21 Ways to Build Trust and Sales Leads in Social Media
This is an old post with some new features. Feel free to add comments and suggest new ideas for building trust in potential clients and sales leads while using social media.
In the new economy there is one major truth that stands above the rest. Trust equals revenue. If you are a small to mid-sized business it is the amount of trust you can build between clients that strengthens your brand.
With trust comes happy clients and with happy clients come referrals. Trust is a fundamental block of building business. Marketing is built under the assumption that stories can create an emotional bond between a consumer and a brand… a client and a service. Can you tell a story… create a service and en experience that builds trust?
Social media can help you build that trust.
1. Content
Content is the number one way you can build trust with potential clients. By creating meaningful and thought provoking content you are building a bridge to later sell that person on your services. Talk about what you do on a daily basis. When I say you.. it means you are writing and communicating stories that happen to you on a daily basis.
2. Tell A Story
The stories surrounding your company are the only thing that creates differences between the competition. It is extremely important that you allow for your clients to tell your story for you. The people who love what you do… and the people you serve… are the best people to tell the story of your company. Forget about mission statement and vision statements… ASK your clients.
3. Transparency
This can also pertain to content or how you use a specific social network. Be human. The people who are interested in your thoughts and suggestions want to know about you as a person. They could care less about a sale you are having or the amount of money you can cut off their bottom line. They want to know how you helped LARRY the plumber or Susan the account.
4. Picture of Your Day
When you are using social networks make sure you put up pictures of your daily life. If you have a cell phone with a camera takes some pictures of your daily routine and share them with your connections. Just don’t over do it. We can only look at so many professional business or glamor shots in a day.
5. Picture of You
Use your real picture. I don’t know how many times I have said this. Don’t use your logo. There is only one exception to this rule. If you are usingTwitter for your business and personal (see my company @Brandswag for an example). Also, do not use a glamor shot from the 1908s. We ALL know you are lying… the only person you are trying to fool… is yourself.
6. Saying Thank You
If somebody helps you share information or decideds to retweet a post.. make sure you thank that person. They are helping you spread the word… they are your online evangelists.. If you miss a thank you.. don’t let it kill you.. but try to make the most of the people that help you out.
7. Do Not Auto-DM on Twitter
See my post… I hate Twitter Auto-DM
8. No Hard Selling
I don’t care about your enewsletter or the new lotion you are selling. Also, just because I reply to a tweet or a message does not mean you can message me back and sell your wares. Social media is a long sell process. You are developing content in order to gain an order of trust with people in your area of influence. We are now experiencing a relationship driven economy… get on the train.
9. Time is Important
Remember that you are building relationships.. do not trust the people that tell you to add 1023920 friends and make $10,000 a month. It is a load of crap. Build your following slowly… create relationships in an online environment that can be transferred offline.
10. Criticism is Important
You will be criticized. It is a truth of open communication. Take it with stride and respond. If you are debated… make sure you debate back. Stand up for what you believe and you will gain trust with the people who are listening…. and watching.
11. Have fun
Good Lord… is it that hard? You have the ability to connect with thousands… and thousands… and thousands of people from every nationality… and life experience. Just imagine your ability to expand your knowledge base and learn?!
One thought: If you are not enjoying and having fun with what you do… quit… go find something else.
12. Send a Handwritten Note
People are thanked and communicated with on a daily basis through social media. If I need someone to thank… I usually send them a message or an email. It is very rare that I will get a thank you card in the mail from someone on social media. Talk about building trust and setting yourself apart!
13. Guest Post on Another Blog
There are times when you can write different posts for other blogs in order to reach a new audience. It can help you build trust and brand awareness if your content is shared on other sites other than your own blog. This shows other people believe in your content.
14. Send Out Random Surveys to Your Clients and Readers
There are plenty of sites that have services for survey design and distribution. It is important that you ask your readers and clients to contribute to the business planning process through social media. It is important that you know what they are thinking… you also want them to understand you care.
