Converting personal social media to business social media.
How are you using and profitingfrom social media?
HERE’S THE PROBABLE ANSWER: You’reusing it, but not profiting from it.
That’s because your Facebook pagehas photos of Sunday’s picnic, 15 comments from close friends and relatives,and nothing about business. That’s because you have a Twitter account thattells your audience of 75 you’re in your pajamas and going to bed. (Even moreinsulting that you call your followers “tweeps” or “tweeple.”) And that’sbecause your LinkedIn account (if you even have one) has under 100 connections,and none of them have ever received a value message from you. Ouch.
Let me further challenge you that you do not have your own YouTube channel. (Billions of people access it everyday, and it’s free!)
REALITY CHECK: It’s time for youto draw the line and the distinction between personal social media, andbusiness social media.
There is an easy way, and ano-cost way to create Business SocialMedia. And I’m challenging you to take advantage of it. Starting today.
1. Create a business Facebook Page that your customers, prospects, and fans can “Like.“ A page for your business allows youto create an opportunity for dialogue with your customers and prospects. Italso challenges you to create value messages, post videos, and offer tips andideas that will help your customers and prospects build their business – andthe result is you can gain a following.
Take a look at my business page onFacebook http://www.facebook.com/JeffreyGitomer and note how I post almost on adaily basis, and how I create links back to my website so that the people who”Like” me can continue to perceive me as a value provider and a resource. Whileyou’re there, take a few moments to read the comments that I get in response tomy value offerings. It’s humbling, flattering, and it’s creating a revenuestream. You can do the same.
Facebook is now the third largestcountry in the world. I would gamble that every one of your customers andprospects is already actively involved, but most likely only on a personal orsocial level. You can easily find them, and ask them to “like” you. And you canset up a group, and send your value message with a link to your businessFacebook Page or website.
CAUTION: Your business FacebookPage requires work, constant updating, and response. You zero out yourcredibility if you only post once a month. My rule of thumb is a minimum ofthree times a week. It’s most interesting to me that even when I don’t post,one of my fans (one of the people that “like” me) will post something for me orabout me: a quote, a thank you, an idea, or a story. To me it’s not just apost, it’s a report card – someone is taking their time to interact with me andshare their gratitude, their question, or their idea. How many people like you?
2. Twitter is an anomaly, and mandatory. Most people fritter awaytheir Twitter opportunity. They’re either saying nothing, or soliciting sales.In my first year on Twitter, I tweeted approximately 180 times and from that Igained more than 15,000 followers.
Yes, I have an advantage being apublished author and speaker, but I took advantage of my advantage. I’m now oneyear and four months into Twitter and I just posted my 218th tweetyesterday. “Resilience is not what happens to you. It’s how you react to,respond to, and recover from what happens to you.” It had more than 100re-tweets and allowed me to pass the 20,000 mark of followers. If I suggest forsomeone to do something in my tweet, it’s so that they can gain more valuableinformation without a solicitation.
The value of Twitter has not yetbeen realized. But with 125 million users there has got to be a few dollars inthere floating around someplace. Take a look at my tweets so you can see howmuch value I offer.
And note that when I post a quote,it’s my own. I’m not telling you what Benjamin Franklin or Albert Einstein(both brilliant people) said. I don’t want to quote someone else; I want toquote myself.
One of my early Twitter quotes was,”If you want to be relevant on Twitter, tweet something relevant.” It gothundreds of re-tweets. What are you doingon Twitter? How are you taking advantage of 125 million people with 140characters each day?
The next important, the mostimportant, of the social media platforms is LinkedIn, and for that informationyou’ll have to wait until next week.
I created a short video (that’sposted on YouTube) on the subject of social media and how to use it. Go towww.youtube.com and search GITOMER SOCIAL MEDIA.
SocialMedia or BUSINESS Social Media? You choose.
Of all the business social media options, LinkedIn is themost valid, and the most valuable. But it is not the ONLY.
In order to master business social media, it takes asuccessful combination of your business Facebook Page (where people can “Like”you), your Twitter account (that allows you to “tweet” timely, valuable bits ofinformation), your LinkedIn account (that allows you to make businessconnections and posts your valuable tweets automatically if you set it up thatway), and your YouTube channel (where you can broadcast your value videos,information videos, and testimonial videos).
