10 Industries that should be using social media

This post will cover ten industries or business specific cases that could easily leverage social media. We will show real world examples of how sharing, engaging, and content creation can prove vital to a businesses bottom line. At the same time we will give examples of the flow from social spaces to real income. More and more businesses are getting involved in the social media space. It is up to us, the social media explorers and professionals to help prove it’s worth and create reliable reporting practices. Some of these might sound like no brainers while others might have you thinking creatively. I’ll list the industry and share tools that might be helpful in that particular case. Below that we will list a representative flow or pipeline in where that industry could show measurement as well as bottom line results.

Music Industry - This industry has been criticized over the past few years in that it has failed to adopt it’s business models to the changing times. However, savvy independents have been leveraging social media successfully by not only releasing bits of their music free, but more powerfully engaging and interacting with their fan base. Creative types like Geoff Smith are forging new paths in this industry with creative means of monetization. Geoff has used his musical abilities to create everything from Geek Pop to Ringtones. He leverages the power of RSS by offering his subscription based ringtone feeder and doing live concerts via the web on Ustream.

Optimum Tools: Blogs, Live-streaming, Podcasting, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook

Success Measures: Engagement+Community+Sharing Creative Process = Sales of Music and Subscriptions

Local Niche Retailers - Small retailers have the ability to leverage Social Media in very powerful ways. Recently I went to lunch with my friend Nicholas and he told me that he was setting up a blog for his relatives that have a Vacuum shop in a town near my home. After a bit of digging on Google he found that no one was really listed locally for vacuum parts and service! By simply setting up a blog with keywords and an occasional update they will own the local search. Being a do-it-yourselfer I know that I am always frustrated by my online search to find parts locally. I will link to the site when it is up. Please check back.

Optimum Tools: Blog, Forums, Twitter, Facebook (Local)

Success Measures: Presence+Information+Answers=Local Search Traffic+Landing Page w/ Coupon = Increased Business


Consultants - Consultants are a huge industry, but the key here is that their business is predicated on relationships. Having the ability to demonstrate your working knowledge of a subject through a blog or interactive forum can be key in generating clients and business. Oliver Blanchard demonstrates his understanding of social media and it’s relationships to traditional business daily on his blog. At the same time he is very clear about what services he offers to clients and potential clients landing him everything from consulting to speaking roles on his topic of focus.

Optimum Tools: Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed (Relationship Centric Tools)

Success Measures: Valued Content+Relationships+Word of mouth (Valuable Recommendations/Leads) = Converted Paying Clients

Authors: The book publishing industry is facing many of the same dilemmas as the music publishing industry. However, as in the music industry; independent authors are figuring out more an more ways to bridge the old with the new. Take JC Hutchins author of the 7th Son Trilogy as well as his newly published hardcover book titled Personal Effects Dark Art. Hutchins had a dilemma as he was marketing 7th son in 2006 to publishers and literary agents. His book was quite long and feedback he received was to cut the book up into separate segments. Hutchins took the recommendations but he continued to receive letters of denial. After much deliberation Hutchins decided to Podcast his trilogy of novels and shot up in the ranks on iTunes as well as building an RSS subscriber base of over 30,000! It did not take long for him to be noticed by St. Martins Press and land a book deal. His first mainstream published novel Personal Effects Dark Art is a trans-media experience that utilizes the internet, telephone and traditional print to deliver an amazing tale of intrigue and suspense.

Optimum Tools: Blog, Live-streaming, Podcasting, Twitter, Facebook, Video

Success Measures: Content+Community+Creativity = Built in Audience & Adoring fans = Book Deal, Exposure, and Sales.

Craftsmen: My first foray into new media was sharing of my creative process while producing woodturned art. I started a blog, a twitter page and a flickr site where I would share photos of my work, the creative process documenting steps and live streaming how-to and entertainment based videos. As I shared more and more of my process and work I became more and more in demand to produce custom works for people that were engaging with me through twitter and my blog. There are huge opportunities for craftsmen of all kind to engage a community through social media by simply sharing knowledge, information and process. One of the best in this field is John T Unger. He creates amazing sculptural works from metal that you can find here at his blog!

Optimum Tools: Blog, Live-streaming, Podcasting, Twitter, Facebook, Video

Success Measures: Sharing Creative content+Exposure+Story Telling = interested buyers and word of mouth = Many a long night in your shop filling orders.


