We all have several friends or acquaintances who have been spending a lot of time in front of their computer screens and attending an endless succession of networking events, all in the name of moving from the ranks of the unemployed to those of the employed. With recent figures showing six applicants for every vacancy in the US, it’s an unenviable position to be in. An exponentially growing number of hiring employers are crying out for applicants with social media skills. Similarly, IT manufacturers see the phenomenon as “the next big thing” when it comes to their channel partners’ marketing activities on their behalf.

Is it the next big thing? Yes!

Before you can expect your channel to take advantage of social media tools to market your widgets, you need to have a clear idea of ​​what these tools are, what they can do for you, what you want them to do for you, and how your partners can do it. use them for your benefit.

Almost everyone is familiar with and has a relatively clear understanding of the blogosphere, thanks at least to several blogs (ie The Drudge Report, The Huffington Post) that have gone mainstream. Facebook and other social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace are what might be called “next generation blogs” with hundreds of millions of members. Its sheer mass popularity should inspire manufacturers to hurry up and take advantage of these new marketing tools.

Think about this for a minute. It has long recruited, and has leveraged for many years, its channel partners’ marketing and promotion expertise based on heavy but still effective postal mailings, phone contact, face-to-face sales calls to end users and, most recently, email. The phone, quite some time ago, was the latest and greatest social networking tool out there. Can you hear me, Mr. Bell?

Regardless of the tools your channel partners use to reach end users, they can afford to allocate more dedicated people and financial resources to social media-driven marketing and promotional activities than you do. Sure, your employees can raid these sites on your behalf in their spare time, but there’s also a clear and present danger that they’ll spend an inordinate amount of time playing them instead of performing their primary job functions.

Setting up a free Facebook or Twitter account takes infinitely less time than reaching out to prospects the old-fashioned way; you can easily do it yourself with a minimum of effort. But your channel partners may assign specific employees whose sole responsibility is to populate your online business profile with news and missives about your product offerings, promotions and special events, and other information designed to drive traffic to your corporate website and more generally. generate enthusiasm. .

End users become friends with your corporation and have the unlimited ability to post thoughts, concerns, and suggestions regarding your product offerings, technology integration opportunities and issues, and reviews of how your widget, combined with the technical wizardry of your channel partners, you have solved a specific business problem.

Positive posts like this snowball electronic word of mouth on behalf of your company and your channel partners, generating instant leads and referrals while positioning the two of you as visionary leaders in your respective tangential fields. Rather, you and your partners have an immediate opportunity, in the same forum, to quickly address any negatives about your product or service, demonstrating your commitment and responsiveness to customer service.

Pretty simple, right? Are you working with your channel partners on the social network? If not, what are you waiting for?