LinkedIn allows you to find people that can possibly dobusiness with you, be a valuable contact and, more importantly, it allowspeople to find you.
Most of the salespeople that use LinkedIn are trying to findleads and/or beg for some kind of connection. This strategy is the leastuseful, but it’s better than a cold call.
LinkedIn has a wealth of CEOs and other C-level people inits network, and millions of entrepreneurs (yes, millions) who own their ownbusiness and can make a final decision.
LinkedIn is the new cold call. Instead of calling agatekeeper and fishing for imformation on one possible decision maker, you cannow advance search on LinkedIn and find exactly who you’re looking for BEFOREyou make the call. You can discover who is connected to your connections andfind people by job descriptions and job titles.
Your job, as a master of business social media, is toattract them, not beg them. Your job is not to find them; your success willcome from letting them find you.
Of my 3,600 connections on LinkedIn, I have asked less than100 people to link with me. The others asked me to link with them.
HERE’S THE TOTAL BUSINESS SOCIAL NETWORKING STRATEGY:Register “www.yourname.com” If your name is taken, put the words “I am,” or”the great,” or “the one and only” in front of your name. If all of them areavailable, buy all four. If your last name is available, buy that too.Establish a one-page website. On it, post your philosophy of how you treatcustomers. This will give you a high ranking (probably a number one ranking) onGoogle, so that people can easily find you.
Then create a blog – in your name. (WordPress, Typepad, orBlogger offer free or low cost options.) Then create your business FacebookPage, your Twitter account, your LinkedIn account, and your YouTube channel.Make sure they’re all in your name or contain your name. This gives you evenmore Googlejuice, and will give you a half-a-dozen listings or more on Google.
The key is to make yourself visible on the Internet -through your website, by blogging, and via value-based use of social media.
I also recommend that you go to www.aceofsales.com, andestablish an account. It’s only $20 per month and it will allow you to accessFacebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter from the homepage with one click. It will alsoallow you to send out an e-mail magazine (e-zine).
Now that you now havethe big picture of business social media, here’s what to do:
1. Tweet a valuemessage every day. Just one. Something that your customers and yourprospects would consider valuable. Make certain that you end it with a hash-tag(#) and your name. This way people can find you if they do a search.
2. Blog one paragraphevery day that includes your tweet. Something that others considervaluable. All you have to do is wake up in the morning and start writing.
3. Connect yoursocial media accounts so that what you post on one appears on all of them.
NOTE: As you can see, the key to business social media isbeing business-social-proactive with a value message.
NOTE WELL: It will take you less time to write 100 words ofvalue than it does to make 10 cold calls that you’ll be hung up on, or 10unsolicited e-mails that will get deleted.
4. Post events ofimportance on your business Facebook Page. Especially post interactionswith customers.
5. Now begin theinvitation process. Start inviting everyone you know, everyone you canthink of, to join you on LinkedIn, like you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter,and check out your YouTube videos. MAKE THE INVITATION A PERSONAL ONE, NOT ASTANDARD ONE. Not everyone will honor your request. But once people start toreceive valuable information from you on a regular basis, they will begin totell others. People will comment on your Facebook page. They will re-tweet you.And they will want to connect with you proactively via LinkedIn.
5.5 What’s YouTube got to do with it?Take a look at the Jeffrey Gitomer channel on YouTube. It’s actually the “BuyGitomer” channel. I’ve taken 100 short, value messages and videotaped them. Ifyou take the paragraph that you blog each day and record it on your FlipVideo,then you can upload it to YouTube (in about one minute). Posting your contenton YouTube allows people to see you and your passion in action, and to feelyour commitment and your validity. It gives people an opportunity to get toknow you, even if they’ve never met you. Keep in mind you don’t need to have amillion views on your YouTube videos to make them valuable; you only need ahandful of executives and other decision makers to regularly look at yourposted messages. Eventually they will click and buy from you.
NOTE WELL: I’m not telling you what TO DO, I’m telling youwhat I DO. As of this writing, more than 12,000 people “Like” my businessFacebook Page, more than 20,000 people follow me on Twitter, and more than3,600 people have connected with me on LinkedIn.
I invite you to join me on each of these social mediums, tosee what I do every day and learn how I’m beginning to monetize it – so you cando the same.
