The following is a portion of my answer for the Techdirt Insight Community on how to use social media to sell. 

The explosion of Web 2.0 technologies has not reached the sales department of corporate America. Though social media consultants and Web 2.0 conferences abound, and the possible successes at the corporate level are preached seemingly in every trade publication in the country, the vast number of corporate salespeople are not only not using, but are unaware of the potential of social media in the sales process.

Some of the reason for this is structural - larger companies have established methods of new business development and silos of knowledge where collaboration is discouraged. Part of the reason is inertia. Large companies don't need to be as creative, and thus lack the impetus to try new things. For whatever the reason, the true successes in social media are occurring at the small business level, as owner/entrepreneurs discover that social media yields benefits in terms of marketing, PR, branding and new business development that allows them to compete with their larger, less flexible, and more risk averse counterparts.

I'll cover several areas where these tools are useful, and attempt to give examples of how the specific tools can be used.   

Franki and I do the online thing - we cover your website and social media, and if you have a small campaign, we can handle your PPC and your e-mail marketing, but when you're in the big leagues, well, we're Triple-A players if you're bringing in $25,000 a month in product from your blog.

You have to know your limits, right?  Well, I know mine, and I need help, or rather a client does.  A client of mine in the employment business has a website and a social media guru, but needs an experienced e-mail marketing consultant who can direct campaigns, integrate with the web and social media guy (me), and basically be in charge of newsletter and e-mail design, tracking, and strategy.

This is no small deal. I know what a good one is worth, and if you have a record of working in the field of products and services marketing, I want to introduce you.  Shoot me a line on e-mail or call me.  We'd like this to get started June 1st.

The last post I wrote was about referrals, but it was jumpstarted by something John Jantsch wrote about last week.  In reading his post, it gave me the idea to explain what we are looking for in client referrals.  Once again, the blogosphere make me better at what I do. 

What John said at Duct Tape Marketing:

Many times, when I mention this notion to small business owner they have a tough time coming up with the description of the ideal narrowly defined customer until I suggest that we start by describing who they don’t want as a customer.  

It’s just human nature I guess, but we seem to have a much better grasp of what we don’t want in our life than what we do. So by first categorizing things like the types of customers that you can’t serve well, the kinds of people you don’t work well with, or the size of projects that don’t fit you may be on your way to better understanding your ideal customer.

Sounds like a good experiment. Here is a list of what Durbin Media Group does not want in clients, followed by a list of what we do want.

Not Want:
1) We don't want people who aren't willing to invest time as well as money into their project:

  If you don't care about your project as anything but revenue, how can you expect your customers to do so?

2) We don't want mean people:

  I'm an entrepreneur myself, and the older I get, the more I appreciate toughness in small business people.  If you aren't tough, you'll get eaten alive.  So I get tough.  But mean is a different matter.  I don't mind someone that sends a steak back that wasn't cooked right or who insists on getting quality from the work they are paying for.  I do mind someone who insults a waiter simply because they're a waiter, or treats every deliverable as a chance to renegotiate the price.

3) We don't want clients that can't make up their mind:

  In the last year, I have instituted a two meeting policy.  If I go to two meetings with you, and we don't have a signed proposal for work, I decline new meetings.  This is simple self-preservation.  Yes, 15 meetings may eventually lead to a big sale, but in that time, I could have had 8 clients who collectively pay me 4 time what the big sale might have accomplished. 

Great concept. It's like a fantasy league for TV fans with (seemingly) endless hours of free time. The chance to win $100K is nice. So if you think you can create, manage and run a network better than the power that be, go for it at TVBigShot.com.

So... I am signed up to received a fairly good newsletter from trendwatching.com. Their trend watching reports vary in usefulness, but I can never get enough good information about emerging trends and cool finding, so I'm willing to tolerate the occasional dud in my email.

But this time they have crossed the line. I was tempted with this:

A free MacBook air? Who doesn't want to win one of those? Exactly. So, I gamely clicked on the link only to be assaulted with the most unsightly of images. If you have a high tolerance for pain, click on this link. Let's just say it's a bit cheeky.

I've definitely lost my appetite.