15. Be Aware of Your Search Engine Rankings
If a client or potential client is researching social media and your name is ranked for the search terms… you are building trust. Check out Slingshot SEO if you are wanting some help in the world of search engine marketing.
16. Comment on Other Blogs
Comments on blogs and websites allow for your name and ideas to be spread at a faster pace. This is old news in terms of marketing on the Internet… it is known around the world that if you post comments… you will receive more traffic. Post 1-2 a week on your favorite blog.
17. Get Involved in Your Community and Share on Social
Community development and participation is key when building a business. It is the community whether online or offline that drives business for every small business owner. Get involved in your community and share your involvement on social media. This could mean that you share a picture of attending a fundraising event on Twitter or Facebook. You can also get involved with Causes via Facebook.
18. Be Responsive in Your Social Media Use
From the Science of Building Trust in Social Media post from Mashable:
Olson finds that when only text is available, participants judge trustworthiness based on how quickly others respond. So, for instance, it is better to respond to a long Facebook message “acknowledging” that you received the message, rather than to wait until there’s time to send a more thorough first message. Wait too long and you are likely to be labeled “unhelpful,” along with a host of other expletive-filled attributions the mind will happily construct.
It is important to remember that being responsive is huge. When a problem is happening on social media… it is happening.. NOW.
19. Do Not Over-share Your Content
We want to know what you are doing but we REALLY don’t what to know what you are doing…. does that make sense? There is only so much content you can share on a daily basis. Unfortunately there are no true laws (or rules) that apply to each social networking site. In my book Twitter Marketing for Dummies, I write about the 4-1-1 rule… for every six pieces of content you share (4 should be from other people, 1 should be your content, 1 should be content from your industry).
20. Be Findable
It is important that your social profiles are findable when an individual is searching for you whether through Twitter or Google. Check out this post by DigitalTattoo on being finable online.
21. Create a Facebook Group for Your Circle of Trust
We all have a circle of people that we trust to network and drive leads to our business. I have a set group of 10-15 people that I ask constantly for leads and I help them bridge connection for sales and business development. Create a Facebook Group to help drive 24/7 conversation between the group. It is important to create deeper and meaningful relationships with your core supporters.
You must first understand the new functionality of Facebook Groups. David Armano has a great post on the Harvard Business Review describing the new Facebook Groups.
Please add to this list!
Will the New Facebook Groups Rock Your World?
The social world has become much more social lately with the release of The Social Network or affectionately dubbed, “The Facebook Movie”. Now more than ever, people are flocking to the Internet to connect with their friends, check out potential dating prospects, find out what time that party is tonight and send messages to loved ones deployed or living across the world.
Facebook currently has over 500 million users with the largest amount of those users being 35 and over. Since its creation over 6 years ago, Facebook has expanded its membership base by opening up the site to those in college networks, those in city networks and eventually to everyone. However, with the increase in Facebook users came the decrease in “exclusivity” which seems to be at the core of Facebook’s founding. To combat this issue, Facebook created “Facebook Groups” giving users an option to choose who can fully see personal information they display based on certain groups or memberships. Many claim that bringing in Facebook groups is just a sorry attempt to try and maintain Facebook’s former “invitation only” status.
Groups will allow users to place certain friends within different groupings that allows for them to see posts that would only be relevant to each other. Another benefit of Groups is the group chat feature, which will work like a mini chat room within Facebook Chat. According to a Huffington Post article,“The new Facebook Groups is a “social solution” that takes advantage of real-world connections. [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg compared it to Facebook’s current photo technology in which you can quickly and easily tag friends. Like photos, groups don’t have to be set up by everyone themselves and parts of the process will be automated.”
