by Hector Cisneros
Several years ago I heard about this great new network that was going to eliminate the need for going to
network meetings. I decided
to join that network to see what all the hubbub was all about. This was the beginning of my association with LinkedIn. A year later I also joined Facebook and then
followed that up
by joining Twitter. Later I also joined FourSquare,
Stumbleupon, YouTube, Ecademy, MerchantCircle and Google+ (just to name a few).
I soon learned that using social networks was very different than most forms of
online marketing. I quickly realized that social networking was very much like
face to face networking. Both were a form of word of mouth marketing. Both had
fairly ridged rules of how you could build credibility, specific rules that
would endear you to followers and rules that would get you un-followed or
un-friended very quickly.
Back then, I was looking to come
up with a set of social networking rules that would be considered universal. A
set of principles, if you will, that would guide a social networker through the
ever changing landscape of social networks. Granted, I had been using similar principles to work a number of live networking groups. I had learned these principles over more than 30 years
of business experience. I found many of these principles as a member of various networking Groups like BNI. I even penned a book called "60-Seconds to Success" that detailed the ABC's of using a 60-second elevator pitch to create a referral network through such groups.
In 2010 I had a big revelation. I
discovered that a lot I the principles that worked for me in Social networking
were the same principles that I had written about in my book in 2009. So, I set out
to see if all the principles I had learned in face to face networks would apply
to online social networking. I quickly discovered that there were many overlaps
with only subtle differences. I also discovered that these two different forms
of networking could complement each other. Since then I have complied 12 rules,
(actually a baker’s dozen) that act as guidelines both in social networks and
face to face networking. This article explores these principles and lays them
out for you to learn and use. These 12 secrets will allow you to grow your
following and build your credibility. Doing so will increase sales and make
your social networking easier. So let's get started.
The 12 Secrets of
Social Media Success
1. No one likes to watch commercials. People join social nets to connect with friends, find interesting facts,
be entertained and to share information like documents, photos and videos. At the same time, however they are giving up
a lot of personal information. This information is in turn used to target them
with advertising messages. To reach these prospects, provide targeted and useful
information that fulfills their wants. Rarely post subtle commercials. Any
commercial had better provide useful benefits like discounts, coupons or free
access to other useful material. Overselling is a fast way to get blocked and
unfriended.
2. Social networks are some of the best word-of-mouth marketing mediums. Testimonials and referrals are powerful and
viral in this medium for getting your message out. If you can get your
customers to sing your praises, you will do well. Every testimonial can be used
many times. They can be used in multiple networks and be introduced in multiple
ways. Also once posted in a testimonial album, they can become focal points
where you can send prospects who need reassurance. They can also be used in ads
via pay per click. These ads can be very powerful. This is especially true if
you incorporate testimonials from that specific social network in that network’s
ad space.
3. Is Social Networking Free? Not when you consider the amount of time and effort to setup a
social network profile. Multiply this times the top five networks and you can
see why you could spend a significant amount of time getting setup. However, this is only the beginning. You now
have to provide useful, relevant and timely content to build your audience.
Researching this type of content takes time and posting it also takes time. In
any endeavor time equals money. This is why social media is used by so many
startup businesses. They have more time than they have money. However once you
reach the stage that you have revenue coming in (cash flow), it makes sense to
outsource this because it takes a lot of time and thus you would be losing
money because this will take away from production and sales.
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| This is icon for social networking website. This is part of Open Icon Library's webpage icon package. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
4. Social Networks are not private. You
also give up a significant amount of your privacy. For some this is a heavy
price, for others it’s worth getting the infrastructure for networking without having to pay a monthly subscription fee. Having said that, understand that
social networks are frequently perused by criminals fishing for unsuspecting
victims to defraud them or steal their identity. Make sure you never provide
financial information, passwords or too much information that could allow a
criminal to guess your password. Purchase Life Lock or another ID protection
plan and be vigilant and suspicious of what people are asking for.
5. Followers need your attention in two ways: The
ones you want to keep need one type of attention and those you want to get rid
of need another. Once you start
having followers you will need to manage them. Thanking, engaging followers and
answering their questions takes time. You will also have to manage who is
following you. Removing undesirable followers is a maintenance chore that must
be done on a regular basis. You don't have to follow everyone and you don't
have to accept everyone who wants to follow you. You will have to walk a fine
line between being tolerant and selective
6. Like plants, social networks won’t grow on their own!
To build a large social network you will have to actively invite people to
follow you. Most people underestimate the time it takes to build a following of
customers and prospects. A network of a few hundred people is not that useful.
To play a significant role you need 1000 plus followers. This cannot be reached
overnight. However, you can easily reach 1000 followers by inviting 10 people a
day and converting this effort to 4 new followers each day. By the end of the
year you will have over 1400 follower as fans.
