Never Forget Where You’re Going To With Social Media

Social Media March 21, 2010 1 Comment




Social Media SpokesWe will be welcoming more and more writers to the blog who are passionate about social media in the coming weeks and we start off with Robin Blandford. Robin’s background is as Digital Media Engineer at Dublin City University through to Decisions For Heroes company founder. Robin was identified early in his graduate recruitment cycle at Thomson Reuters as ‘one to watch’ and was placed on an accelerated management programme with the company.

Social media is extremely powerful at spreading word of mouth for business. On the flip side, social media is extremely powerless at closing sales.

Never forget where you’re going to. When you’re a small business who can’t afford big budget brand awareness marketing, what remains, is very simply marketing to close sales. Sales must be closed on your own territory – and business relationships forged there. Those relationships must continue past the latest trend that you used to acquire them – they must continue on your terms, not through a third party.

Use social media to form a community, and drive people back to your own site. Drive customers, prospects, and suspects back to your own permanent content. Use your network to promote your company, discuss your company, and join with others to share news about your company – but always drive it home afterwards. Always end up back in your own territory. Focus on using social media tools to build a communication network – not a destination.

One day, as nature takes its course, Facebook, Twitter, and the others will be superseded by competitors – and probably sooner than you think. Your customers may move on to different networks or will close their accounts. Your Facebook page might get deleted – by accident or malice. Either-way your relationship needs to be stronger than all of these together – and they will be if you’ve been bringing them home.

Your operation should run as smoothly as a hub with spokes. Each spoke carrying in your business transactions from different communication networks to your central territory where you can cement a closing sale.

Here’s my 5 step process Build, Seed, Move Outside, Sell, and Share, for once you’ve got a follower:

5 Step Process

1

Communicate through the network. Send a private message, leave them a public comment, send a little fame their way. Build a relationship.

2

Start to seed content into their feed that links back to your site. Look at incentives to have them comment on your own blog rather than other channels. Run a competition or give-away.

3

Move the relationship up a trust level. Try to move outside the network by getting their permission to include them on a mailing list or through another communication network. A communication network that you own.

4

Close that sale. Now use your site visits and direct communication to close a sale and put through a transaction.

5

As customers, give them great content to share with their friends. Make them cool.

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