Hunting and Farming

Hunting and Farming - Reach and Frequency - Chamber and BNI

Some important thoughts concerning Social Media usage in your small business internet marketing.

I spent my morning in a training class for BNI.  I’m the outgoing president of my group, the Scottsdale Innovators.  I’m moving over to be a support team member now, and needed a refresher class to make sure I’m up to speed on my new duties.

In response to a question about what BNI was, someone in the class said it was a place the “meet and get to know” other business professionals who would help them grow their business.

“Meet and get to know”

If you’ve never heard of it, BNI - Business Networking International, has 125,000 members worldwide who meet every week in groups averaging 21 members.  Every week, these same people meet in the same group to trade referrals.  The interesting thing is: the longer you’re in the group, the more your response grows.  Compare that to a big group like the Chamber.  Go to a mixer with 300 people and you have to “work the room” to collect cards for followup.

In advertising it’s called Reach and Frequency.  If you’ve got a great offer and put that message out one time, you’ll “reach” that media’s audience once and, if the audience is huge like network TV, you’ll get a decent return on investment.  If you use a media like local radio, you won’t reach as many people, but the prices are less so you can run more ads.  Your initial response might not justify the expense.  But if you keep at it consistently, your response rates will grow dramatically.

In real estate sales, smart agents will stake out a neighborhood and become the “expert.”  It means that they advertise over and over to the same people in the knowledge that as people “get to know” them, they will eventually call them when it’s time to sell their home in that neighborhood. They call it ‘farming” as opposed to “hunting” for people in the market right now. 

Both systems work.  Hunters eat tonight.  Farmers will starve in the short run, but their pantry will be overflowing when the harvest comes in.

Social media is definitely a farming/frequency type of media.  If you’re going to get into social media be prepared to wait for your efforts to payoff.  The good news is the surveys I’ve seen show that companies that  are in it for a year or more say they are planning on spending more in the future – which is a good indication that their investment is beginning to pay off.

P.S.  One other thought.  Social media is more like small group networking than advertising.  It’s a two way street.  Unlike regular advertising where you “broadcast” a message to the masses, social media is a “get to know” media where you talk and then…listen.  If you skip that second step, you’ll find it hard to be successful in the new media future.