Recently, someone posted a kind comment on my Facebook Wall, saying how special I am and how much my friendship means to them. At first I thought, “Wow, I’m really glad that person is my friend!” and started to post back a thank you for the warm and friendly post. But then I noticed where the comment was generated from.
You know how Facebook tells you when something’s been posted from HootSuite or Ping or a mobile application? Well, this one was posted from a tool that acts much like an e-mail list management tool that lets you insert “%firstname%” into the body of your text so that the person’s actual name appears. For example, when I write my weekly e-zine, the software I use allows me to write something like, “Hi %firstname%, Welcome to No Suits Allowed!” and the e-mail that the subscriber receives, says, “Hi John, Welcome to No Suits Allowed!” Well, this software allows you to do the same thing, but with social media. So you can write something like, “Hi %firstname%, I just wanted to let you know how special and amazing you are, and to say that I really treasure our friendship,” and send it to a thousand people.
Efficient? Yes. Totally against the entire point of social media? In my book, pretty much.
Social media isn’t designed to be a mass enterprise. It’s designed to form and build relationships and connections among people. Whether you’re talking about Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, social media is all about a conversation that takes place between individuals. If you want to leverage social media to its greatest advantage, you have to actually participate in that conversation.
I’m not entirely against time-saving tools for social media. In fact, I make great use of them myself. I use Networked Blogs to automatically post my blog posts to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I use HootSuite to load in links to articles I’ve written, to maximize visibility of those articles over a longer period of time. And I recently started using the feature in my e-mail newsletter software that allows me to post my weekly e-zines to my Twitter account.
But the automation stops there. If I automate personal messages, how, exactly, am I building high quality relationships, and how can I bring true value to my friends, followers, fans, and associates? How can one form an authentic connection, if one starts by deceiving people by posting what seems like an intimate and individual comment, but what turns out to be a generic message which was actually posted to several (or even hundreds) other people?
Back to the individual who posted this message to my Wall…I looked at this person’s Facebook Wall, to see what response she was getting from others. Many people had posted and thanked her for the message she posted (and a little detective work proved that indeed, it was identical to the one posted on my Wall), and it’s pretty clear to me that most didn’t know (or didn’t care?) that this was the exact same message she’d posted to everyone else…and that she hadn’t visited their Facebook pages to learn about them, but rather had just clicked a single “Submit” button to send one message to many.
So maybe this tool provides a jumping-off point for forming a relationship? But…no. Because as I suspected, the person in question hasn’t responded to a single one of the people thanking her on her Wall, which is what you’d think someone would do, if they understood the point of social media and were truly interested in forming those connections.
Folks, social media isn’t about collecting followers and friends. The numbers aren’t what’s important - the quality is what matters. If you have thousands of friends, how much good does that really do you, if you don’t talk to them or engage in a dialogue with them? How does it serve you to have that many friends you don’t have a relationship with, and more importantly, how can you possibly serve them?
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times…social media is about engagement and it’s about the conversation. If you post to your Wall or tweet and you get no response from your friends and followers, there’s a reason why. You’ve got to get to know people to know what will interest them. You’ve got to get to know your friends and followers to know what they want to hear about from you. And if you don’t bother doing that, you’re wasting the incredible business and personal potential that social media puts at your fingertips.
Now, if you’ve got thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers, obviously you won’t be able to have conversations with each and every one of them every day. But what you can do is post things that appeal to your friends and followers, and engage in a dialogue about those things. Different things will appeal to different people, which means that over time, you’ll get a good mix of many of your friends and followers involved in the conversation. People will talk to you and they’ll talk to each other, and you’ll create a little community, just by getting to know the people who you’re connected to in social media. And that’s the point.
I recently connected with Al Ferretti (@alferretti) and Skeeter Hansen (@skeeterhansen), founders of both TwitterWatchdog and TweetFormula on Twitter. These guys are super-authentic “Go-Givers” who I spent almost two hours with on the phone last Friday. I learned how they both met their wives, how they both got so many darned Twitter followers (approaching 100,000 between the two of them), and why they created TweetFormula (as a sidenote, if you want to be “in the know” about Twitter, how to increase your following, and how to use Twitter most effectively in your small business, TwitterWatchdog is a wonderful, authentic resource packed with useful, practical content).
