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.
