WHAT ABOUT THOSE PESKY SOCIAL MEDIAS?
There has never been a time in the history of our country’s business infrastructure when we had at our disposal such a diverse myriad of free venues which could, potentially -when working in harmony with a greater strategy -have an enormous impact on your bottom line! This is true for every company no matter how large or small. But as we discussed in Part I, this blog is meant for the larger portion of our clientele, the small to mid-size business.
Before the onset of theses free venues (Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and the plethora of RSS opportunities etc.) companies went to great lengths to deliver their message:
· Paying big money to create videos (television commercials, online videos etc.) in order to get their name, message and business products or services in front of their proper audience
· Contract expensive marketing programs to deliver messages whether through complex mail systems or costly email programs
· Find ways to engage their clients in relevant conversations which would demonstrate their superior awareness of the industry as it applies to client needs (conferences and conventions)
· Find creative ways to certify your rightful position in a crowded marketplace and display the significant solutions you offer
· Spend a lot of money to clearly define your core competencies so clients won’t dismiss you as a small package but rather view you as a unique adjunct
In fact these forums validate some distinct market positions through which (when used with other more traditional business tactics) you can communicate directly with your client privately and all just for what it takes to know which to use, why to use them and how you anticipate they will impact your company.
Consider that in the last ten years we have seen an explosion in social media sites including; FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube and others. Now ask yourself, how are you using these networks to augment your sales?
“How are you using your social media?”
The Bosson Group interacts with many different types of businesses but we always start with their digital presence. Almost every time we begin our analysis we run in to the same problem; a poor digital position and an even worse understanding of what their cyberspace experience should include and why it should include what we recommend! Our job is to come in to a company define the market needs from the buyer’s perspective, provide solutions, structure, definitions, strategy and sales. The first thing we see virtually on every site and almost invariably is series of social media icons. And just as they almost always have some hyperlinked social media icons, they have an unused social media programs.
“I hardly ever use them?” “I don’t know why I have them!” “I don’t have time for them? “ “I have no idea what to do with them?” “I’ve got them but I don’t know what they do or how they can help me!”
In almost all cases when we talk with our clients about how they are using their social media programs, one of the above statements or questions is the response we get. If you are one of those businesses that has no idea why you have the programs or what to do with them; this blog will be useful.
If you are one of our clients and using our Tethered Communities™ sales solutions or you are using your own inside sales program then this little blog will provide critical information in making those ghostly hyperlinks power tools.
How and why should I use social media?
As we are primarily interested in addressing those companies that tie their efforts to inside sales which is almost all of our clients and most small to mid-size businesses. Let me say that most of the information in this blog will relate to an inside sales environment. And let me address why I expect this applies to all small to mid-size businesses. The reality for sales today is that to maintain the costs associated with an outside sales force falls to much larger companies with money to burn (and burn they will). By default, small to mid-size companies don’t have the cash flow for such a frivolous waste of their money. They are by nature of the beast, forced to conduct their business over the phone and through email so the addition of these social media functions are likely to impact their business significantly either way.
But that’s not bad news that’s the good news. If you start your company off learning the proper habits and carefully analyze how and what works best to acquire the most predictable outcome, then you are building a productive long term telephone sales and marketing program. This way as your company grows you can manage and anticipate your growth far more accurately without falling into the outside salesperson trap. Every business owner knows that it’s important that they deliver the right message to the proper audience.
Today’s business owner also knows that they should be using their digital tools like the website, emails, SEO to develop their business but they are uncertain and confused about how they should go about it. Let’s clear up some misconceptions and bring this into focus.
Social Media as a Strategy
If you are one who sees all of your social media links as one big black hole sucking up your precious time and resources, it’s time to bring your use of social media under control.
- Don’t think of them as all one kind of thing doing the same thing in different formats. Each has a unique structure and speaks to your audience in a very specific manner – understanding how each application works best and designing your free media to get the most out of each platform will help you make sense of how and why you need each format
- Get to know your audience as they relate to each social media and exploit those venues that make sense to you and don’t engage those that don’t
- Use them as individual strategic steps; each contributing in a different way to educate, inform and entertain prospective buyers with the overarching goal of driving buyers to your website where they will conduct business
- Remember everything revolves around your website, so design your site to do business and not to act as an online brochure.
The Website
I’m going to cover a lot of ground in a little time but this should give you some basic guidelines on how to make your website more than one in sixty million online bookmarks. You website should be built to do business. If a buyer can’t hit your home page and in under a minute answer these three questions…
- Why me?
- Why you
- Why now?
…Then your website doesn’t work.
Clients often tell me that they have the problem of explaining why they are unique – forget about that. Every site is unique – if they are at your site they want to know why it’s where they should spend their money. Few people surf the web to read sites and if you structure your site properly it will be visual, quick and easy for the client to understand who you are, what you do and what makes you special. Social Media sites express your individuality - your site is where you should conduct business.