After getting an inside peek into the TweetFormula product itself and spending this past weekend delving into the material, I can safely say that I understand why TweetFormula is so popular, and indeed, why Al and Skeeter are doing so well. So what is TweetFormula and why do I dig it so much? Read on….
*BTW, in the interests of full disclosure…please note that I do not have any sort of affiliate relationship with TweetFormula, TwitterWatchdog, Al Ferretti, Skeeter Hansen, or the partridge in a pear tree.
TweetFormula: What is it?
TweetFormula is the brainchild of Al Ferretti and Skeeter Hansen, founders of the crazy-popular and high-content blog, TwitterWatchdog. TweetFormula is a step-by-step formula for getting started on Twitter and creating a strong, authentic following that’s interested in what you have to say. Using a system of online videos, step-by-step written instructions, and bonus teleseminars, Al and Skeeter take you through their 10-step program, one step at a time.
What you’ll learn:
You’ll get started with setting up your profile and learning the basic lingo. You’ll learn how to find the right people to follow (e.g. people who are in your target market) and how to join in the conversation on Twitter. You’ll learn what to do and (almost more importantly) you’ll learn what not to do. You’ll learn how to automate, when to automate, and how to navigate the tricky Twitter waters with ease.
One of the things I really like is that Al and Skeeter include copious information about how to “join the conversation” and build relationships on Twitter. TweetFormula is all about the Go-Giver philosophy — give value, show people that you’re interested in them, and use social media as its intended: to connect with other people. And in doing that, you’ll find that your small business will indeed grow. Even better, these are skills you can transfer to other social media or in-person networking for small business success.
Lest you make the same mistake that I myself made, thinking “All of this sounds very nice, but it’s going to take forever,” Al and Skeeter show you exactly how to set up systems so that your social media becomes efficient, manageable, and doesn’t take up a huge chunk of your day. In fact, one of the last modules focuses on automation and creating efficient systems using third-party tools. It’s included in the later steps to really drive home the point that social media isn’t about broadcasting your promotions, but is a truly interactive medium requiring your commitment to a daily (albeit not constant) presence.
And in an ever-growing sea of third party Twitter “enhancement” applications, most of us find things a bit overwhelming and confusing. Luckily, at exactly the right moments in your training, Al and Skeeter show you the most useful tools (and just enough of them to be useful, but not enough to be overwhelming), so you can build maximum visibility and increase efficiency.
Pedagogically speaking….
The videos in TweetFormula are high-quality. The instructions are clear and easy to understand and follow, and everything is done in a highly methodical fashion. You understand what you’re doing and you learn the reasons why you’re doing this stuff. You get clear action steps for every single module, so you know exactly what you’re supposed to do next.
Who does TweetFormula rock for?
There’s really something here for everyone. If you’re a Twitter newbie, or you just find Twitter a little overwhelming, TweetFormula is a fantastic way to get started. If you’ve been on Twitter for awhile, and your following isn’t growing the way you want it to, you’ll find really helpful information to jump-start your list.
For myself, I thought I was getting a pretty good bead on Twitter. I’m fairly technically-oriented, so I had fancy-schmancy nested systems already set up (all my social media nested inside Ping.fm, nested inside HootSuite with the RSS feed from my blog, plus a little automation help from SocialOomph).
But surprisingly, I picked up some great hints and tricks from TweetFormula that showed me how to set up some new systems that are more efficient. I found out how and where to find new, targeted followers, and just inside this weekend, within 24 hours of just beginning to put those systems into place, added 50 new followers. *UPDATE* Within 7 days, I added well over 300 targeted followers. Not bad, right? And just in case that doesn’t wow you, let me remind you that these are targeted, high-quality folks who I happen to know are in my target market and are interested in what I have to say, and that’s worth its weight in gold. Plus, I also formed some really interesting strategic relationships with some new folks I met along the way.
What do I wish TweetFormula included?
