Jeff Molander is a sales and marketing motivational speaker who's giving actionable, short tips. Here's one now on social media...

Social media is creating TANGIBLE business value... for companies who design it to. And there are plenty who don't... settling for tweets and friends rather than sales and leads. Getting the job done is a matter of being strategic... putting tactics aside. Here's the trick: Invest less in creating memorable ads or social campaigns that create PREFERENCE for your product. Invest MORE in creating demand.

And that means a far more measured, scientific, DIRECT RESPONSE approach to using digital marketing. But even more importantly it's about your entire marketing organization focusing around customer behavior... not messaging.

Sure, you still have messages. But every TACTIC your team employs, every day, will focus on creating behavior among customers. Action item: Call a meeting. Find out if your team uses prompts to push customers down the sales funnel... or across the customer life-cycle if you like. How organized about these prompts are they? Are the emails they send out prompting actions, as an example? Are those actions part of a larger system of prompts? Are they taking customers who aren't ready to buy and nurturing them until they are? They should be... by providing relevant, useful information that customers crave.

Today's customers expect value from brands – beyond the product or service or even promotions. But don't fall into the trap of creating novelties that don't prompt customers. Buzz is buzz and Twittering is just that. Social media is creating TANGIBLE business value... for companies who design it to. Are you one of them?

Jeff Molander is a marketing leadership speaker.