Design Professionals - Again, this industry can cover a wide range from graphic designers, to architects, and web developers. Social media in this sense can almost act as a vetting tool. Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of people putting everything from logos to business cards on their blog, flickr and twitter to get feedback and reaction from the community. Understanding that this can’t always be done it will bring you a built in test group as well as some publicity to your talents. Jay Ehret shows how he used a social media site called crowdspring to generate a logo for a customer. Also, Todd Defren over at PR Squared talks about how he also used crowdspring to generate his logo. Crowdsping as a tool for putting designers on spec has been widely debated, but many use it to help get there name and work out in the wild.

Optimum Tools: Twitter, CrowdSpring, Flickr, Facebook

Success Measures: Posting Artwork & Design + Community Involvement = Increased exposure to talent = Paying Customers

Gadget Companies - The social media community is FULL of geeky gadget hounds. Gadget companies like Apple, Dell, and others have a built in community. It makes sense for them to be utilizing social media tools as there community already exists there. By enabling the community to share ideas and recommendations they have built in pipelines to sales. By engaging in twitter, facebook, blogs and forums they show that they have a vested interest in their most important consumers. The team at Dell has done this beautifully in recent years. You can engage with them in numerous places. Here is the blog of @RicharatDell Richard Binhammer.

Optimum Tools: Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Forums

Success Measures: Strong Community Presence + Valued content & Customer service = Loyal Customers and Relationships = Sales

Job Recruiters - In this day and age of layoffs, companies cutting back and short staffing Recruitment officers are having a tougher time than ever! After talking to my friend Mike Dwyer (Professional Recruiter), he told me that companies are just inundated with letters, emails, and phone calls from recruiters looking for possible job openings to fill. This area will get a blog post in itself at a later date, but put yourself in the position of someone in HR at a company like Microsoft. How will you differentiate from one recruiter to another? Thats right ~ Relationships. Social media tools are great for building synchronous and asynchronous relationships. In fact in this article Mike Dwyer tells us how he was able to leverage the Power of his linked in network to create a poll that landed himself and a client in the Chicago Tribune and how those relationships led to business. It’s no longer about spamming with your presence. You have to add massive value. Difficult ~ Yes , Impossible ~ No.

Optimum Tools: Blog, Twitter, Linked in, Facebook Groups, Online Polling Tools

Success Measures: Creating Valued Resources and content + Community Efforts = Synchronous and Asynchronous Relationships = Press Opportunities & New Clients.
(Note: Study your successes and you can duplicate your efforts)
Educators - Dave Brodbeck, Psychology teacher at Algoma University has been using podcasting and blogging for many years now in his personal and professional life. Dave has been successfully using podcasting to add another toolset to his teaching repertoire. By Podcasting his lectures he has not only significantly helped increase the grades of his students by over 6 points but has also effected others that might not be able to afford school or folks outside of North America. Dave’s passion for new media has touched the lives of many people and it may not have led back to profits in money but I’m sure if you ask him he will tell you that it has made his and his students lives much richer.

Optimum Tools: Blog, Podcasting

Success Measures: Using new media skills in podcasting and blogging = More Engaged Students = Better Grades = Happy Professor
Scientists - Scientists? Yep, social media has provided some of the most powerful tools for collaboration known to man. In fact one of the biggest social media success stories was told by Don Tapscott author of Wikinomics. Mining firm GoldCorp reached out in the social media and web community for help in outsourcing their search for rare metals by using a wiki and sharing ALL of their geological data! GoldCorp was rendered back to profitable and the wisdom of the crowds proved to be exactly what they needed. You can read more about the GoldCorp story here.

Optimum Tools: Blog,Wiki, Social Outreach, Google Toolset for Collaboration

Success Measures: Publish Geological Data Publicly + Wiki + Interested Parties & Rewards = Low Cost community based research = Huge bottom line profits.
Instructional Institutes - instructional Institutes like martial arts training centers, computer skills training, or adult education facilities can benefit through the use of social tools as well. Much of their deployment will be like the Niche Local Busnesses. By utilizing a blog along with content produced during classes they will have an edge on their local competitors. Ability to be found in local searches along with proving their competence ahead of time with valued content can be all they need to keep classes full for years. Can you say goodbye to expensive newspaper advertising? Beyond this they have the ability to sell premium content that could be distributed web wide expanding their reach. I don’t have a good example here, but I would be willing to add one by suggestion.

Optimum Tools: Blogs, Video, Forums, Twitter, Friendfeed

Success Measures: Easily searched highly valued content + Relationships and presence = increased conversion, better client retention and lower advertising costs.