There’s not much missing from TweetFormula, I have to tell you. But the one thing I do wish was included was a bit more detail about how to use the advanced third-party tools they recommend. They do a good job of providing an overview and the “getting started” part, but I suspect that the technophobes who find the basic Twitter instructions useful may need a bit more help with the technical aspects of those third-party tools. You may find, however, that a combination of TweetFormula, manuals and training from the individual third-party tools themselves, and content from Al and Skeeter’s TwitterWatchdog blog may provide pretty much everything you need.
Make no mistake about it, though, TweetFormula is not a “silver bullet.” Al and Skeeter will never tell you that you’ll add thousands of new followers in a week. You won’t have the following of Ashton Kutcher overnight by following TweetFormula. What you will have, however, is a solid following of people in your target market with whom you can build a relationship that over time, will most likely translate into tangible growth for your small business.
Overall thoughts…
Do I recommend TweetFormula? Absolutely. You can’t beat the price point and frankly, the program is worth every penny and then some.
What I really love is that every technique in the program is above-board and totally legitimate. No black-hat stuff for these guys, and you’re not going to get into trouble with Twitter using any of their strategies. Plus, they’re supporting Twitter in exactly the way that it was intended, and showing you how to really use Twitter to build your business. So yes, 100%, I recommend it and heartily at that.
And darned if their Northern accents aren’t just super-endearing, too.
In preparation for my recent interview with Bob Burg (if you missed it, download the recording here), I invited subscribers to share with me their top business challenges. I wasn’t surprised by the answers:
“sales,” “communicating with potential customers,” “sales,” “the telephone,” “sales,” “how do I increase my lead pipeline?” “how to market my business,” “where will I find my next client?” “growing my business,” “sales,”
90% of the questions I got were about sales and marketing, and the reason is that folks believe that sales and marketing are where you actually make the money. Well…you’re wrong.
If your top small business concerns are sales and marketing, you’re focusing on the wrong stuff.
“But…but how can that be true, when there’s an entire industry just build around sales and marketing???”
Ah, there’s the rub. Well, I’m not saying sales and marketing aren’t important. I’m saying that sales and marketing shouldn’t actually be your biggest “challenges.” And yes, I’m prepared to back that up. Here goes:
1) You should know your target market inside-out.
I’ll bet if you’re struggling with sales and marketing in your small business, you don’t know your target market well enough. If you did, you’d know everything from what their likely objections are to where to find them to what kind of marketing they’ll respond to. And when you know that, you really don’t have to wonder if your branding appeals to them or if you’re meeting their needs. You’ll know.
How do you get to know them? Well, first, you have to choose them. Narrow down the people you serve into a clear, definable subset of the population. It’s okay to do this, I promise. It doesn’t mean that you can’t work with people outside your target market. My target market is primarily female entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s, but I work with women and men, and I have clients in their 60s. Your target market is who you work best with, who you understand the most, and who you like working with, combined with who wants what you have to offer.
Second, once you’ve narrowed down who your target market is, if you want to get to know them, ask them. Survey your list and if you don’t have a big list yet, look for places to find your peeps and invite them to take your survey. It’s not rocket science, but I do have a few recommendations: 1) Offer a high-quality freebie as a gift for taking the survey, 2) Limit your survey to 20-25 questions and only about 25% of those questions should be open-ended, 3) Ask them what you need to know as well as what you want to know. Get basic demographics, but also ask what keeps them up at night.
When your survey is over and you tabulate you responses, you should know a lot more about your target market, where to find them, and what they need and want. Everything else flows from there.
2) Once you know your target market inside out, you can focus on meeting their needs and providing value.
The people you serve are people. I’ve been saying that for a long time. They’re real people with real worries and real fears that keep them up at night. How can you serve them? How can you help address those worries and fears so that they can rest easy and get some sleep? If you’re addressing those needs and bringing enough value, not just in your products and services, but in how you’re showing up in the world, sales won’t really be a challenge anymore.
And remember, bringing value comes in many forms, too. This isn’t necessarily about giving your services away for free (although there may be times when that makes sense). As Bob and John talk about in Go-Givers Sell More, you can bring value in several ways. Bob and John mention five key ways to bring value that I really love: excellence, consistency, attention, empathy, and appreciation. And sometimes, just listening brings value. Who knew?
