We’re getting more and more inquiries from our corporate customers about the hows and whys of Social Media Marketing.  Frankly, I don’t think there’s any one, single posting anywhere that will tell you everything you need to know. But in a nutshell, getting started in Social Media Marketing boils down to embracing a few important revelations that can make a huge difference in your bottom line:

1. It’s much more effective to put your message in places where prospects are actively looking for products and services in your category;
2. Today, when customers are actively shopping for something, they almost always turn first to Google, Yahoo and other web search tools to find information and options;
3. The company with the best information/content (i.e., most complete, easiest to understand, useful, engaging and offered in a variety of ways) most often wins the purchase
4. In light of all of the above, your marketing mission is make it incredibly easy for your prospects to find you and your incredibly authoritative, engaging and useful information by leveraging all the tools available to you on the Web.

I have to give a huge tip-of-the-hat to the HubSpot Blog as an incredible resource for all things related to Social Media Marketing or what they and others are referring to as inbound marketing.  If you’re just starting to explore this brave new world of Social Media/Inbound Marketing, HubSpot is a great place to start.

HubSpot isn’t just a charitable repository of marketing information.  They’re really practicing what they preach by using great content to attract new customers for their inbound marketing software.  (In the spirit of full disclosure:  No, we don’t use their software — yet.  But I’ve become such a fan of their resources I can’t say how long it will be before we at least check it out.)

But my point really isn’t to fawn over HubSpot as much as to use them as an example of the power offering your customers really useful, meaty information that helps them in their day to day lives or work.  This company uses blogs, video postings, webcasts, video tutorials, interest group sites on Linked-In, Twitter, Facebook and who knows what else to get their message out.

Having a well designed Web site is just the tip of the iceberg.  Harnessing the power of the Web to have great conversations with your prospects and customers is what Social Media/Inbound Marketing is all about.

With unemployment seeming to be on a continuous upwards spiral, it’s hard to believe that anyone is having difficulty recruiting, but from what I’ve been hearing that’s not always the case.  Yes, there are lots more candidates in the labor pool looking for work.  But that’s sort of like saying there are now several more needles to find in a much bigger haystack.

With video in the recruitment area of your web site, you can provide all kinds of info to help those “needles” find their way out of the stack and into your HR department for an interview.  Use video to show off some of your after-hours activities:  picnics, philanthropic events, holiday parties, etc.  Also, consider short sound-byte testimonials from a cross section of your employees.  They can talk about the opportunities they’ve had, special training they’ve received, successes they’ve experienced, etc.

So let’s review … seeing your employees having fun and excited about their jobs –  vs. — reading about how your employees have fun and are excited about their jobs.  Which do you think has more impact?