How do we form the best relationships; bring our best to them; build environments that nurture them; and measure our success?
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Terry Starbucker
Terry Starbucker is a service company executive who knows more than the average bear about leaderships and the social web. In his own words,
“I believe in the incredible potential of the human spirit, the vast underappreciated beauty of the earth, my wife’s smile and the love that radiates from it, long hugs and soft kisses, weddings and butterflies, honesty and courage, incurable optimism, the men and women in the arena, movies that make me laugh and cry at the human condition, the Green Bay Packers, downward dogs, a fine hot grande latte, the warmness of friendship, the spirit of SOBCon, vanilla ice cream, Elton & Bernie, the Grand Tetons, common courtesy, melodies I can’t get out of my head, amazing grace, Mom & Dad & my two sisters, servant leadership, government above hypocrisy, the daily grind, deep cleansing breaths, the power of dreams, the incredible wisdom of my grandmother, E=MC², and God and the Golden Rule.”
Terry’s focus today is …
Pitching Social Media to Clients — 5 Key Questions for Potential Clients
- Are you ready to have public conversations?
- How pervasive are your Social Media users in your customer base?
- What is your sensitivity to negativity?
- How are your current “conversational” avenues working?
- Do you understand the medium and how to speak in it?
What other social media “pitching” questions do you have?
Follow @starbucker at Twitter.
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WooHOO!!
Hey Terry! How’re you?
Whoohooo! I’m great. Sitting in Alamosa Colorado, and ready to talk about Social Media. Let’s go.
I’ve been talking all day. Give me chance to wind up!
So tell me the lamest pitch you ever heard.
Terry! I would so love to share the hour with you…I have a really early presentation, but will check out the archives for sure!
Love seeing your smile on Twitter!
Thanks again, Liz!
Great chatting with you Angela – and you keep smiling too. 🙂
Mmmmm, the lamest pitch. I think it’s always the ones who tell you they can “save us $3 Million” if we only pay them $300,000, and they haven’t spent one minute digging into our business. Yuck.
Hiya. I brought a long list of questions. Now to get them out of my head and into a comment box. 😉
I’m here for you Amy – I’m listening……
Wait — can you do lawyers? 🙂
Can he do lawyers?
Interesting question Amy. Depends on the definition of “do”. In the social media sense, I don’t think I’d advise them to use that medium a whole lot – doesn’t seem a good fit to me.
Like………. some lawyers are frequently asking me if they should be involved in social networking sites.
Ok, then I take back my questions. What else ya got? 🙂
I think the questions that get missed most often, or in our case raise eyebrows most often, are the ones that relate to the customers internal organization – how many of your team already use Social Media, what is your Social Media Guidance policy? Then come questions like, how are you going to define success, how will you measure it, do you have the resources to measure it?
Hey Terry, With all the talk of authenticity and transparency on-line I’m finding a lot of it phony and lots of unrealistic
…..GO BABY GO WHAT A GREAT DAY THINK POSITIVE AND BE A GAZILLOINARE WHILE LIVING THE LIFE OF YOUR DREAMS BY TOMORROW!…
I’m finding it all a bit unauthentic and not very transparent. Comments?
#12
I think their consideration stops at my Question #1 – do they want to have public conversations. When I think of lawyers, I think of private conversations. Confidentiality. Not a good fit with Twitter.
#14 Hi Michelle!
This is the beauty of Social Media – I believe most people can “call BS” on those kind of things. You just can’t hard sell here. You have to build relationships – have conversations. This is not a place for quick-buck artists, generally.
Thank you Terry. I’ll step aside and let others have a chance to pick your brain now. Holler if you need a coffee. 😉
A friend of mine is getting peeved because a guy with no social cred keeps leaving comments that start with a full plug for his social media book. He wants to blow the guy up.
#18
Exactly. Michelle and I were talking about this yesterday – you must establish “authority”. And that takes time. Brogan is a great example – he toiled for years before he broke out.