3) If you focus on bringing real value to people’s lives, sales will follow as a natural consequence.
One of the great things I picked up in my interview with Bob is that the top 10% of successful people in the world understand that giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. They’re a part of the same thing - as Bob put it, they’re like inhaling and exhaling.
So many of us think that “it’s better to give than to receive,” but actually, being a “go-giver” means you’re focused on giving value, but you’re open to receiving. And as such, if you’re focused on the other person and bringing real value, the natural consequence is that you’ll be rewarded. One of my favorite lines from Go-Givers Sell More is, “The task here is not to create value in order to create a sale or in order to anything. It’s to create value, period…Right now, your total job is to focus on one thing and one thing only: providing value to other people. If you do that well, sales—and money—will find you.”
The bottom line is that sales isn’t about sales. It isn’t even about the thing you sell. And marketing isn’t about the thing you sell, either. They’re both all about value. What value do you bring to the lives of other people? That should be your biggest challenge. Once you master that, sales and marketing shouldn’t be an issue.
Integrate: I’ll also be hosting a Q&A call the following evening. I’ll briefly review the interview with Bob, then I’ll open up the lines so you can ask me your business questions and get live business mentoring and coaching. Don’t miss this call!
Here are the details for this month’s calls:
DATES AND TIMES: Interview with Bob Burg: February 24, 2010, 8 PM Eastern/7 PM Central/6 PM Mountain/5PM Pacific
Integrate Q&A with Susan: February 25, 2010, 8 PM Eastern/7 PM Central/6 PM Mountain/5PM Pacific
I’ve spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortable and uneasy with the sales process. When I have a call with someone who’s expressed interest in working with me, I often worry that I won’t know how to “close” the sale or when to ask for the sale…and I have to admit that my sales have suffered as a result. If you’ve experienced anything like this, I’d like to invite you to join me this Wednesday evening for a frank and in-depth interview with my friend, Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and co-author of The Go-Giver and his brand-new best-seller, Go-Givers Sell More.
Bob and I will be talking about authenticity and how to bring more value to your clients and frankly, everyone around you. We’ll discuss how to make the sales process feel less smarmy and more genuine, and then I’ll open up the lines so you can ask Bob your own questions about sales and networking.
My interview with Bob is this Wednesday evening (2/24) at 8 PM Eastern. And on Thursday evening (2/25), at 8 PM Eastern, I’ll be hosting a follow-up Q&A call. I’ll do a brief review of the interview with Bob, and then I’ll open up the lines and answer your small business questions live. We’ll be recording, so if you can’t make it, sign up anyway, and I’ll make sure you get the recording. Both calls are free, and you’ll receive MP3 recordings for both calls.
This is actually the first call in The Experts Series, my yearlong “interview-and-integrate” teleseminar series, where each month, I’m interviewing a different small business expert and helping you integrate their ideas into your own small business.
My theme for February is all about finding your true purpose and being authentic.
Finding your purpose can be challenging. You have to give yourself permission to dream and engage in constructive soul-searching. What speaks most to your soul and what lifts your spirit? What are you meant to do and what are your unique gifts? Once you find the answer to these questions, concentrate on discovering your unique voice, that which makes you you. And then you’ll really have something. But know this: the answer isn’t out there. It’s in you. Search long enough and you’ll find it.
Authenticity in your business is about honesty. Trust. Integrity. Doesn’t it seem ironic, then, that people use “authenticity” as a marketing gimmick? For the service professional, authenticity is about getting to the heart of who you are, and communicating that to your audience. It’s about providing a real service or a real product, something of true value, and offering it at a fair and appropriate price. And believe me, when you get authentic, you see such a huge return in your business.
This month, you’ll find a fantastic interview call with Bob Burg, author of The Go-Giver in my teleseminar series, The Experts Series. After that call, I’ll also be doing a Q&A call of my own, so we can talk about building authenticity and “Go-Giver principles” into your own business.
. Bob and I will be talking about how to make sales feel less awkward and uncomfortable and how you can bring more value to your clients. I’ll open up the call for a Q&A so you can ask Bob your own questions, too!
My theme for February is all about finding your true purpose and being authentic.