If you are a consultant or if you offer complex services that require that people leave information about who they are and what they need, then provide that ability for them in at least three different formats. Every landing page should have:
- Testimonials (when relevant) upfront and where they can be seen
- A picture story about what you do or who you are (what you do if you do something – who you are if they are buying your time)
- Calls to actions everywhere
- Click-thrus to access clearly spelled out services and products
- Options to call, email, access your people or the person
- Video introduction to products and services and if you can include in under a minute the unique position you hold in the market – that to
- A resource library at the bottom of the page for access to linsk, news, information, employment etc.
- A navigation bar absent “Who we are” “Mission” or “Company History” (put these in your resource library if you feel they are relevant)
SEO
If you are spending money on SEO services STOP!
Let’s end the talk about SEO here and now. If you don’t have a Wordpress site or a self-managed site with a built-in Content Management System, get one. Until then if you have your managed site, take the time to make sure your webmaster knows how to get all your key words in the places they should be. Don’t forget that Google owns YouTube and you will be seen there as well (keyword section). Start using a blog and distribute it to prospects, they will be seen by search engines. Send your blog to clients and prospects through email.
If you don’t know where and how to use keywords and set up your SEO and you don’t think your webmaster does either then go to YouTube and find about a zillion tutorials on them. Or Google SEO and learn all the tricks and continuing changes search engines make to insure clients are reaching the right company the first time they type something in.
Google is not interested in whether you get a fair shot at the first page and companies pay a lot of money to have their names show up there. So the best you can hope for is to get your name on the same page as larger competitors. You don’t go do a private bakery because it’s cheaper than Walmart. You go to a private bakery because it has better bagels than Walmart’s pre-made fifty pound bags of bagel dough! Don’t pick a fight with Walmart.
If your buyer is looking for cheaper and doesn’t care about quality, outcome, attention to detail and personal interest in their success through your specific offering then you are probably not the solution they need. I tell all of my clients that they need to bring their sales conversation to a place and time absent their competition.
FACEBOOK
Think of FaceBook as digital geography. This doesn’t mean that you need your buyers to be local to get value out of FaceBook but that’s how it should be used. If you think about “Starbucks” and their FaceBook protocol then you understand the “geography” concept. How many people get “new products” and deals from Starbucks on their Facebook?
Use FaceBook to pull together your products or services in way that makes it logical for buyers in a digital geographic community. If you offer services in financial consultation nationally or internationally than make your efforts through FaceBook take on the look and feel of the general community of financial services as they relate to the whole of your industry. It’s a digital geography – it simply means that you are a part of the conversation that is relevant to the client-base either because you are local or you are a part of the larger online community that deals in similar aspects of your industry. You carve out your place by location or industry – you make it relevant by providing services or products in a way that is consistent with the person you want to visit and re-visit your FaceBook page.
- Host conversations that make sense to the people and companies that occupy your digital landscape.
- Every time someone leaves a business card, asks for information online and provides their email or any time you are using the phone and acquire email addresses have a process for developing that lead.
- Create your CRM, and begin to cultivate new leads on your social media.
- Have a short but convicting email to send them to in order to convince them to “like” your FaceBook page (we will discuss invitation to other venues)
- Liking your page generally happens because you are hosting a variety of information, headlines, news article and comments all valid to the people who populate your geographic online community (buyers, Human Resource Managers etc.).
In other words, don’t just talk about you and your company, make your FaceBook a page where you moderate discussions on a variety of topics relevant to your population and not just your business.
If you are talking about serving people in a general location, talk about the community, the town, the area. If you are carving out a landscape by community then host conversations, links, articles and information that relates to the person or company in that community. Nothing gets a client’s attention more than showing them that you are current in the industry and have strong opinions and observations about how current events can improve their company culture.
Pictures of your family, your vacation and any other personal material are totally inappropriate so keep them off. Don’t use your Avatar from some online war game as your profile picture anywhere at any time. Keep your profile points business relevant; no one wants to know your relationship status as it relates to business
TWITTER
Probably the most misunderstood and maligned of the social medias, Twitter stands alone as one of the most enigmatic digital strategies. This platform, when used in conjunction with a probably structured FaceBook , LinkedIn and/or RSS pages, acts in concert and independently of any other strategy beside your website.
It is easier to tell you what Twitter is not then to help you understand what it is.
- It is not a popularity contest where ten thousand random and unrelated viewers are just stacking the list to make you appear important - this is extremely transparent and leaves your prospect asking whether you don't know how to use Twitter or you are falsely trying to inflate your Twitter value with anonymous followers
- It is not a competition to see how many followers you can get - look at who chooses to follow you and look for people that you think fit your purpose on Twitter - which may be altogether different then the message you create in LinkedIn and different form either in FaceBook
- It is not a place where you as a professional go to make inane comments, clichéd and spent quotes or links to riddles and jokes
- It is not a place to spend hours of time fooling around with icons and symbols in an effort to repeat a story told a hundred other times or one that has little or no value to the audience
So, what is it? Recently, The Bosson Group, after years of development has produced a first-of-its-kind in preemptive analytics tool, Tethered Communities™ (now Trademarked). This process maintains over 2000 fields of data which are compressed, compared, valued and defined by 12 different analytical programs (including our own organic algorithm for extemporaneous conversations specific to a particular function). We used Twitter as a way to build a following of people and companies that might regard our findings and follow them to determine both accuracy and relativity. We did this with calculated invitations to an entirely new level of prospective client as a way to prove our value. We may have only 400 followers but the body of them are key people in the industry (Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News Financial., Jim Cramer, Moody’s etc.)
