Business has gone social. You and your business must get social as well or you will be left behind.
I recently read a statistic which said currently 1 in 5 people are engaging in some form of social media platform and by this time next year it will be 1 in 4. Staggering. This means that virtually everyone in the market for your product or serve is getting their information about why to buy, where to buy, and whom to buy from through their social connections. Why do we still have to have the conversation about WHY SOCIAL MEDIA business people? I mean really, there must have been some people who didn’t get why a business would want to advertise on TV when radio was working just fine. But that was a bazillion years ago. It’s not even fair to say times have changed because they change so quickly that most of us Average Joe’s who go about our business on a day to day basis can’t keep up. We KNOW it’s changed and KNOW it’s going to keep changing yet the pace at which technology and social media are growing we can’t even figure out where to jump in let alone if we’ll be able to hang on. So rather than engaging and jumping in, we do nothing.
Stop it! We can no longer do nothing. If people cannot engage with you directly on their smartphone and get instant access to someone over Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or Google+ they will move on quickly to a business they can engage with. I have heard stories of people literally tweeting to their network while a terrible experience was happening, in the moment, and the business saw the tweets and immediately looked after the situation. What if those professionals weren’t on Twitter to see the minute by minute feedback? Imagine the negative spin which could be out there about your business and you may not even know it. Engage. Be where your clients are. Talk with them. You will reap the rewards handsomely.
I know what you’re thinking, “easy for you to say Mr. Twitter. Mr. YouTube. But what about those of us still using a PALM.” To you I say; DIVE IN. Allow me to share with you 5 easy steps to begin driving sales through Twitter. It worked for me and it will work for you.
1. Get a Twitter account. Please start at the beginning and sign up for a Twitter account. Now whatever you do PLEASE put a picture of yourself on the account. No one cares about your dog, baby, car, house, or picture of Brad Pitt as much as you do. This is called Social Networking because it’s social. People still buy from people. Unless you are Peter King from Sports Illustrated you are not allowed to have a picture of your dog. Also, put in a well thought out bio. Describe why you are in business and how you want to solve your clients problems. Once you have your bio and pics in place the fun will begin.
2. Start following people. This is once again a social network. This is not about sticking just to your inner circle who already know you. This isn’t where you reconnect with those long lost friends you had as a child. This is about social business. Networking. So follow as many people as you can. Monitor your account and when people follow you, follow them back. The “follow” is like the exchange of the business card at those old school networking events. So give freely and take freely. You are growing your database.
3. Start saying something. This is where my clients always get the most hung up. People are too focused on saying the right thing, the poignant thing, or the funny thing. Look you are not Donald Trump, Will Ferrell, or the Dali Lama. You are you and that’s awesome. Tweet about your business, your life, your customers, the love of what you do, the best thing to happen today. Just keep it positive and keep it in keeping with your businesses brand. Businesses don’t communicate; the people who run them do so be a person but speak for your business.
4. Create conversations. Don’t be shy. When someone mentions you, tweet at them. Also, if you find something in your feed interesting, tweet at the person who wrote it. Start conversations. Some of the best friendships I have were created through my Twitter account. When you provide interesting takes, positive feedback, humility, and a desire to truly take interest in others; people notice. These are the same principals of being a friend or having strong customer service in your business.
5. Be active. Look, you cannot be successful in any endeavor without taking action toward your goal. If you follow the first 4 steps and only touch your Twitter account once a day you will have little success. Nothing done in multiples of 1 is very successful. Try using the Oder of Magnitude as your guide. Be engaged, take action, reply to messages, take the opportunity to help when you can. The Twitter universe is a wonderful place to find all the leads and sales you could ever imagine if you simply dive in and fish them out.
2. Start following people. This is once again a social network. This is not about sticking just to your inner circle who already know you. This isn’t where you reconnect with those long lost friends you had as a child. This is about social business. Networking. So follow as many people as you can. Monitor your account and when people follow you, follow them back. The “follow” is like the exchange of the business card at those old school networking events. So give freely and take freely. You are growing your database.
3. Start saying something. This is where my clients always get the most hung up. People are too focused on saying the right thing, the poignant thing, or the funny thing. Look you are not Donald Trump, Will Ferrell, or the Dali Lama. You are you and that’s awesome. Tweet about your business, your life, your customers, the love of what you do, the best thing to happen today. Just keep it positive and keep it in keeping with your businesses brand. Businesses don’t communicate; the people who run them do so be a person but speak for your business.
4. Create conversations. Don’t be shy. When someone mentions you, tweet at them. Also, if you find something in your feed interesting, tweet at the person who wrote it. Start conversations. Some of the best friendships I have were created through my Twitter account. When you provide interesting takes, positive feedback, humility, and a desire to truly take interest in others; people notice. These are the same principals of being a friend or having strong customer service in your business.
5. Be active. Look, you cannot be successful in any endeavor without taking action toward your goal. If you follow the first 4 steps and only touch your Twitter account once a day you will have little success. Nothing done in multiples of 1 is very successful. Try using the Oder of Magnitude as your guide. Be engaged, take action, reply to messages, take the opportunity to help when you can. The Twitter universe is a wonderful place to find all the leads and sales you could ever imagine if you simply dive in and fish them out.
Driving sales through the use of Twitter is as easy as driving sales through conventional means of engagement. The difference is we have to combine the old fashion principals of Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People with the new fashion medium of social media. Business has gone social and you must too. It IS technology based, it IS new, it IS different, and it is NOT going away. But to drive sales to your business through Twitter you must start by taking 5 my step process and enjoy the ride. Otherwise we keep staring at the door.