Will groups be as a big as a hit as Facebook hopes? Or will it’s exclusivity allow it to just become a bothersome feature? The product is currently being compared to Twitter’s Lists feature. Yet, the ability to limit visibility of certain posts could put Facebook Groups on top. Once the feature becomes popular we’ll revisit the reaction, but until then get ready for some changes to your Facebook homepage.
Other Articles about Facebook Groups:
Facebook Groups: A Double-edge sword for Privacy – cnet
A Deep Dive on Facebook Groups – Harvard Business Review
Indianapolis Ranks the Best and Brightest
The 7th annual Indy’s Best and Brightest awards will be held on Wednesday, October 6,2010 to recognize Central Indiana’s 10 finalists, age 40 and under. The event will take place at the Indianapolis City Market and is expected to have 600 attendees. The Indy’s Brightest and Best website features all the finalists to be honored. When you visit the website you can take a look at past years finalists and sponsors of the event. I’m completely honored to be included in the list.
What makes this event interesting is why these people were chosen. The selection criteria is as follows:
- Be no older than 40 years of age as the date of event
- Reside or work in select Indiana counties
- Have meaningful professional accomplishments
- Positively influence others around them
- Demonstrate leadership qualities in the workplace or community
Once the committee selects 100 finalists they narrow it down from 100 to ten finalists from each industry category.
The 10 different industry categories are: Accounting; Banking & Financial Services; Education & Nonprofit; Government; Health& Life Sciences; Law; Manufacturing, Retail & Services; Media, Entertainment & Sports; Real Estate Development & Construction; and Technology. All finalists will receive an award and the winner of each category will be announced.
This event’s proceeds go to the Junior Achievement of Central Indiana,Inc. It’s a great organization that aims to educate and inspire Indiana’s youth to value business, free enterprise and economics to improve the quality of their lives. Needless to say, this organization is important for the future leaders of our community.
Hospitality Industry Changing with Social Media
Hotels and the Hospitality industry as a whole has undergone some changes due to the rise and growth of social media. The industry has largely been changing because of social media with the advantage and disadvantage of unfiltered feedback. If a customer experienced a bad stay…watch out. We live in a world where an individual could make a large problem for an industry who aims to please.
People now go straight to various social sites to find good deals, customer reviews and more. Hotels have no choice but to go full speed ahead with integrating social media into their marketing efforts. Customers use their “voice” (more like a bull horn) when dealing with this industry and can be brutally honest. There are thousands of reviews to be read and hotels must listen… in order to provide the best service possible. If there are reviews out there… it is safe to say that other customers are probably reading them. Through the use of social media hotels can now focus their efforts by reading online reviews through Facebook and Twitter versus searching all over the web.
Facebook and Twitter are also great ways to drive users to the hotel’s website. Usually potential customers are new to your brand name and can be beneficial when measuring social media success. Also, hotels can set themselves apart by showing expertise (knowledge capital). Consider setting up a blog that details trips and activities to do near or at the hotel. Customers go where they feel secure.
When it comes to the dreaded negative comment… Social Media allows hotels to act quickly and be responsive. Instead of deleting negative reviews… highlight the positive ones. After reading the first 10 positive reviews people tend to quit reading the rest anyway. Another benefit for hotels is the ability to keep tabs on what their competitor is doing. Essentially, social media has given the Hospitality industry more value when marketing their services. Instead of people questioning where to stay, hotels can now market effectively with its other sites backing up its claims.
Stories are Life. Marketers are Failing.
Stories are life. Stories are built off of every day occurences and the little things that happen in life. Where did we… as marketers… go wrong when telling the story? All businesses and products are built off of a story. What is the main point of marketing… Is it fulfilling a need? Is it creating a product that actually helps an individual? Is it selling your wares… period?
A story is something that creates a safe haven for an individual. You are building a message that should be involved in the story of your customer’s life. It should (and must be) the connection that brings in additional customer and evangelists for your brand.
You want your customer to get to a place… a place where they agree with your terms and conditions. A place where they say, “Yes. I do need, want, or should have that product or service.”
