By Darlene Ziebell

Having been an experienced successful entrepreneur, I used traditional one-on-one marketing for my new business launch in 2007. After several false starts and unsuccessful attempts to grab market share, I began to pay attention to all the emails I received and refocused to look at the internet for marketing opportunities. That’s when I discovered the amazing successful statistics of the world of social media.

I wondered, what is this new world? After all I had a LinkedIn profile and had many emails in my address book. Wouldn’t it be easy just to send a message and begin connecting? Boy was I wrong. Several months later, I only added a handful of new emails to my list in exchange for all the hours I tried connecting with others.

I branched outside and discovered successful social media experts who could connect me very cost effectively for a fraction of the time. Connecting through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and others is a choreographed dance only known by a few experts. Although I was capable of learning these new dance steps, I didn’t want to spend the time. I searched for a social media expert with the added talent and experience of a marketing expert and I found an effective marketing model. I call it my “sales machine”.

With current economic conditions, many businesses have drastic cost cuts throughout many of their operational business areas. Looking at the very cost effective use of social media is a winner. After my false starts, I re-launched my business using my newly found effective social media “sales machine”. Within months I added 1000’s to my connections, surpassed my customer goals and decreased the amount of time I would have spent with traditional marketing.

Although the internet keeps moving and the players keep changing, I’m not concerned. Having an experienced social media expert that stays current of these new steps, I can focus my attention on serving my customers. And let the connections keep coming in.

Darlene Ziebell is President of Center for Women Business Owners.  She can be reached at [email protected].  For more information, please visit Www.CenterforWomenBusinessOwners.com.