I always said it (and still will tell the story who wants to listen to it) - America is still the land of opportunities! Dreams and Big Thoughts can be still made real in this melting pot, call U.S.A. - but so can be your Social Media strategy for your business! Similar to my professional and life path I started 10 years ago as an immigrant here in the U.S. you can use the attitude you possess to make things happen in your daily social media marketing planning. The OPPORTUNITIES can be almost considered as endless, and when your creativity will not bail on you - Social America will be the country you certainly can make a name of yourself.
Here are my Top 5 Great Opportunities for you and your business to make it big in "living social in America" (sorry I borrowed this line from James Brown I think):
1. Expert Status Opportunity: Post frequently "shareable topics" you have read somewhere and you think it will be valuable to let your followers know. Establish yourself as a source that will give credits to other great minds out there in the social media sphere, and establish yourself as the character willing to share stories of the topics you are professional savvy in. Consider yourself as the news channel and expert providing insides of your professional niche and avoid "dancing on too many ballroom floors" and losing focus on topics you actually can't speak or comment wisely on.
2. Human Capital Opportunity: Your business and coworkers are the capital I am referring to. Make sure you are putting names and faces to your social stories. People are still buying goods and services from people. Think about Zappo's model of interaction and their employees own the conversation with potential customers. I know from retail businesses, who even created for each of their sales people a designated Facebook fan page, allowing these employees communicating with their customers on a "pull" instead "push" information exchange.
3. The "Good Guy" Opportunity: When planning a promotion or an event for a Good Cause you need to distribute your Event message into your social network. Especially in America (as I can tell as a dry European) people love to become engaged in being a part of a(ny) Good Cause. During my time as an e-Commerce Director for a BMW dealership and auto group in Georgia, we made sure to report almost in a kind of news ticker style about "Drive For The Cure" and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Participating "test-drivers" during this event were named on Twitter and Facebook when have driven a car and their mileage, which was rewarded by BMW of North America with $1/per mile driven donation for the good cause. The dealership had so the opportunity to increase their numbers of engaged followers on their Facebook fan page, new followers turned around and re-shared the dealer's post on their social network with their donation achievements and secured automatically a much more larger social footprint and outreach for all parties involved.
4. Business Intelligence Opportunity: You as a business owner should always ask yourself the questions: "What is my competition doing?" "Are they doing anything?" "What are they talking about?" With following the competition on their social networks will give you most of the time an instant "life-monitor" of their actions and business. Pair this effort with signing up some Google Alerts or Radian6 (I know there are many other options) with keywords relevant to your business and of course the competition - you will have a Business Intelligence file in no time and can adjust your business strategy accordingly.
5. Fishing Opportunity: I vividly remember and lived through the times when a sales manager sent out his cohort of sales people to the close by mall with the mission to hand out Business Cards, combined with the "catchy" phrase "Hi! My name is Trevor, I am a Car Sales Guy and want to let you know, when you or somebody you know is in need for a new car...here is my card. I make deals!" - Wow - how crazy is that? Sounds to me like going dynamite fishing on the Hudson River. The fish which will show up after the detonation was already dead due to pollution. Instead trying to getting blown up with your approach you may want to consider this. Forums of all kind of enthusiasts (BMW drivers, Cigar smokers, Scrapbooking, etc...) will give you a more targeted approach to engage with potential consumers down the road. Again, I am not referring to "push" message of yours and just shouting out information nobody has asked for but foremost observing the forum member's conversation and see if questions are put up. That is the moment where you and your expertise can step in and provide a valuable thought (and NOT SALES PITCH). One of my employees in the past did exactly this in a BMW enthusiast forum, answered just question, and still was able to sell down the road to these members up to 12 BMW's per month. And consider this: These sales, grown out of provided information were not just local but nationally executed.
What for opportunities do you see down the road? I would love to add more points to this list and have the initial 5 points I came up with being later a pamphlet growing constantly.