A place where they approve your service and believe/know it will work for them… in any capacity.
What is the series of events that drive a person to a specific point: buying your product. What are you telling your customers? Is your story bland… Boring… Normal?
I see normal marketing everywhere. Brochures… Smiling billboards… Postcards… Facebook updates…It is normal and plain. There are no new story lines. There is nothing to pull me into the brand. The stock photography you bought in 1980 is not going to sell me on buying a house. The telemarketer that just left a message on my cell phone is not going to trick me into buying your magazine subscription.
And… the direct mail piece you just sent me asking me about my retirement plans… is definitely not going to pull me into your luncheon.
My friends and MY preferences are going to sell me on your product. I want to pull your information at MY will… at MY discretion. Notice a trend here?
It is about me… how are you speaking to me? Nay… how are you listening? Do you know what I want as an individual… are you allowing me to interact?
If you are not…
You have a long way to go… shift that paradigm and interact.
10 Reasons Why LinkedIn is Powerful for Branding and Sales
cLinkedIn is a powerful tool. It incorporates all the features one needs for networking, job searching, sales, and employees. You can also utilize LinkedIn to connect with old friends or colleagues. If you intend to use it for business then other your help to others first. It’ll leave a good impression and well…they’ll owe you one. Let’s discuss in detail the plethora of LinkedIn options.
1. The Events Feature. Never really sure what events to attend pertaining to your industry? The Events feature offers event search but also recommends events for you based off your profile. It offers information about attendees and updates surround the event. So far there are eight thousand events with the option for event organizers to add more.
2.Linked up with your other social profiles. Potential business opportunities can come from all over the place but LinkedIn is thier one stop shop. Once you’ve made your connections people can view your profile and then click away to your website, blog or Twitter account (make sure you put those links on your profile).
3. The Power of Staying in Touch. You may not be needing LinkedIn for job hunting or anything business related. However, LinkedIn is great for staying in touch. It’s a updated by its users making it a reliable current database.
4. Applications. LinkedIn offers a range of applications that help you make the most of your profile. One great application is SlideShare. This allows you to share your presentations and save them on the web. You can show your connections your expertise and range of knowledge through one easy to use application. You can also set up polls to find out valuable information and share your blog.
5. Groups…SubGroups. These groups can be great for announcements, upcoming events, discussions and for finding out valuable information. Remember these groups and subgroups should be joined because you have genuine interest in what the group is about. If used correctly, it’s powerful for making connections and staying “in the know.” Plus with the Groups Feature you can find the best discussions, most influential within your groups and more.
6. Finding A Job. This alone speaks volumes. If your in the market and looking for a job (or employee) then LinkedIn is a powerful source. You can search for businesses looking to hire in your level of expertise. It’s better then looking through wanted ads. You can also see if you have any mutual connections for quick references and common ground. LinkedIn also alerts you when someone has viewed your profile, not specifically who, but at least you know there is interest.
7. You Get your Name Out There. By staying active on your LinkedIn profile you can ask for action! This will help gain their interest and can result in real life interaction. The more active you are in taking part in discussions, posting information, asking questions-the more likely your name is going to stick in people’s memories.
8. Brag, Boast and Gloat. Tell people what makes you so great. Fill out your summary by using strong choice words. The power behind doing this is that people will come to think of you by these words. This isn’t the place to share your shortcomings and how you’ve you overcome them. It’s place to tell why your the best and then back it up with action. Plus you LinkedIn profile is search-able on Google so represent yourself well.
9. Recommendations. If you’ve had a good business relationship with anoter LinkedIn member, ask for a recommendation. Be careful not to ask just to ask. You want people who know you and can honestly write a good recommendation. Then you can return the favor since their recommendation gives you good credentials. Plus your recommendation gives them exposure on your profile. It’s a win win.