7. Subscribing to the top five
Social Networks isn't the same as using social media! Having social
network symbols listed on your website is useless if you're not actively using
these networks. Networking means Net-Work,
not net-wait! Having setup your social profiles and adding them to your website
is only the beginning. If you are not working the network it is not going to do
anything for you. Work means posting and engaging followers on a weekly if not
daily basis. If you want to get a
return, you will have to put the effort into utilizing your networks. If you
post useful content and have either a highly targeted audience (like your
customer base) or a very large audience (say 10,000+ followers) you can use
your network to launch products, and drive traffic to produce sales. However, this is all predicated on the
premise that you have built up social equity, credibility and trust with your
followers; otherwise your posts will be ineffective. Think of the sales rule of
10! For every 100 people you touch only 10 will be paying attention and of
those 10, only one may be ready to act.
8. Your audience won't follow you unless you
give them want they want! Audiences follow people for many reasons. They
might follow you because you both share similar views. Another reason could be
that you provide useful and relevant information they want. A follower may find
your content timely and or entertaining or they may just follow you because you
are famous in their eyes. All of these reasons have one thing in common: It’s
all about them, the follower and not about you! Make them happy by providing
them with the timely, useful, relevant and entertaining content they crave on a
consistent basis. Sometimes you have to give, give, and give in order for
followers to reciprocate!
9. Always strive to look professional and
competent. Make sure your posts are checked and double-checked for grammar
and spelling errors. Grammar and spelling mistakes never make you look good.
Always give credit where credit is due. Never take credit for something you did
not create. Understand your audience and provide posts at their education
level. Don't try and be cool, fancy or smart by using big words, unless your
audience is a bunch of PhD's. Minimize tech speak and acronyms if at all
possible. Try and write on fifth grade level whenever possible.
10. Leverage your messages to produce buzz and viral distribution. Whenever possible, post to as many
social networks simultaneously as you can. Be aware that some networks require
a different format or have different limitations. A post for Facebook can be
very different than a Tweet! Use aggregation tools like Hoot suite, Hootlet,
Tweet Deck and others to schedule and post to your networks. Use information
gathering services like Google Alerts, PaperLi and others newsgathering
services to have content brought to you. Gather and organize your posts in
advance then schedule your posts with the aggregation software of your choices.
11. Thank all followers whenever it’s
appropriate. This includes new
followers, mentions, retweets, shares, forwards, likes, comments and even
questions. We all have heard Grandma’s rules of social etiquette. Rules like be
nice to nice people. Be courteous, say please and thank you, help others, etc…
If you want people to follow you, be nice to them. A simple thank you carries
more weight than you realize. However, don't patronize people, it makes them
mad and it's disingenuous.
12. Help others get started and you will grow your network. As a
matter of fact, helping others in general will help you grow your social
networks. Helping new subscribers connect with others builds social equity. The
more help you provide, the more value you create, the more social equity you will
generate. Go through the trouble of pointing out help files and network
tutorials. Show followers a few of the useful tools the network has and of
course, add them to your network. Then
ask them to connect you to their friends.
13. Ask and you will receive. If you want
people to share your information, retweet your tweets and comment on your
latest post, ask them to. If you want to
engage people, be engaging, ask open questions, complement their achievements,
praise their good fortune and don't forget to "like", share and
retweet their post as well. Don’t be pushy! Like begets like, if you don’t ask
you won't receive!
Since I began using social networking
in 2004, I have looked for universal rules that govern all networks. In my 30+
years of business I have engaged in face to face networking and found many
principles that have not changed in all that time. Social networking follows
many of these same rules. I have written extensively about word of mouth
marketing and have been writing about social networking since 2009. The fact of
the matter is that social networking is word of mouth marketing gone electronic. This makes it faster, viral and much more
pervasive. It is also more powerful as your message can be spread faster and farther
than face to face could ever do. However, these two word of mouth venues are
not mutually exclusive. They actually complement each other. Face To Face
networks allow you to build trust and credibility faster. In turn you can use
this trust to create testimonials and referrals that can spread around the
world much faster that they could with your local network. In this article I
have discussed over a dozen universal principles of social networking. Use
these principles to grow your prospect contact sphere, expand your client base
and spread your positive message around the world. Used correctly nothing can
outperform word of mouth marketing to easily close a sale. Use these principles
wisely and make this your best year yet.
If you liked this article pass it
along to your friends. If you have a comment or other ideas leave them in the
comment section. If you want to contact me, my contact information is listed
below and on this blog. I appreciate your sharing your time with me. That's my
opinion; I look forward to hearing yours.