I couldn’t resist this tweet, “Is Social Media the greatest thing in the history of the world? In the known universe? Debate me now” 😀
Hey there, Terry. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on how a business should go about picking a platform for doing its social networking. I get a lot of questions about Facebook, for example, because people have heard that it’s “the place to be” and don’t necessarily consider whether it’s the place for *them* to be…
#20
Hi Becky – pretty catchy, huh?
My answer, BTW, is no. 🙂
I’ve been tweeting all day about the people go get online quickly, figure out what the heck RSS and Twitter is, and think they can start a business. Business are successful due to passion, commitment, and experience. Even the ‘overnight successes’ usually have years under their belts doing something similar. I’m a bit miffed at the person who put themselves out as a Social Media expert to me, and I heard them speak, and they are giving REALLY bad advice. Really bad. oh well….
Hey Terry-
How can bloggers use Social Media to explode their brand while still having a life off the computer? ie- what tactics should one use to get the most of social media in a reasonable amount of time a day.
#22
Hi Rebecca!
I think it depends on the business – I personally wouldn’t use Facebook – I’d be turned off by the “commerciality” of it. I think it’s really a matter of “comfort” – on the one hand, a traditional blog would be best – the conversations can be more controlled. Or, Twitter (not so commercial, but it is limited in 140 characters at a time). Each of these has a personality – a business has to match it’s personality with the SM mechanism. Make sense?
#24
That’s why I’m certainly not holding myself out here as an “expert”. Just someone who uses it personally and is considering using it from a business perspective and wants to share the experience.
#25
Hi Jay – that’s the million dollar question. You have to ask yourself first about the product you sell and how you have fared so far with the “traditional” ways of building a brand. Trying to really push Social media as a “brand spreader” is really hard work, because it’s really hard to know when your potential customers will be there to hear your message. You can’t be trying to do this 24hrs a day. If it were me, I’d experiment – use social media as a big laboratory to test your messages and find your audience.
I’d like to know who made up the advice that businesses should join twitter, immediately follow 2000 people, and broadcast constantly without conversing!
#29
Here’s the answer – direct mail and spam “experts”. Remember, they only need to get follows from 1% of those they attempt to reach. That’s success to them. So they’ll follow 20,000 to get 200 sales leads.
And so it goes……
That sort of echoes my feeling about Facebook: a clear line there between business and personal, whereas Twitter more accurately reflects the blurry lines of real life. Blog first, absolutely! Bonus – the company determines the personality of its own blog, versus tailoring its conversation to the personality of the particular social media platform?
#29
They should be forced to write 100 times on the black board: “Social media is not a broadcast medium”!
#31
Good point Rebecca – a blog is much more “malleable”, but be careful – it can’t look too controlled (i.e. allowing only positive comments). You have to have some courage. Truthfully, that’s why my company doesn’t blog – we’re just not ready. And that’s OK.
There was an interesting convo on Twitter comparing social media with old country stores. Customers sitting around and talking, telling stories. Buying is secondary, but comes naturally.
I’ve been waiting to come in as #42, in answer to all your questions, but time is running short! Clearly with so much pro-Twitter media, clients are wanting a share of the pie. If not to engage with their own customers, then to learn what is happening in pie-land and to see what their competitors are up to.
#34
Exactly Becky, exactly!
If you can’t do what comes naturally, and that is, converse, you don’t belong here. Go back to sending mail. 🙂
Wonderful analogy, Becky – thanks for sharing that: I couldn’t agree more.
Terry, thanks much for this – I’m off for the night now, with food for thought!
I like that one Becky!
Thank you again, Terry. Careful out there in blizzardland. 🙂
Credit for the country store discussion goes to @WayneHurlbert, @tobydiva and @pchaney.
#34,
Becky,
The first time I heard the country store analogy was on my blog in 2005. People talking together kind of end up getting to that one. Yeah.
Liz, it’s not my fault you’ve been around here forever. No wonder you hear the same stories! 😉
Thanks everybody – I had a blast.
And thanks most of all to dear Liz, for hosting all of us.
SOBCon here we come! 🙂
Yes, thank you, Liz for hosting us all, graciously as always. Now get some rest!
Rest? I did that once. 🙂
Thank you, Terry!
Thank you, everyone!