Social Media Doesn’t Connect People Do
Welcome to the social web where everyone and everything is connected. Just build a profile and you are too! Right?
Well, maybe technologically, but it takes more than a few links to build a relationship with a person that makes a difference to building your brand or moving your business forward.
Social media tools work so much more effectively when we decide a few things before we use them.
What to Do Before You Go Social
Every now and then a event like the social web disrupts things and we need to figure out new ways of relating and connecting with the people who help us grow. Leaders reach out listen and learn from the best and invite those folks in to participate and be part of what they’re doing.
The social web has made it easier and faster to reach out further to find the ideal clients and customers we might want to work with. It’s foolish not to have a plan to use the social tools available to us to that in the best ways we possibly can.
Here are six ways to be effective at social business.
- Know what business you’re in. Sounds simple, but it’s not about what you make or what you sell. We need to be seriously sure of what we do for our customers.
- Choose the ideal customer you want to work with. The whole game changed when the world became our marketplace. We can’t do everything for everyone in the world. Draw a picture. Make a prototype of the customer you’ve just identified. What do you offer that makes that customer’s life faster, easier, or more meaningful? Choose those who are going to love what you do and build your website, your content, and your offers all around them so that they recognize you.
- Now that you think you know that. Go find people who meet that description and ask them what they care about … and listen. Find them where they meet online and where they meet offline. We can’t grow if we only talk to the people we already know and only visit the places we always go to.
- Use the social tools to talk to them about what they like to talk about. Then keep listening — build relationships and get to know your potential customers better. When you talk about what you do, talk the way you tell friends what’s going on in your life.
- When it’s natural talk about how you might align your goals with theirs and build something together … something you might not be able to build alone.
- Make it easy for your online and offline customers to meet you and each other. And encourage them to meet and talk with each other as often as they can.
And keep doing all six steps over and over again.
The generational nature of the social culture means that our base of customers is always shifting, growing, learning. Bringing our offline customers online and meeting our online customers offline will only deepen our relationships with all of them.
When we’re authentically listening, we can hear who actually needs our help. The best 30-second pitch is when when we can answer, “By the way, that’s what I do.”
Have you tried listening to find out who needs what you have to offer?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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As usual, Liz you put things in human terms. We are not bots, we are humans with emotions and passion and to suggest to clients they should embrace the social web in a mechanical way is a waste of time.
The key to the social web is the social part. It is not social networking, it is human networking.
Yet another irresistible post!
See you at SobCon 🙂
km
These tips are so valuable! I picked who I wanted to work for, and realized a week or 2 ago, that I needed to hone in on my market even more. I was honest with myself.
I encourage people to be honest with themselves. Don’t fear that you can never have “that job.” Go for it.
I do what I love, and I’m presenting it to people that will naturally love what I do.
Liz said it right. “It’s natural talk.” No pitch. Just talk.
Great post as usual Liz 🙂
The phrase “Keep your ear to the ground” popped in to my head reading this. As either a manager/waitress I “overheard” the best tips, constructive criticism, compliments or just plain “information gathering” that I could use to move my business forward while pretending to look for french fries on the floor 🙂
I’ve found for myself that by “exposing/sharing” what I think what business I’m in with lots of folks on a daily basis (even if I’ve just met them” helps me define what biz I’m in based on their feedback – lots of times they know what biz I’m in before I do 🙂
And by asking/listening what biz they are in helps me connect them with others who (either them or perhaps someone/biz I have yet to meet) may be/become my potential customers/partners – you just never know 🙂
Most important as you say “And encourage them to meet and talk with each other as often as they can.” – in my experience most folks think they need “permission” to do so – no one “belongs” to me, just as no one “belongs” to you – it never has in this off/online world ! – Thanks for continuing to be the encourager Liz – I’ll be sure to “pass it on” 🙂
Can’t wait to see you soon at #SOBcon 🙂
Big hugs!
Cate
Hey Liz
Great post, social media is defiantly a sensational tool for connecting with people.But the real power of Social Media is being able to then interact with the person you have just made the connection with. By taking the time to listen to them and find out about their problems and frustrations. As the old saying goes…
We were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. We need to listen twice as much as we talk!!!
Cheers Adam
Hi Kneale, Terez, Cate, and Adam,
Thank you all for adding so much more to what I offered. I really am listening. My fingers are too tired to talk or type, but I heard every word you left here today.
Getting ready for SOBCon and thinking of you …
Nice post Liz. Figuring out what someone does for a living is tough. What do I want to be when I grow up? Who do I want to be? Then really focusing in and honing that so that I’m (or anyone) doesn’t seem like a generalist is tough. Finding a niche market or more accurately state, helping them find me.. feels even harder. From copy, to margins, branding and not just what I want but what people need from me.. well, talk about the tip of the ice berg.
Keep up the great posts. You have a lot of wonderful content here.
Another great post Liz, thanks.
It’d surprise you the amount of people who dive into social media not knowing who they actually want to communicate with. It’s like jumping into a swimming pool without deciding which end to swim to, you’ll just splash about until you’re sick and tired of the whole endeavour.