get a collective sigh? And can someone go ahead and push fast forward on the remainder of this one? Don’t get me wrong, life if good… but it has certainly been better!!!

So, it’s July 1st… I’ll be back in the swing after the 4th here at blog central. In the mean time, the tweets flow steadily from my phone. If you want a really good twitter app on you phone WITH OUT downloading anything, then you need m.slandr.net. It’s great!

A lot of what you’ll see here will be what I refer turn as “turning soil”. I grew up on a small cotton farm, and as you’ve already read about me I’m an analogy freak… so turning soil is what we did to help the crops grow and it’s what I do when I hit the web sometimes in order to expand my thoughts and make my ideas even better. So, if you’re interested in “turning some soil”… just let me know.

In fact, I’ve been concerned about our government being the “big brother” we all read about in high school (or at least us older folk…). But now I see all of us volunteering any and all the information anyone would ever need about us to even CLONE us! Seriously!

It’s like… we’re headed for a world that would make the show “cheaters” obsolete! And me, along with the rest of you crazy asses… could care less! lol

Look, I’m all in… I don’t know where this is going, and frankly I don’t care… I am seriously loving the technology and the closeness these social media tools are giving us! I mean, hell, I never knew I could keep up with the daily lunch special at the Eureka Springs, AR cafe’? WTH? And I like cheesecake for dessert too! LOL

Ok, until our next “serious” conversation about marketing, I’m going to get another beer.

Ok, enough with the BS… Blogging is kinda cool for me though, because I like to write and I like to tell stories. Most are true, but the really good ones normally aren’t. lol… Also, I like to do a blend of formal writing with proper grammer and punctuation… but with a touch of txt msg type shorts to make me look hip!

I started this blog on Friday… It’s Sunday afternoon now… but hey, I got ‘er dun! See ya’ soon!

This home is listed at $209,800, but by contacting me through this special online presentation, you can take an immediate $6,000 discount off that price. 07/07 appraisal of $235,000. Mobile (318.680.0022) Email (twhendrix@ymail.com) Thanks in advance for your help.

Free Pig Flu vaccinations to all those who take part in this well designed poll.

Follow me at twitter.com/timmyhendrix

The problem lies in the number of people you follow.  I’m “following” three sources for SMS.  The 247 people I’m following on Twitter is far too many for me to keep up with.  Even if one of them sends a tweet that I was really interested in, or an invite to a special event or a “Tweet Deal”, I’ll never see it unless I take the time to click on their page and read all their tweets!  There’s approximately 10 to 12 tweets on your screen at one time.  You have to click a button to review “older” tweets.  If 247 people tweet an average of 2 times per day, that’s roughly 500 total.  Meaning I have to be very watchful to catch anything!

Now I fully believe there’s a way to harness this shiny new tool in your marketing toolbag, but it will take some time and some well placed cross promotions to make it effective.  Stay tuned… you may see this again on Twitter. LOL