Social Selling Video Blog! Know the influencers!
Welcome to our Social Business Coffee Break!
We are in the middle of a Social Selling series. Today we will focus on leveraging influencers to help you reach that white space client and to retain client loyalty!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaRpAqGpZAM&feature=youtu.be]
Happy FRIDAY!! Social Tip of the week! Create a Social Calendar
Yes, a calendar. If you have a blog, or Facebook page, or even Twitter think through your strategy of content that you need to study, learn, or create.
Then plan out your posts. Now this does not mean that will not do the article and post that is in sync with real time events, but planning out your content helps you to add more value for your readers.
For instance, I plan my series for my Social Business Coffee Breaks. Each Monday, I post one of my VBlogs and I plan out the content. 5 Tips for better social selling for instance has a great following!
Each Month, I plan my series, and my topics. And then each weekend I write, research, poll, and ensure that I can add value to my readers!
Do you create a social calendar?
The Social Caveman
I just watched the Croods with my kids! It was such a great movie.
It was funny to watch the Crood Family move from Cavemen to being transparent and living out in the open!
The same is true for people who are hiding from Social! They are cavemen and woman!
Here's some incentives to move out of the cave!
* Determine what your brand stands for and what you want it to stand for. Search yourself on: Google, Technorati, Twitter
* Come up with your own tagline and ensure that you have the tagline (your brand) on all your social tools. Make it short and sweet like: John: Scholar, Nice Guy, Sales leader or Sally: Highly recognized Corporate executive with Top Tier MBA
* Remember every interaction and experience is a nonneutral brand experience. Make each one count!
*Engage your core community of enthusiasts, customers & employees where they spend their time -- pick the tools you leverage based on who you are targetting
* Build/engaging with a loyal “brand army” of enthusiasts that make your success their cause. Social is about forming a relationship. This is not about marketing. Acknowledge and harness their goodwill to generate insight and return on your investment
* Increase your engagement in important conversations. Have a POV (point of view). State it and add value!
* Remember, it is not JUST about social. It must be supported with real-world events and experiences (F2F is still the most meaningful interaction!)
Move out of the cave and get started! Reach out if you need help!
Social Selling! Tip #4 "Learning" Your Clients Through Social Networks
Happy Monday!
We are continuing our Monday series on Social Selling -- today focused on our Tip #4! I am to start the discussion on how you know your prospects and clients.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPtyzXUblD8&feature=youtu.be]
Social enables stronger ways to network - an important career progression task!
According to IBM Tech Trends Report, there are more companies today doing internal Social, than external use of social with clients. Why is that trend progressing?
Creating an inclusive work environment should be a strategic priority for all companies. It can help your company build a distinctive and compelling reputation as a worldclass employer and foster women’s leadership talent. Such a culture provides the social infrastructure that gives women access to the same career support as men. A Social Infrastructure enables collaboration and networking across an organization.
Networking is very important in career progression. In fact, in every leadership book that I have read, networking in always in the top 3 items that help to drive someone to success. So in leadership, being an active and politically-skilled networker is important.
Our study shows that working long hours is not directly linked to career progression. We can therefore debunk the myth that presenteeism leads to promotion. However, working more hours is related to important careerenabling factors. When you work longer hours, whether you’re male or female, you’re more likely to focus on networking.
Social can enable you to network more effectively. Networking really is as important as everyone makes it out to be. Find ways of building one-to-one relationships with people who are important to your career and keep them up-to-date on your progress. And make time to Social Network -- it really is important and effective.
Social Business can save lives! Check out the Boston's Children's Hospital
Yesterday, n partnership with IBM, The Boston Children's Hospital launched OPENPediatrics!
What is OPENPediatrics? It is a Social Learning platform that enables medical personnel to gain expertise, make better decisions, and even share knowledge to save the lives of children.
The hospital has just started using it, but already there are over 1000 nurses and doctors in over 74 countries.
This use of Social Business will completely transform the healthcare industry! What can it do for your industry?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKQ7lEmPyWY&feature=youtu.be]
Are you a Social Showroomer?
What is a social showroomer? With 70% of people trusting reviews by their "friends" than a company's own site, a social showroomer is one who leverages social before they purchase. But they do it in a uniqure way. They come into a real store with their smartphone and scan a product's barcode to see the reviews, and lowest prices for the item. Then they search both online retailers to compare with those of brick and mortar.
First a factoid, 1/3 of showroomers bought from an online-only retailer, the other two-thirds from a multi-channel retailer.
Who are these new social shoppers?
Showroomers are more often male than female with the largest gender gap being in consumer electronics but women are still quite capable of showrooming. In fact,women still constitute 80% of Pinterest users. (Search Engine Journal)
On age & income dimensions, this is not an older group but not particularly young. Most likely to be 26 to 34, however in some categories like consumer electronics, home decor and healthcare, showrooming skews as high as 35 to 44.
The showroomers are also more affluent on average but has quite a contribution from the middle-income group as well.
And the final point, this group is very vocal. 57%, had written a positive review of their online retailer. They are a dynamic group having positive experiences and wanting to share them with their peers.
Are you a showroomer? Tell me about it. What do you think about showrooming? Is it fair to local merchants?
Social selling: Tip #5 Build your social graph!
Happy Monday!
We are continuing our social selling series and today will focus on one of the top 5 pieces of advice for strong selling in the blogosphere!
The Blogosphere is a connected community of all blogs and their interconnections, including micro-blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, and so on. Essentially all social tools online.
Have fun building your social graph!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR7NOuZ0OO0&feature=youtu.be]
Mixed Audiences into today's Social Business World
Today, I was chatting with a client who proclaimed that he wished everyone was using social! The world would be so simple!
Yes, it would but we don't live in that world --- and won't for a few years.
Today, I see us having 3 types of people.
- Digital Natives. These are people who grew up online and in social networks. They work in a collaborative fashion -- they grew up this way. They do not do email or even answer phones. (Note: The post-millennial "digital native" was a term coined by U.S. author Marc Prensky.
- Digital Immigrants. These are people who have not grown up digitally but have taken to the new social world and use the tools like a native. They have a foot in each world... being able to leverage email, and traditional forms of collaboration, with the new world.
- Non Digitals or affectionately called The Analogs. Yes we all know they and they are in very significant places of influence today. They email, they dictate, and they don't use Facebook. These are some of your best clients, so you cannot leave them behind.
Yes, and today there are digital outcasts. These are folks who would grow up digitally but globally have not been blessed with the resources to do so. Many companies are working on these issues which I believe must be fixed before we do see people across the globe plugged into the "AORTA," which is Always On RealTime Access, a term coined by Mark Anderson, the chief of the Strategic News Service.
What do you see? How long before the Natives overtake enough influential positions?
Privacy - Interesting study for your Social Profiles
In an IBM study of the Empowered Customer with a sample size of 28,000 global consumers, a fundamental change is emerging. Customers are increasingly open to providing information about themselves in exchange for perceived benefit such as improved personalization, service, etc. And remember, this is on a global scale .. not something that is a US only trend.
In fact, I was surprised to see that 75% are willing to provide information on media usage and demographics but almost 60% of global customers are willing to provide information about their lifestyle and locations which will enable companies to further tailor the shopping experience.
I think this is significant as 73% of CEOs are investing in customer insights. These factoids tell us that a client would be willing to spend an additional 20 minutes if you provide them with some value.