Over the course of the last six months, I've been spending most of my time learning about the nuances of social media, or as I call it, Word of Mouth Media™.
Of all of the things that I've learned in my 6 month immersion into social media, this first lesson is the most important. It is so important, that I'm going to break it into a series of posts, each one addressing the various rungs of the relationship ladder. Throughout this post which was originally written for individuals trying to master social media, I will tie it all into the topic of distribution. [more]
RUNG #1 - SPAM
Without any training or strategy, most everyone that wants to get across a point, get people to an event, or to somehow get them into your sales funnel, begin online at the bottom rung of the Word of Mouth media™ relationship ladder.
SPAM is not just a brand of canned mystery meat, it is what happens when you attempt to have some sort of dialogue or conversation (or what you think might appear to someone as such) without any form of current relationship.
I say current, because most of us have been building our email list (aka address book) for more than a decade. We have everyone from friends and family, to business colleagues, clients, former clients, all the way down to the guy you sat next to on an airplane in 2002, but can't even remember why you thought he was important enough to add to your address book. The same thing is true for companies that decide to use social media to expand their marketing reach.
We've all done it. You are in a hurry, so you send out a notice of a product launch, an event, a company announcement or even a particularly funny joke, but what you forget to do is to ensure that the person on the other end will actually
(a) remember you; (b) care about what you want them to care about.It goes without saying that this is not only not a good idea, but it is actually counterproductive on a number of fronts.
- You stand to alienate people that you actually care about a great deal (either personally or professionally).
- You don't give them a graceful way to tell you that they don't care or more likely, don't have the time for whatever you want them to care about
- You don't sway them to your way of thinking (they hit delete or navigate away from your post, or worse, unfriend you electronically) before they figure out what it is you really want
When was the last time you interacted with your customer or your prospect to learn about what their challenges are and whether you have any way to reach out to them in a meaningful way to solve their problems?
Every time you want to post on Twitter or Facebook on your company page, or your executives are posting (yes, it does matter how your executives are using social media), ask yourself whether you are adding value to your clients or your prospects. Are you solving a problem? Are you educating them on something that will make a difference in their business?
So, if you are on this rung, STOP | THINK | DON'T SPAM. Stay tuned for Rung #2.
Chicke Fitzgerald | Founder | Solutionz Group | www.solutionz.com