A fellow Bizniker (a bit like LinkedIN only more dynamic) emailed me and asked this question below. She is
probably right about these being common questions so I thought I'd make
it the subject of my next article.
Her question:
"I think I'm like a lot of people: don't understand how social media helps me connect REALLY with people I can make relationships with. Chatting online is one thing...a relatiionship is quite another.
"Secondly...time. It's hard to find the time to socially network, when I can't see a direct benefit. For my two businesses...require that people actually try my stuff, and see if they like it. I know I should blog about cosmetic issues..but really...what's the point" -G.A.
What's the Point?
This is a GREAT question because I think a lot of what we see on social media sites begs that question.
To help answer that, let me ask you first to forget social media for a moment. Instead, let's look at a more "traditional" method of "getting business". What does it really mean to get business?
Essentially you're talking about making connections. Connections come before relationships, so we have to start there.
Let's say you're hosting a business networking or cocktail party. People are arriving--folks you don't know already or who you or your staff invited. You're hosting it at nice hotel conference room downtown or something and the people who are coming in are folks from the local area.
What's the first thing you're going to do? You welcome them and shake their hand. That's the first point where the connection has been made. Names are exchanged and each person looks the other over a bit and begins the process of recognizing the other. The connection begins to solidify somewhat and become more and more real as the exchanges of communication occur between the two of you.
As the connection solidifies (for lack of a better description), each can begin to safely offer help to the other in the form of their services or products. If we rush it too much, though, without first "getting up to recognition" on each other, that connection might be severed by one or the other. No one likes a pushy sales person who's "all-about-me." So the next move in this situation might be another meeting, or an invitation to visit the store or office or what have you.
There's clearly something to know here about how to nurture connections and gel them up so that the exchange of products and services can begin to occur. But right now we're talking more about the environment of the party itself. It's a physical place with walls and cups and and the purpose of the party is to connect with your target market and earn the right to talk about your services/products with them.
Okay, so that's the party.
Welcome to SocialMedia Land. Population 1 kuhzillion...
Now let's take all of the above, pretty much, vacuum it up and
inject it into a different environment--except for one thing: we're
going to ditch all the walls and hotels and physical stuff (heck, even the bodies come to think of it!). The
rest of the party is coming with us.
We are going to inject it all into a new environment called Biznik, Facebook or LinkedIN or just name your favorite "social media" (SM)site if you have one.
What's happened? All the actions are there except we have just removed Time and Space more or less and added an unlimited # of people. That is the party just got HUGE!
But what do I mean by "actions"? Well first we have to make sure we have the same PURPOSE as we did in the networking party. Let's say that purpose is something like "expand my business' reach and get it some more attention." Pretty similar purpose to what you'd have in a regular networking party, right?
This purpose could then be broken down into into three simple but vital actions:
- Actively locating your target market. YOU have to do this. The SM site might help, but we each have to seek these people out if we're going to have a productivre
- "Shaking their hand" (electronically in this case) which is to say connecting with them by addin them to your network of friends and lastly,
- Getting to know them a bit and making yourself known to them.
Just like our party!
Purpose Is Missing Ingredient
What confuses people about Facebook and the like is that they see so
many people acting WITHOUT PURPOSE. They have nowhere to go so they aren't getting anywhere.
You
just sort of see them staggering through the party, "drink" in hand,
launching more or less meaningless cups of e-coffee around or poking
people.
But if we act WITH purpose in this environment, we can make a use of this tool for both personal and business. We can GET SOMEWHERE. :)
(Don't get me wrong here, I'm into the fun side of these tools too, just like the occasional good prank at the office to provide some levity. But too much of that and the boss is forced to question overall productivity.)
My main point, which hopefully is coming across, is that life in Social Media Land is subject to the same laws of life as your average cocktail party or networking event. Social media just makes it easier than the average cocktail party to connect with others. There are no barriers geographically so you can reach out to anyone anywhere any time and make a connection and create massive exposure. That's powerful!
The Shameless Plug Section
On the next point you bring up: the time-consuming nature of social media, there's some truth to that. It is
in fact time consuming. Especially since some of the time is spent
learning the tools and so on. That is probably a primary reason why our
clients use us (www.richter10point2.com) . They see the potential in the above, but don't want to distract away from their core business focus.
Hope this was a helpful reply for you!
Hans
hans AT richter10point2.com
www.whywebpr.com