To use social media or not to use social media…this seems to be an ever present question among business professionals. Rarely can I research business-related topics and not come across some article touting the importance of social networking and/or the misuse of it.
Most business
executives understand that there is an untapped benefit to using social media
to promote their business, but they do not know how to effectively harness
it. So, what does effective social
networking look like? In one word,
“engagement.”
Engagement isn’t about “likes” or how many “followers” you have. That is fleeting at best, a one-time click. Effective engagement comes from you (the seller/recruiter) connecting with your target audience on their playing field. Trying to get people to listen to you or look at your pages is futile if you do not first reach out and engage them where they are.
Author and consultant, Tom Searcy, concisely discusses four strategic principles in using social media in the sales process. Once again, I can easily draw parallels to the recruiting arena.
“1. Getting more 'followers' is not a goal.
There is an implied causal link between 'followers' or 'likes' and real sales activity. However, that link has low correlational accuracy. Most people are talking about themselves and hoping you're listening. Coupons, special offers, and event postings may get some strong responses from people who are already transactional customers. But if the goal is to get qualified prospects, then you need different metrics for judging the success of your social selling.
2. Connection is not engagement.
Social selling is about engagement, and that comes from effective interaction. Posting material in any form and simply waiting for your connections to respond is not engagement. What are they posting that you are responding to? Learn from those interactions. You can't sell if you're just pushing messages and your expertise.
3. Buyers signal by declaring problems.
Listen for the buying signals from the social Web. If you use a third-party tool, such as HootSuite, to compose your messages and read what your followers are writing, make full use of its search capabilities. Look for certain key words as a way to listen for people who have a problem you can solve. If you sell routers or servers, you can flag the word router or server failure, giving you a way to watch across all open platforms for anyone who uses the word. You can even segment the search to a number of miles from your office location.
4. You are not in control.
Many sales folks believe this is the way the process works: Get followers, and then provoke them to want what you sell through your posts. The truth is, it rarely happens that way. The reason is simple: If you tweet, blog, or post about a solution, idea, or product that a person does not have, they won't necessarily connect with you. If you are listening to the social Web and hear someone declare a problem that you can solve or a question that you can answer, giving you an opportunity to send a relevant response, then you are truly engaging.”
Value added content is still important and should be included in your Social Web strategy. But, focusing on content alone, without the meaningful intention of engagement, will stifle your social media progress. This is a broad topic and one we will continue to discuss in the coming weeks...
Editor's Note: Lee Gray is the Senior Account Manager at Tidemark Inc. Lee is a guest contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.
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