Here they are in the nutshell:
- Social media enables you to open up a dialogue with perspective customers.
- When you have a dialogue with a prospective customer, they grow to trust you.
- Once they trust you, they’re more likely to buy your product or service.
The above three truths come from my notes taken during a seminar by Jamie Turner. These little tidbits were dropped on the path as he was making his way to the main topic of the seminar. However, I felt these were gems worth mulling over a bit.
Social media enables you to open up a dialogue with perspective customers.
Social media enables you…. It is a tool. Like a hammer (or screwdriver) you have to know what you are doing with the tool and know what it is you are trying to accomplish. A hammer is great for driving nails into a board. But this is useless without some idea of where the nails need to go. Do you have a plan you are working from. Or, are you just driving nails in order to drive nails?
open up a dialogue… There are at least two little tidbits in this. First of all it is designed to be a dialogue. So work to have it be a dialogue. Encourage perspective customers to engage in the conversation. Get them involved. An active participant will get hooked into the process much easier and deeper than a passive participant. Second, fundamentally almost all dialogues in social media are perpetually in the “opening up” phase of the conversation. Dialogues have various phases — including resolution and conclusion. The nature of social media keeps them bound into the beginning phases — the opening up part. That’s okay. Just be aware of it. You are not going to conclude your business in the social media itself. That will happen else where.
perspective customers… Treat the folks you dialogue with as bosom buddies, pals and friends. But, don’t forget why you are there — perspective customers. If you forget you are hunting for perspective customers you may lose your posture, you may forget to actually redirect them to a place for conversion. And yes, conversion will happen else where.
When you have a dialogue with a prospective customer, they grow to trust you.
have a dialogue with a prospective customer… Again, have a dialogue — make it a two way street, get them involved in the conversation. And of course the “them” we are talking about are prospective customers. If your product or service is empty having no value to the customer then this perspective of treating others as prospective customers will be hollow and basically yucky. On the other hand, if you are an ethical marketer and actually represent goods that are of value, then this perspective takes on a flavor of service.
they grow to trust you.… This is the goal, this is the hoped for result of the social marketing. Your ultimate goal may be to make sales. But, the goal ascribed to the social media part of the strategy is simply to generate a relationship with the prospective customer — one in which they can view you as a trusted source of information and transaction.
Once they trust you, they’re more likely to buy your product or service.
more likely to buy… The result of social media marketing is a prospective customer that has been brought to the state of “more likely to buy.” That is a good goal and a workable goal. Let it be what it is. The goal of your “landing page” is to convert customers. The goal of social media is to predispose customers to the state of “more likely to buy.”
By the way, keep your focus, stay on beam. You are looking to sell your product or service. You are not looking for ego boost or fulfillment of any other personal agenda item. When doing business, don’t worry about your dance card, or your anything. It is not about you, it is about the customer. This is a subtle point. The best way to see it is in hindsight after a relationship has soured because somehow the energy was channeled into something personal.