I am on it.
I am into it.
It’s attracting customers.
It’s making sales.
It’s free!
What is it?
It’s almost social media.
It’s BUSINESS social media.
It’s your ticket to customer and prospect awareness – who you are, how you think, how you serve, what you believe, what your value messages are, and what others think of you. And did I mention? It’s free.
But the mere fact you participate isn’t any assurance it’ll pay off. In fact, the opposite is the norm. Most companies, most business people, and most salespeople have no idea of how to actually ATTRACT customers, potential customers, new followers, and connections. Even fewer companies and salespeople understand that business social media must be combined with, in conjunction with, and in harmony with all other internet and face-to-face marketing outreaches.
The key word to understanding and implementing business social media actions that lead to attraction and connection success is VALUE.
Value in the messages you tweet, post, and share. Value to your customers and prospects so they pass your message on to THEIR connections.
SCENARIO: I tweet to my 65,000+ followers. They resonate with it, and those who believe it’s worthy or applicable to their followers RE-TWEET it, or FAVOR it for their followers to see. That allows me to pick up another 100+ followers a day.
SCENARIO: I post a thought, or a quote, or an idea on my LinkedIn home page. It’s broadcast to my 15,000+ LinkedIn connections. Many of them “share” it with all of their connections. It allows me to pick up more than 100 connections a week.
SCENARIO: I upload a new video each week on YouTube. It’s posted on my ezine, on my blog, in my tweets, and on my Facebook page. Somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 people will view it, like it, and not want to miss the next one – so they subscribe to my YouTube uploads.
Those are real world examples that represent a small part of my attraction process. They give you a solid idea it’s not about what I write, post, or do; it’s about the RESPONSE to what I write, post, or do.
It’s not about tweeting. It’s about being re-tweeted.
I REPEAT: All business social media must be combined with your traditional business and Internet outreach.
Here are the business, internet, AND business social media value-based messaging and marketing elements I use to transfer my messages and posts that attract and connect. Study them. Implement yours.
• LinkedIn Jeffrey Gitomer – The number one business resource. I post my thought of the day or link of the day. RESPONSE: People like it and share it with their connections. That has lead to more than 15,000 connections.
• Twitter @gitomer – I tweet three or four times a day. I usually send out one link a day. RESPONSE: I am re-tweeted or favored more than 100 times a day, and I gain between 50 and 100 new followers a day.
• Facebook business /jeffreygitomer – Like me, then read a bunch of the posts, then be inspired to comment or post. RESPONSE: All of my followers (likers) read it and all of the poster’s connections can see it too.
• YouTube channel BuyGitomer – People watch a few of my 300+ videos, RESPONSE: subscribe
• SalesBlog.com daily posts – Daily value-based posts sent to subscribers and available by search. All emails get you back to the blog. There are lots of offers on the landing page. RESPONSE: People become loyal followers, buy products, and tell others to subscribe.
• Weekly e-zine SalesCaffeine.com – Ten years of weekly, real-world, value-based sales information. E-zine also has several offers to buy products and services. RESPONSE: People become loyal followers, buy products, and tell others to subscribe.
• Bought The Little Red Book of Selling, or one of my other 11 books. RESPONSE: Loved it, bought more books, or bought a book for the whole team, or went online and found more about me.
• Attended one of my public seminars. RESPONSE: Bought a ticket, had a blast, learned a ton, bought more books after the event and subscribed to my full suite of social media offerings.
• Paid to hear one of my webinars. This came about as a result of our internal electronic marketing. RESPONSE: Person loves it, resonates with it, buys more, becomes loyal.
• Spent some time on gitomer.com reading my free resources. Found me by searching. RESPONSE: Loved my free stuff, browsed my things for sale – and bought something.
• Googled Jeffrey Gitomer to find out more about me. RESPONSE: Said WOW when 500,000+ entries appeared. Clicked around and bought something.
• Googled “sales training” and found me on the first page. That’s a real lead. RESPONSE: Clicked. Called. Bought.
You cannot control how people search. You must be findable by company, person, product, topic, and keywords that will get your name to pop up.
It’s not one thing that creates attraction. It’s a strategic combination of a social, online, and face-to-face outreach MIX to attract interested buyers. It’s a confluence of value-based things that are available to customers and prospects.
I just shared 13 of mine so you could see the diversity of my offerings and the multiple opportunities that prospects have to find you, be attracted to you, connect with you, and buy from you.
ULTIMATE RESPONSE: Someone calls and asks if I’m available to address their sales team at their annual meeting. When they do, we ask how they found out about me, and the customer replies, “He’s everywhere!”
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of twelve best-selling books including The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling. His forthcoming book, 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling, will be available September 3rd, and will feature a national public seminar tour. Get the details at www.gitomer.com. It will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at salesman@gitomer.com.
