A Manifesto?
A few weeks ago I did a Tele-Seminar on growing your business in the digital world for SpeakerNet News.? Rebecca Morgan who was interviewing me asked about social media and if I really get business from it.? Instinctively I started recounting examples of business I received including a million dollar consulting contract that came about from a relationship on Twitter.?
But after it was over, I realized I had given the wrong answer?
If I would have thought about it more, I would have said, I get MOST of my business from social media.? Because that?s just the truth.
I don?t have a sales team or marketers.? I made a decision years ago to create a lifestyle business I could work with a laptop from under a palm tree anywhere in the world.? ?I have my trusted long-time assistant Lornette, but she doesn?t do marketing.? She manages the logistics of me working around the globe.? I?ve never made a cold call in my life and have no desire to start now.? Most speakers bureaus don?t get me, so the amount of biz from them is negligible. ??My business is about 80 percent online and the driver for it is social media.? (BTW, in a conversation with Jeffrey Hayzlett that I had about two weeks ago, he shared with me that he gets the vast majority of his business through social media marketing as well.)
If you listen to the interview with Rebecca, she was unconvinced.?? She related how so many people she has interviewed have told her that they have never gotten ANY business from social media.? ?That?s probably true.? Of course some of those people are the same ones that if you invited them to an orgy, and they?d complain about the guacamole dip.?? They have convinced themselves that social media is a time waster that doesn?t produce revenue, so that is exactly what is true for them.
Here?s why social media doesn?t work for them:? Because they don?t work it.?
They hired a ?social media consultant/strategist/expert/guru/ninja/Jedi/maven? who set up a Linkedin account, built them a Facebook page, created a Twitter wrap, set up a Pinterest board, and then automated a heavy rotation of corny motivation quotes to go out every 60 minutes, interspersed with product pitches in between.
?Whether you think you can, or you think you can?t?you?re right.? ? Henry Ford
Know what?? The first time I heard that, I thought it was brilliant.? But that was 1976.? Al Gore hadn?t even invented the Internet yet!? I?ve seen that quote mangled, attributed to the wrong person and plagiarized so many times since then, it?s lost it?s luster.
Making matters worse, they probably use an aggregator service, so each post goes to every account at the same time.? This means the Twitter one gets cut off, the Linked in one gets flagged for Spam, and the Facebook algorithm keeps it from showing up in your followers timeline because it?s obviously not a personal entry.
If your expert/guru/ninja/Jedi/maven advised you that the secret to social media success was posting motivational quotes on a service that posts them simultaneous across all your accounts ? fire them.?
Likewise if they suggested that randomly following 2,000 people a day to see who follows back makes you a social media pro.? Actually just makes you a social media whore.
Social media works.? But you have to work it.
Let me give you an example of what just happened yesterday.? One of the prosperity things I do is get fresh flower arrangements delivered to my home each week.? Unfortunately the florist I?ve been using for five years was just sold and they?ve gotten sketchy.? So I did what I always do ? put out a post on Twitter looking for a referral.
Within ten minutes I got a reply from @InSouthFlorida, one of many services springing up to help businesses capture local business through social media.? They asked @TriasFlowers if they delivered to the beach.? They obviously follow their Twitter account and responded to me with their phone number and the names of two of their designers.? ?I called and spoke to Hortenzia who was very helpful and friendly.? They delivered my flowers and they?re gorgeous!?? I have a new florist now.
Here?s the thing?
I get a large arrangement for my dining room.? A smaller one for the bathroom.? Another one for the coffee table.? And one for my bedroom.? Every week.? This amounts to thousands of dollars in sales a year for Tria, simply because they were monitoring their Twitter feed.
This kind of thing is happening thousands of times a day, every day, in cities and towns all over the world.? If it isn?t happening for you, instead of proclaiming that social media doesn?t work, you might be better served to learn how to work it.
Here are four suggestions to make your social media work for you?
1) Provide value.? If the only time you post is when you are selling something, people quickly tune you out.? I post five blogs a week, a YouTube video and about 15 or 20 Facebook updates with content to help people.? They?re all free.? But once you become a trusted source with free content, people naturally check out your other offerings and will spend money with you.
2) Engage.? Join the conversation.? Re-tweet and repost interesting things that you notice and think your own followers will appreciate.? Don?t be afraid to show your personal side.? If you?re watching the Super bowl, Oscars or the World Cup, open a dialogue with your followers.? They?ll be delighted that you?re actually there and to get to know you a little.? People buy things from people they know, like, and trust.? Instead of broadcasting AT people, try talking WITH them.
3) Pick Where You Want to Plant Your Flag.? No one can keep up with all the social media platforms out there.? Pick the one or two you like best and concentrate on them.? Let your tribe know where you spend your time.?? If you post a YouTube video once a week or once a month, tell them.? If you just check Facebook first thing in the morning and then not the rest of the day, put that right in your profile.? As you let people know when and where you hang out, they follow you there.
4) Monitor your brand. ?Set up Hootsuite or Tweetdeck with a column that tracks whenever you or your business is mentioned.? You?ll know when good things are happening and when bad things are happening.
When good things are happening, you?ll know and can do more of them.? You can thank people for talking you up, developing rapport with your tribe.
When bad things are coming up, you?ll be instantly aware of them and can immediately get to work to rectify them.? If you?re proactive like this, you?ll actually turn people who were dissatisfied and going to leave you, into some of your biggest advocates.
Social media marketing works.? But you have to be social, you have to work, and you have to market.? That?s kinds where the name come from!
- RG
P.S.? Since I?m feeling so much better after all this ranting, let me offer some extra value for you.
To learn more about getting the most from Twitter, read the manifesto I wrote a few years back.? Some of the links have changed, but the principles haven?t.? See it here: http://www.randygage.com/blog/the-11-deadly-sins-of-twitter/
And don?t be ?that guy? on Facebook!? Watch this video from the lovely and talented Scott Stratten, a/k/a @unmarketing http://www.unmarketing.com/2009/07/03/24/
If you want to listen to the Tele-Seminar I did on Growing Biz in a Digital World, order it here: http://www.speakernetnews.com/tsem/ts20130204.html
Source: http://www.randygage.com/blog/why-social-media-marketing-does-not-work/
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