I work with a ton of marketing and sales teams.  Often, their contacts and leads are referred to as "potential" clients.  There's no such thing.

In what once seemed like a disconnected world, this may have been the case (though, not entirely).  However, in a social world, everyone is a client. While a contact or lead may not buy your product or service, they will still buy into (and sell, for that matter) your reputation.  That's what makes reputation management so crucial for today's business - it is just as important as sales and marketing for client acquisition and retention.

Not to toot my own horn, but just to prove a point...

As I meet with many business executives to discuss Social Media, many still don't entirely grasp the concept and, so therefore, their buy-in is often postponed.  However, those leaders still call me or e-mail with questions or concerns because I've been able to establish a great reputation.

We often just "potential" clients by what they can contribute to our bottom lines.  Perhaps, we ought to examine what they can contribute to (or take away from) our reputation.

Just because your company may have incorporated Social Media into it’s marketing strategy – it may have even gone as far as creating a Social Media team – doesn’t mean your management has adapted to Social Media trends or adopted its philosophies in the marketplace.

If you've ever sat in my seminars, you found very quickly that I love statistics.  As rapid as the Social Media horizon changes, so is the rate at which these statistics change.

Socialnomics, this past week, released some staggering statistics on the current impact of Social Media. Erik Qualman has done a fine job of compiling the data and its presentation.  I think you'd agree with me how amazing some of these statistics are. A few of these include:

1. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
2. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
3. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia

Also, a few interesting facts concerning education:

1. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
2. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
3. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen

Erik has posted the list of statistics along with their sources on his blog, just below the video.

I once was a sales associate for Eddie Bauer.  Each of the associates, like most sales-oriented positions, had manager-set goals.  I would constantly sell 200-300% of my goal.  The general manager asked me one day, "How do you do it? How do you sell that much in revenue?"  I replied, "It's simple.  I'm not here to sell clothes."

Okay, first up, sorry for the ebonics; just thought I'd mix it up a bit.

But, here's the question, "How well can your clients relate to your brand?"  Can your clients find a place within your community? To borrow a term from Godin, can your target clients relate to other members of your tribe?