A Social Media Fable

Hi kids!  It’s Social Media Fable time, and you get to pick the moral:

Once upon a time, there was a Facebook fan named Jerry.  He was going about his days on Facebook, enjoying his interactions with his virtual friends, and life was good.

One day, he received an invitation form one of his Facebook friends, Mr. G, to become a fan of a bakery in a far-away town.  Since Jerry had never been to the bakery or tasted their confectionery delights, he hit the “ignore” button and thought no more of it.

A few days later though, Mr. G repeated his request to become a fan of the bakery.   Since he still hadn’t tried the bakery’s cupcakes, Jerry clicked the ‘ignore’ button again, and again thought nothing of it.  ”Just an oversight on Mr. G’s part, that’s all,” he thought.

The very next morning, though, the invitation appeared again!  Jerry started to get annoyed, but, as always, managed to keep his cool.  He simply hit ‘ignore’ again and went about his day.  His annoyance grew, however, when later the same day there was another invitation!  ”This is madness,” he thought to himself, clicked ‘ignore’ again, and wondered what he should do.

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Are We Having Fun Yet?

I wanted to talk a little more about the topic of customer engagement.  I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, in light of the changes that business is facing.  Social media, web 2.0 and a shrinking world are putting tremendous pressure on businesses to adapt to the new expectations of their clients.

Traditional companies, especially those who are looking for their customers among Generations X and Y, have a new challenge to rise to.  That challenge can be summed up in one question: Is it fun to do business with you?

There’s no denying it.  Baby Boomers have for years decried the fact that “kids these days” need to be constantly entertained.  And they’re right, of course.  Just look at phones: modern phones are not made for placing calls, they’re made for entertaining.  So if you’re selling a product or service to this group who need to be entertained, what are you doing to entertain them? Again, are you making doing business with you fun?  If you’re not, there’s a pretty good chance you’re not going to survive.

Tomorrow’s customer isn’t going to base their buying decisions primarily on things like features and benefits or price.  Their expectation is that every company will offer great features, benefits and prices.  After all, this is a generation of buyers who knows how to research, and if you’re not in line with the market, you don’t stand a chance.  No, tomorrow’s net-savvy consumer is going to decide whether or not to buy from you based on the entertainment value you provide.

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Taking My Own Advice

While I was driving around yesterday and thinking about some things I wanted to do with this blog to make it better for you, the readers, it occurred to me that I needed to take a bit of my own advice from Monday’s post about the new rules for business, the 3 Cs: content, connection and conversation.

I realized that while the content I’m writing seems to be striking a chord with readers (thank you again for all your support!), and while I’m conversing with you all when you leave comments, I haven’t yet provided a place where we can all connect.  I realized I needed to remedy that as quickly as possible.

Now, call me lazy if you like, but I’m not inclined to take on the responsibility of creating and managing a Ning site right at the moment.  So, I opted to create a Facebook fan page for the blog instead.  A couple of clicks later, it was all done, and I’d like to invite you all to join in the connections and conversations over at the Motivation 101 Blog fan page.

Here’s what I’d like to see on this page: your ideas, suggestions, links, tips and tricks for getting and staying motivated to press forward in your businesses, careers and lives.  I’d like for this to be a place where you can come and ask questions and get advice on how to be a better salesperson for your business.  I’d like to see everyone helping each other in the true spirit of community.

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The New Rules of Business

The old rules of business were pretty simple.  In fact, William Dillard once summed them up in three words: Location, location, location.  The idea was that any business could be successful, so long as it was located on the right street corner in the right part of town.  Well, things aren’t that simple any more.

With the rise of the internet and e-commerce, the physical location of your business is less important than it was in the past, especially when your business is service-related or when you sell intangibles or products (like software or web design) that can be delivered online.  Even traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are feeling the effects of this revolution, many of them adding an online store to augment their retail sales and shipping their products around the world.

If location is no longer of primary concern, what, then, are the new rules of business?  I call them the three Cs: content, connection and conversation.

Let’s start by saying that if your business hasn’t joined the online community and started participating in social media, you’re missing the boat in a big way.  It’s time to get on the bus.  That said, you need to pay attention to how you are conducting business online.

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Want to Succeed In Sales and Business? Better Learn to Be Sociable!

I wanted to take a minute to give a tip of the hat and a hearty congratulations to Shane Gibson and Stephen Jagger on the upcoming release of their new book, Sociable!

As you probably gathered from the title, this is a how-to guide for using social media and Web 2.0 tools to create communities and be more profitable.  In their own words, Sociable! is about “using social media to create real relationships that impact you, your business and your community in a positive fashion.”

I had the chance to read an advance copy of Sociable!, and I was really impressed with the quality of the information it provides about the impact social media is having on business.  I’d highly recommend you jump over to the book’s website and download Chapter 1, which includes a Foreword written by none other than Kyle MacDonald, the blogger who, through a series of trades carried out over the course of a year, exchanged a red paper clip for a house (if you’ve never read Kyle’s story, you have to check out OneRedPaperClip.com…it’s a hoot!).

I’m glad to see these two social media thought leaders tackling the subject head on and providing valuable guidance for those of us who sometimes feel like we’re making this up as we go along.  Sociable! is a great reminder that no sales technique in the world can substitute for building and maintaining great relationships with your prospects and clients, whether on or offline.

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It’s All About the Conversations

After reading an insightful article about social media by my friend Jim Keenan, I started thinking about the way a lot of businesses and individuals are using social media.  Is it just me, or do the majority of users seem to think that social media sites are just free advertising space?  I see it every day, and I’m sure you do, too: the thinly veiled ads, the blatant pitches, the sales copy in “Free Report” clothing.  It’s got to the point where my Twitter stream is so clogged up by spammers, I’m having trouble staying one step ahead of them.  I wonder how the folks with 20,000+ followers do it!

So here’s the thing:  I want to challenge everyone involved in using social media in their business to remember the key word (and no, it’s not media…guess again).  This is supposed to be social. In other words, it should be about conversations.  Instead of worrying about how many Facebook friends or Twitter followers you have, you should be thinking about how many of them you’re interacting with.  This was brought to light recently at one of the companies I work with.

The company has two teams of of people in charge of using social media sites to connect with potential customers.  Team #1 took a “scorched earth” approach and started slamming their pre-packaged message out to as many people as they could and directing them back to the company’s website, relying on the site to make the sale.  Team #2 took a more deliberate approach of engaging prospects in conversations and walking them through the buying process.

Can you guess what the results were?  I probably don’t need to tell you that, after on week, Team #1 had contacted 500 prospects with zero conversions and Team #2 made far fewer contacts (about 60) with a 10% conversion, and the results are still trickling in from Team #2’s activity as they follow-up on their initial contacts.

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