Another year comes to a close - and it continues to amaze me how fast the world changes. Technology is forever advancing at the speed of light. Admittedly, it is exciting to continually be offered new, innovative business tools, and to have a multitude of ways to "get connected" with people, but it can also be a bit daunting and over-whelming.

With the creation of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., our marketing efforts are being transformed. In this fast-paced, consumer-dominated world, you'll find your biggest marketing ROI comes from taking your messages to the places (or sites, in this case) your customers and prospects are most frequenting. Yes, if you haven't already, it is time to plug your nose and jump into the social media pool.

Scary - yes (esp. if you are over the age of 20 and just can't grasp 'tweeting' - 'twittering' - 'twitting' - whatever it's called); Impossible - no; Easy - it can be!

According to a recent survey by Strongmail, most businesses understand the importance of this growing trend and do have plans to increase their 2010 spending on e-marketing and social media. (So you best get started or you'll miss the boat!)

However, most businesses report that they aren't sure how or where to begin and more importantly, they don't know how to measure their results for optimal success. Thankfully, for us at KSC, the new social media tools in ACT! 2010 allow us to easily see which social media sites each client is involved with, enabling us to gain valuable insight. When combined with the powerful ACT! e-marketing tools, we can create targeted messages to any number of clients - and quickly track and analyze the results. ACT! has made it easy.

However, regardless of the tools you use to increase or enhance your e-marketing and social media initiatives, it is important that you simply get started. Launch your company's name and brand into the social media-obsessed world by creating a company Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog, etc. profile. Update it often. Connect with others who have the potential to become a customer or can help you find customers. Think of it as social media networking.

Embrace the current craze (or at least accept it), then plug your nose and jump into the 'Tweeting' (now you know) pool, the water's nice and the rewards are nicer. 

In today's competitive business world, the key to business success revolves widely around the relationships you build with your customers. And it's more than simply providing fast, on-time deliveries of high-quality products and services; or follow-up satisfaction calls. Don't get me wrong, fulfilling these customer expectations are important. But let's face it, nowadays we all have competitors nipping at our heels that are offering the same things. So if we aren't careful, if we don't set ourselves apart from the competition, if we aren't diligent about building better business relationships with our customers, our competitors just might steal them away - shriek!!

To outshine your competition you need (and I stress, need) to take your customer relationships to the next level! They all have lives outside of the business world. Each contact has a favorite past-time, a birthday, life celebrations and upsets, etc. Wouldn't it be great if you knew?! Imagine the WOW factor your client would experience when you remember to ask how his kids, Tom, Sue and John, are doing; and how John did in his baseball game last Saturday. Imagine how impressed and surprised he would be when a gift basket arrives because baby Sally has finally arrived. It is the attention to details and the personal touch that is going to keep you clients coming back to you. They trust you and they like you; after all, you remember their birthday every year.

Are you aware that statistically, it costs 5 times more to attract a new customer than it does to satisfy and retain an existing one! Start using ACT! today to track all the important details in your customers' lives. Get organized, build strong business relationships and increase your sales success and profitability. WOW them and keep them coming back.