Part 1: Dialogue From The Heart, By Penny Power
1. Attitude - What is the attitude you bring to your social networking? Is it the same as the marketing and sales attitudes you had on the past? Targeted, functional, practical and clinical. Do you ask yourself, ‘if I do this now, I will see a return soon?’. The first thing to establish is that this century is very different than the last. People are changing from being Closed, Selective and Controlling to being Open, Randomly embracing people and Supportive in their actions, deeds and motives. This is a very tough chasm to cross as it relies on you, the person who wants to achieve greater sales, having the faith that by having conversations with people these conversations may lead to something good, but maybe not always for you, perhaps for the others person first. It takes belief, faith ad patience to begin with.
2. Broadcasting - One of the most obvious mistakes that anyone new to Social Networking makes is that they stay in Broadcast mode. Their Blogs, while they may be interesting they make the mistake of making it all about them and their business. Their messages to other members are full of requests and their needs and wants, not creating conversation or dialogue, they purely make statements, that once read, (if read), are deposited in the delete, no action needed file of poor networking.
Social Networks are so called because they are SOCIAL, they are for making friends, for being friendly. Like sitting in a bar and sharing a drink with a stranger, conversations should be open, random and not targeted at financial gain, once a rapport is established; there will be plenty of business opportunities for all.
3. Clarity - When I receive messages from people I always read their profiles before replying but often it is very tough to understand what people are wanting to achieve and who they are. I think the starting point of your social networking journey needs to be based on honesty and clarity. If you are in a muddle, then say you are in a muddle! If you are discovering a new you or building a new business then say that. Attracting the right people at the right time to help you with the right resources cannot be achieved if you don’t know or don’t communicate what it is you want to achieve for yourself or for others. If you are brilliant at helping people through specific aspects of their business or lives, then state that. Make it easy for people to understand and help you to be successful when they read about you. I see life as a climb up a mountain and we need different Sherpa’s to help us on the way. If you already say you have reached the top, no one will need to help you.
4. Trust - ‘What are others saying about you in the community?’, this is critical for gaining trust, without trust it is very hard to gain momentum, to have advocates or build your business. Broadcasting your own skills and brilliance will not gain trust; on the other hand, if you have friends that are saying good things about you, then trust becomes implicit.
I look at comments on Blogs inside Ecademy to see who is contributing and helping others, I look at Testimonials to see who is being talked about. I look at who is Blogging and unconditionally sharing knowledge, I notice who is being talked about. I am no different to any Social Networker, I want to be connected to the ‘good guys’ the ones who are part of the community, the ones who are well connected. By association with their knowledge and their network I trust them that little bit more than I would a complete stranger who just sends me a message and broadcasts what they do. Social Networking is about WHO you are not WHAT you are.
5. Friendship - Are you a friend? Do you have friends. Social Networking works at its best when you are a friend to many and many want you as their friend. On Ecademy, how many times do you appear in other people’s Spotlight? These people are in my Spotlight , they are my friends http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?op=favs_thumbs&uid=1001, I also note that I am in 160 people’s Spotlights. These are the people I want to follow, want to learn from, want to support and I am proud to know. Have you created your list of special people that you ‘bump’ into?
6. Quantity and Quality and Direction - Finally, you need to get the balance of doing enough – achieve Quantity. You need to be seen as knowledgeable and caring, reflecting the Quality aspect of you, and also consider the direction of your effort, make sure that the audience you are talking to and blogging to are relevant to you, build your network because you add value to one another. If you have a complete scatter gun approach across the web you will be in danger of sending out mixed messages and no one will know what you stand for, care about and contribute. Conversations need to reflect you and what you can contribute and if you are being real, open and supportive to others this will shine through.
As I stated at the beginning, this is a new world and it does require a leap of faith and some tolerance, don’t be put off by the fact not everyone is living by the expectations we have set in this Social world, but lead others by your example and find those that you like, trust and can become a friend to. It takes a few great experiences, many are serendipitous in their creation and then you will see that this is the most amazing business tool for the 21st century business.
Part 2: Dialogue From The Head, By Andrew Ballenthin
7. Bad Breath - We can appear to have bad breath, a poor dress style, a lack of charm and positive attitude by the nature of the words we use. Usually this shows up in form of pushy advertising about webinars, sales messages, overly direct messages about how the business offer can fix “all your money woes”. The remedy for the need to drive immediate sales can be found by understanding that without social network and rapport you’re simply looking bad in public. While social media enables a highly visible and free communication vehicle, in the short term this is the least effective way to get new business. Use other marketing strategies meant for selling directly and use social media for charming your future customer with minty fresh breath and great charisma.
8. “All About Me” Attitude - There is a HUGE shift occurring in the marketing world which will in the coming years mesh with traditional advertising principles. Once upon a time (and still now) the more you could say great things about your brand, your products, your prices, customer service, etc the more you stand apart from the competition. BUT CHANGE IS HERE as businesses catch-up and realize the more you help your clients and potential clients solve a wider array of THEIR problems the more loyalty and public good will you build. In time we’ll see marketing books and seminars on “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU” social media and advertising. Businesses that get this now are well positioned to own the future.
9. We’re ‘Just Not That Into You’ - If your audience is consistently showing a lack of interest in your message over a minimum of 90 days in the beginning it’s likely to be one of two things. 1) Either you haven’t distinguished yourself as having an unselfish position and being a true community member, or 2) You’re to busy focusing on promoting, push messaging, and expecting direct sales results for your efforts, etc. Offline you may find instant chemistry and connect to a new contact and do business within weeks or months of a first meeting, but what about the other 99.9% of people? It’s the same online, the great invisible masses are watching and determining if you’re trustworthy, have true value, and plan to stick around. If after 90 days your steady social networking efforts aren’t resulting in connections, change your behaviour and spend more time being interested in others like a great networker and you may be surprised how many become interested in what you have to say.
10. Have You Show That You Listened? – While generating content, commenting in discussions and blogs are great ways to stay active and build a reputation, consider that what you hear/read in response to your content is equal or more valuable then what you have to say. Dale Carnegie in his book, “How To Win Friends and Influence People” speaks to the fastest way to build trust is demonstrate a sincere interest in those around us by talking about topic of interest to them. If you get comments on a blog you post take those comments, turn them into quotes and do a second blog advancing the conversation topic. If you participate in group discussions, respond to other commenter’s ideas, not just the author’s. By being a good listener you’ll quickly be distinguished as genuine and trustworthy which are the forerunners of social networking that turns into real cash transactions for your efforts.
Source: http://communitymarketing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/07/social-networking-coauthored-series-10-reasons-why-your-online-networking-may-not-be-working.html