10. What have you found that makes LinkedIn such a powerful resource? Fill in the number 10 spot.
The Value of a Social Media Conversion Funnel
Kristina Allen is the online marketing manager for @ioninteractive where she handles social media and PR initiatives. Kristina is also a graduate student currently working towards a master’s in communication with an emphasis on classical rhetoric. You can read her daily blog posts at The Post-Click Marketing blog, or connect with her @allenkristina on Twitter.
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Setting up a social media presence is easy. Engaging with targeted followers and fans is pretty easy too. Tying social media back to business objectives shouldn’t be hard. Connecting social media to ROI via social conversions…yikes!
A few weeks ago Jay Baer participated in a podcast with the Executive VP of ion interactive (my employer) on why a social conversion funnel is so important to a mature social media strategy.
Jay says we have to move past using the number of fans, followers, and subscribers as key metrics, and start deciding which user actions or set of actions leads to an actual conversion. Once these actions are defined, we can then use them as key metrics that are easily tied back to ROI.
For instance, if you’re an online marketer looking to generate leads by having a visitor fill out a form on your website, the hard conversion will still be having the form filled out. However, the social media conversion would be tracking how many of the people who fill out the form came in from one of your social channels.
An example might be:
It should be easy to see how tying these actions back to social media ROI is clearer than going the murky route of trying to tie the number of followers you have to ROI.
Jay says, “What I think a lot of people are referring to when they say ‘social conversion’ is converting people to fans or followers,” but “what’s the point in having a Facebook fan page if you don’t really have a plan for what to do with those people once they get there. So I would certainly hope that we can get to the point where social conversion is really a funnel, and not just a single action.”
Of course a sale isn’t the only type of conversion that matters, and in fact if the main objective for your social strategy is driving awareness or loyalty, tracking a hard conversion like a sale wouldn’t be of complete interest to you. In that case it would be good to look at the number of social engagements taking place in your universe (RTs, comments, social bookmarking), bounce rates and time on site.
It would also be a good idea to track which pages your visitors from social sites click through beyond the entry page. Do they look at your About page (probably), do they look at your services page?
Which pages are they looking at, and how can you optimize those pages for your social traffic to benefit your ultimate objective?
If awareness is your goal, what can you do to get RSS subscribers to “like” you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter and then share your content?
If loyalty is your goal, what can you do to get visitors that enter via a blog post to stay on your site? How can you get them to read multiple blog posts or subscribe to your RSS feed or newsletter?
Figure our which user action or set of actions determines your social media ROI, and then track those metrics. Having a social conversion funnel will help you watch your program grow and succeed, and will also show you which initiatives are failing, so you can move on to something else.
If you’re interested in learning more about social conversions, you can read the Jay Baer podcast episode transcript here, or download the episode from iTunes (search: ion interactive or “conversations on conversion”)
Which social conversion metrics are you currently tracking, or which ones do you plan to start measuring to improve your strategy?
Separating Our Lives and Social Media. Is it Possible?
I’ve been thinking about our lives and social media. Since the two seem to be one in the same…
I got to thinking about the time before social media. Do you realize that most children to be born within the last five years will have their lives completely documented online? They will literally will have no idea what being “off-line” actually means… what it represents.
Let’s take a trip down my memory lane. I can distinctively remember when AIMchat was the obsession…When computers were a want versus a necessity…When only college kids were on Facebook…When e-mail was never going to work….The plug-in carphone (gasp!). The children of today’s generation will be brought up in a world full of advanced technology. They will never truly experience being turned off. (unless your Madonna’s kids who aren’t allowed to use the Internet) From the time they are newborns their parents post, share pictures and document their child’s life online. Our identities… the way people define us… are being determined by our online activities, profiles and what we share to others, which for many are mostly people we’ve never actually met. It’s funny I remember growing up and knowing all of my friends personally.
