When a meteor hits the Earth, it is easy to determine its impact. The same goes for a car crash or when a hammer hits a nail.  For social media marketing it is a bit more difficult to determine the impact. In this case, it isn’t about the force of the impact, it is more about influence.  Recently my friend Todd Schnick interviewed Julien Smith and Chris Brogan the authors of The Impact Equation on his podcast Intrepid Marketing.

One of the main ideas discussed in the book is the Impact Equation. Some things that Smith encourages readers to discover include:

• “How strong is your idea? How powerful is your platform? And how important and good are your relationships?”
• You don’t need a large platform and tons of followers to have an impact. In fact, Julien argues the opposite is true. (hint, it is about quality and influence)
• One of the tenets of the impact equation is to have an idea that matters to an audience. Problem is, most content is boring. I always like to say that your content doesn’t have to be personal, but should have personality.
• “We are talking about a positioned statement, specifically targeted, to create an emotional reaction, in people, so that they will spread it.”

Brogan explains the Impact Equation – {Impact = C X (R+E+A+T+E)}

• The concepts of the book are clear: to make an impact, you need clarity, you need to make an emotional connection, you need to make a contrast, and you need to build a great platform.
• The problems with the consumption nation: we consume a lot of content, but we don’t ever execute on anything.
• You don’t need 10,000 followers, you just need to have an impact with the people you influence as they will help you spread your messages.

To hear these interviews, click here for the Intrepid Marketing radio show on iTunes.  Click here for more on social media for home builders and to find out how we can help you build an effective marketing program.