Jimmy Gilmore

The inter­webs got me in touch with an old friend last week I had not talked to since I moved east. I picked up the phone and we picked up where we had left off – it was a great con­ver­sa­tion. It was also con­nec­tion worth renew­ing. But there are some peo­ple I see every week where the con­nec­tion isn’t as valu­able to me.

In social media, con­nec­tions are the same way. Most will read this post and never think to com­ment on it. Some may com­ment but never think to con­nect per­son­ally. Some will con­nect per­son­ally but never choose to do busi­ness. This is all great. Because some will.

How many followers/friends/fans does it take to make a mil­lion dol­lars? Well, that depends on what you’re sell­ing and even if you’re sell­ing. This web­site has only been at it’s cur­rent address for a month, doesn’t have a lot of read­ers yet, isn’t overtly sell­ing any­thing, but it has got­ten me back in touch with an old col­league who needs some help. No, not a mil­lion dol­lars worth of help. But help.

Focus­ing on the value of con­nec­tions is not really new think­ing in mar­ket­ing. Direct mar­keters have always focused on the qual­ity of their lists – it can cost a lot to mail a com­pelling direct mail piece.

Social media prac­ti­tion­ers should think about their tar­get too when they’re plan­ning a social media effort. If you’re try­ing to sell a enter­prise soft­ware, a select group of fans, fol­low­ers, or read­ers may be a lot more valu­able than 100,000 fans on Face­book. But if you’re sell­ing potato chips, heck, just about every­one buys those occa­sion­ally – by all means, talk to everyone.