How interesting is to consider that theoretically 10 years ago the average person had 20 friends and now they have 200? Granted it’s all in how one defines a friend but some of the “friends” on my profile I have never once had a conversation with.
I’m just curious to know where people drawing the line…if they do. What constitutes as too much information? It’s something to chew on. If a child has had their life documented online before they even “know” who they are does it affect how they later define themselves? You can argue that posting a picture or a sharing a story is the same as showing everyone you know your child’s picture and so forth….however, in that case you at least see and know who you have shared this picture/story with…Essentially, our future of tomorrow will be able to track entire lives online. Can you imagine that?
When do we let our online presence rest and our real life exist? Do you ever actually separate the two? Or are you only relevant when your online?
Flowtown Continues to Impress
Change is always for the better, right? Don’t worry this has nothing to do with Facebook. If you’re not familiar with Flowtown it is a tool that allows you to enter customer’s email address to track where they are active online. Flowtown helps you sift through your database and group contacts. They have teamed up with Wufu, an online form builder, to make your life easier. If you don’t use Wufu I would reccomend checking it out then continue reading.
I also highly recommend Formstack for online form building. They are brilliant!
If you use these tools here what this new integration can do:
1. Sort form submissions
2. Instantly Filters. This ranges anywhere from people who match a certain job description, skills whatever you determine.
3. Set-up Notifications. You can find out when anyone opts in on a page, if they fit into what your interested in (e.g. marketer), location.
4. Automatically. Once someone who opts in on one of your forms and submits their e-mail they are automatically added to your database on Flowtown.
5. Information. You then receive an email with all information on who that person is. How many Twitter followers, online memberships, age..etc.You will also find out if you have any mutual relationships so that you have a point of reference and can make a more personal connection.The information also leads you to this person’s 5 last tweets to better understand what’s relevant to them.
Flowtown is making huge inroads when it comes to adapting to what the social environment is needing, wanting, and using. Check out the tool. It will not disappoint.
10 Ways to Build and Focus on Passionate Content
I was reading a post by Jay Baer titled the 14 Things I Think I Think About Social Media (Great title huh?) and one of the fourteen points hit me pretty hard.
“Social media is fueled by passion, and too many companies try to take elements of their company that aren’t passion-worthy, and attempt to build a social media program around it.”
How do you go about defining passion-worthy elements within your company? What does it mean to have passion filled content to share across the expanse of the Internet and the tools afforded through social media?
I don’t know if companies knowingly choose elements that “aren’t passion-worthy”… maybe they have no idea? They have been rooted for years in this centralized brand strategy… rooted in the belief that they (in the ivory towers) understand what makes their product or service passionate.
How do you go about creating passionate content or choosing “passion-worthy” elements within your company?
10 Ways to Build and Focus on Passionate Content
1. Tell the story of founding the company or your first week at the company. What sites and sounds did you experience? What made you love what you did that first 72 hours?
2. Tell the story of a client. Who is your best client? Who makes the world go round for your company? We all have them. Tell THEIR sorry… now THAT is passionate content.
3. Better yet.. get your client to tell the story for you! Ask your best client to write a guest post. They are the passionate user.
4. Include your own opinions and arguments about popular trends. Great writing moves people and inspires them.
5. Ask your employees what makes them passionate. Does it have to do with the overall company product or service? Heavens no! Your employees are as much of the brand as your overpriced logo on the side of your overpriced building.
6. Remember… your customers and employees are the most important part of your passion worthy content. Let them tell the story for you.
7. Great user/customer experience creates passion-worthy content. What does it feel like when an individual walks into your store? What is the experience when someone clicks through your website?
8. Check out the 4 cornerstones to creating great content from Rand (SEOmoz).
9. Keep tabs on your blog content creation guidelines. How are you creating your blog content? How are you systematically telling your story?
10. Leave no question behind your motives. Create transparent content that elicits a response. If you have multiple writers in your company… be very sure you have a system and policy in place to allow them to write authentically.