What does Twitter have to do with me?
Twitter is an excellent format to provide definition and depth to who you are and what you do. Create short but meaningful statements that link your reader (follower) to information in your resource library or directly to pages within your site related to your products or service
- It is a place to tie yourself to important information and announcements in your company
- It is a place to define the character of who you are and what you do
- It is a place to continue to show your clients and prospective clients that you have your finger on the pulse of your industry and you know what’s happening
- It is a way to gradually bring clients to important locations in your website or on other social media platforms
Twitter is a digital organism and like any organism you must continue to feed it or it will die. This is a social media and it is contingent upon you to look for and invite the followers you feel will get the most out of what you say. This is definitely a place where you can show your astuteness, intelligence and awareness.
If someone offers you 10,000 followers for $500 and you think that’s a good deal. You are not using Twitter properly.
LINKEDIN
Now we are entering the first of my two favorite social media platforms; LinkedIn and RSS. LinkedIn is one of the most underrated and underused venues in all of cyberspace. Here is a place where you can start or join discussions in your field or vertical markets and get seen by some of the real innovators and leaders in industry. You can explore cross-sections of your market as wells as following new industries to round out your opinion and knowledge base to make you more fit for discussion engagements in LinkedIn. It is a place where you can personalize your position and personality in cyberspace.
LinkedIn is unique in the way in which it can level the playing field for you. Here you are equal to any other President or CEO and you opinion is as qualified and regarded as any other. You are for all intents and purposes on equal terms – take advantage of this opportunity but know your stuff before you make yourself known. Naturally when you are in the company of intelligentsia , some of the good glitter can rub off on you and some of the bad stuff rub against your prospects. But, two simple rules can help you here:
- Don’t debate issues in which you are not certain you can at least hold your own on and secretly believe you can win.
- Don’t engage in conversations that end up being cyber-slanted arguments with people you do not know and are on an equal level with you. The last thing industry leaders want to participate in is an argument between two potential vendors.
- Take the high road and bail out of any hostile conversation without even a good-bye. The sooner ended the sooner forgotten. Besides prospects will respect you for not wasting their time in what otherwise may have been a valuable discussion –pick it up at another time when you archenemy is not participating
Twitter is a place to go and make your presence known – especially about all you know in the presence! It is also a motivation for you to begin reading, studying and educating yourself about the entire culture of your market. A couple of well written and thought out conversations have more than once led me to a new or prospective client.
RSS (REALLY SIMPLE SYNDICATION)
We are now taking over 90% of our clients into YouTube, blogs, online radi for a number of different opportunities; “How To’s”, “Did you Know?”, “Learn This” and so much more. With over 20 million people visiting YouTube every day we are using this process in concert with other venues such as LinkedIn and FaceBook and Twitter to help create significant positioning for our clients.
But it isn’t just YouTube it’s so much more. It’s using the technology of the web to digitally enhance our client. It’s a way for us to engage our client’s prospects and our own prospects in a time and at a place that is absent our competitor. Whether we are doing time-lapse photography for construction or monetizing learning events on YouTube’s private channel, we are finding new ways to define our clients using online RSS (radio, blogs, videos audio even Webinars) .
In online programs we are teaching our clients about making videos without spending a fortune. What to say and how to get it in front of the right audience. We are helping them with webinars, radio blogs, blogs and even online meetings like Webex.
Many of the places and events that we have clients involved in are no cost forums. In these cyber-channels we can help our client’s find and define their voice. We use our own proprietary highly graphical, totally interactive, instant notification email, AlphaByters.com to communicate to vast numbers of prospects for as little as .60 cents per contact (that includes an introduction and communication with a potential client under controlled circumstances).
SUMMARY
By blending these individual social media components in cyberspace to obtain a specific goal, we are able to educate, inform and entertain prospects outside of our website – leaving our website the responsibility and focus of conducting business with our clients; new and old.
Our rule of thumb is one hour per week per venue. That’s all the time you should need to create, build and engage prospective clients through these FREE venues. If you are using these venues properly and with regularity, you can expect to see real results with a direct impact to your business in as little as six months.
For more information email frankb@thebossongroup.com
Frank Bosson
CEO, The Bosson Group
www.thebossongroup.com
www.alpahbyters.com
209 333 7786
209 642 2821
Next in Part III, We will talk about the phenomena of Telefluence and our own highly graphical, permission granted, instant notification email program Alphabyters.com. Learning to combine strategies to make better use of your phone for sales
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