Things have been sharply accelerating in our world as of late.

Faced with the management of our respective business we are expected to keep up with the speed of technology in all we do. As my collegue, Andrew Goldsworthy has aptly noted, more and more businesses are succumbing to the pressure of “TGIF”, an idea conceived by our mentor, marketing legend Al Ries.

Apparently, this interesting acronym is now more than just thanking your blessed deity for helping you make it to the end of another work week. “TGIF” has now become a great way to understand the nature of the thinking that is urging the rapid adoption of social media’s acceptance and integration into our personal realities.  

“TGIF” stands for the 4 major ‘network’ channels in web based media that are dominating the thoughts of business owners across North America today: Twitter, Google, Internet, Facebook.  I’m willing to bet that if you are in business then you have at least one of these four ‘network’ channels, if not all four, broadcasting the current status of your business to the world 168 hours per week – 52 weeks a year. Yes – you read that correctly – you are broadcasting.

Have you ever considered for a moment that social marketing is like owning and operating your very own television channel? Like “The Food Network”, ”TSN” or “History” channels. How long would they keep their viewers interest if their shows kept repeating and repeating over and over and never got updated? What would happen to viewers if the updates were out of date too?      

And make no mistake about it – if your use of any of the four TGIF ‘network’ channels is not up to date and relevent then you are doing yourself more harm than good. My advice: stay current consistently – if you cannot -then stop using the channel immediately. At least until you review your promotional strategy and implement a system that guarantees you’re consistently staying current on all the channels you broadcast your business on.

If you examine TGIF you’ll notice the “I” is in the middle between the “G” and the “F”. The “I” stands for ‘Internet’ and is the channel you normally refer to as your ’web site’. I simply cannot stress enough the importance of ensuring your ‘web site’ is designed to attract, qualify, convert, optimize and retain your relationship with your Ideal Brand Customers/Clients (IBCs). Anything less than this is a waste of your time, energy and money. Few are the business owners I’ve met that have this crucial structure in their web site.  

Imagine how fast a television station would tank if they only broadcasted a range of programs designed for all different ages and interests without any FOCUS on who their IBCs are – in this case the buying customers of eager corporations with budgets big enough to afford the cost of national advertising on major TV networks. \

Start right now, if you give still give a damn, and review your ‘Internet’ channel strategy and current web site. Begin with answering these two powerful questions:

1. Who is our Ideal Brand Customer/Client? (IBC)

2. Why?    

This process of identifying and understanding your IBCs will greatly help you focus your message moving forward. Those customers who do not meet the attributes of your IBC profile require you to let them go. 

However, I have found the easiest way to let them go is to stop encouraging them to come back. Change the look and feel of your brand so it appeals more to your IBCs. For example, if you move towards being higher end and more pricey, then price sensitive buyers will tend to stay away. When you consider these types of buyers as your “Less Than Ideal” Customers/Clients (LTIs) you’ll will begin to see how much sense it makes to surrender them to the other businesses in your buying category. 

Bottom line:  Before you jump on the social media wave (if you haven’t already by some freak chance) and start utilizing all four channels of “TGIF’ make sure you have a proven marketing strategy in place that will ensure you attract and retain your IBCs and surrend your LTIs consistently.  Do this and TGIF will rock your world.  Seriously.

BGR8,

Bill Jackman