Time to Read: 2 Minutes.

“How much time do I need to devote to LinkedIn per day?” is a valid question. But when you ask it you’re invested in lack—what you do not have. Time. But you do have time to invest in saving time, right? That’s what LinkedIn is, after all. I’ll prove it to you. Let’s start by changing your question to…

“How can I determine what LinkedIn’s purpose is for me, how I can best use it to achieve that goal in shorter time?”

See the difference? What if your purpose was to find a faster way to net a sales lead—rather than seeking out a silver bullet amount of time? What if your purpose was to meet the right prospect and pitch them in less time, get hired faster, have your manuscript discovered by a publisher sooner, speed up the conversion to sale process… whatever. This is how I approach it in running my publishing and professional speaking business.

I don’t read trendy “_________ (insert social media platform) An Hour A Day” books. I approach social media with a focus on abundance, not lack. I have all the time in the world to save time! This way the time question works itself out effortlessly.

Put as much time into LinkedIn as is needed to complete the task and generate a better outcome. Period.

For instance, I’m constantly targeting people within a company based on current position, experience background. I’m finding faster ways to increase the relevancy of my entire sales approach by monitoring what my targets are saying or asking for in discussions in groups or on Twitter. I combine this with tools like JigSaw.com (securing contact information) and Google (getting around LinkedIn’s paywall). I invest as much time as I need to achieve my goal.

“It all goes back to attaching value to the time you spend on LinkedIn,” says J.D. Gershbein, one of the top LinkedIn strategists in the world and a pioneer in LinkedIn educational programs.

“Once that trade-off leads to a positive outcome—however that is defined—it makes the difficult pill of logging the minutes or hours easier to swallow.”

Take the stance that LinkedIn ROI is qualitative—that results can be traced to activity, as opposed to actual time on the site—and you have a nice framework within which to work.

Photo credit: Jason A. Samfield

Time to Read:  3 Minutes. Wanting to know how much time to give LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogging (etc) per day is a natural desire. But having that answer won’t make social media produce better results. That’s why many of us are putting down “hour a day” books and picking up a new habit: asking, “how can I get clear on what social media’s purpose is for my business—and how I can best use it to achieve that specific goal?” By asking these questions (first) deciding how much time to invest occurs naturally, painlessly and obviously. Use time and pressure to your advantage. The result will be like a fine, balanced Italian espresso.

Stop Worrying About Time

We all want to know how much time things are going to take—everything in our lives. And for good reason: we feel like there isn’t enough of it in our lives! Okay… but if this is true you should NOT be worrying about how much time it will take to make Facebook or whatever produce a result.

You’re not alone in worrying about time. Many of today’s social media gurus are working day-and-night to make sure you needlessly worry about it. They want you to believe in a “social media revolution” rather than discovering how to evolve your habits and business. So far, sex and fear sells books and consulting.

But now you know the truth and can choose a different path—away from reacting to social media and toward evolving your business (each day of your life) in harmony with it.

Make Purpose Primary, Time Secondary

Everyone I interviewed in Off the Hook Marketing said the same thing: If you want to sell with social media start focusing on creating purpose for it before anything else. Time will work itself out. Trust in it, have faith.

Here’s another way of looking at it. Think about how you feel when you ask “how much time is this going to take?” You’re reacting, defensive. The presumption behind the question is that LinkedIn, Facebook, blogging or whatever is somehow “different.” But what if social media could be a better way to achieve a particular set of goals you have—rather than being “so different” and such a pain? It can be if you so choose.

Social media is not rocket science. The more you think it is the more you’ll believe time investment is what makes the difference. It does not. As Peter Drucker said, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

Why We Chase Tweets, Not Sales

You see, the “social media revolution” is devoid of true, meaningful outputs—business outcomes like sales. Think about what you’ve heard or seen in the sexy, thumping videos on YouTube. Facebook is the size of a country. And? What are we to do with that super-exciting-fantastic knowledge—other than feel exuberant or fearful?

This false, paradigm-shifting revolution amounts to experts telling us, “the rules have changed, your goals must change.” And this is why we often find ourselves chasing re-tweets, friends and followers rather than leads, sales and subscribers.

How to Get Back “On Purpose”

All the hype, smoke-and-mirrors surrounding social media go a long way to help some people feel like it’s not worth their time. Yet others are keeping the faith—they sense social media can help them do great things. And it can.

For instance, you can make social media produce leads and sales by changing the question. Stop asking “how much time…?” and start asking “how can I determine what Facebook’s/blogging’s/YouTube’s purpose is for me/my business and how I can best use it to achieve this goal?” Trust that “how much time is likely required?” will come in time.

It Works for Me

In parting, here’s a quick example. I need to generate leads for myself among large corporate customers who serve small businesses—companies like Intuit, IBM, Cintas and Deluxe. I put as much time into a wide variety of social platforms as is needed to achieve that goal.

I use…

• LinkedIn (to find and qualify people within a target company based on current position & experience background, increasing relevancy of my approach via monitoring comments/discussions in groups)
• JigSaw.com (to secure actual contact information)
• Confession: Google (to get around LinkedIn’s “pay wall” (sorry, LinkedIn!)
• Twitter (to increase my relevancy, again based on what’s current to the prospect)

I put as much time into using social media platforms as I need to achieve my goal. Simple! Empowering. Liberating!

photo credit: jonmallard and Junnn

Time to read 3 minutes. Is social media relevant to the thermal processing industry? Or how about appliance manufacturing? Pollution engineering? Biotech, biofuels or energy? How about plumbing or pest control? Do Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs matter to technical or industrial businesses? If you are hoping to sell something in these fields then the answer is yes. Yet most marketers of technical products and services are failing to generate business leads with social media marketing. Here’s why and how to avoid being one of them.

Doug Glenn, publisher of Industrial Heating magazine recently asked if social media is relevant. A fair question. But in his article Mr. Glenn seems pro, con and indifferent to social media all at the same time.

Find Purpose

As a professional speaker, I see industrial businesses dipping toes in social media marketing’s waters but not experiencing a clearer, focused understanding of it. They’re enthusiastic about advances like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn but not seeing them in a useful, practical way. They understand that social media provides the ability to instantly observe and react to customer behavior like never before. Industrial technologists can shoot and upload an educational video to YouTube but for what distinct purpose and under what plan to create a sale?

Ignore Popular “Wisdom”

After completing a year’s worth of research on today’s best industrial and technical “social sellers” an exciting opportunity revealed itself. There is a way for energy, manufacturing and engineering businesses to generate tangible business leads and sales using social media platforms. Here’s how.

Today, selling with social media requires ignoring the over-hyped “wisdom” of popular business gurus and returning to basic marketing principles.

Follow the Real Leaders

It took me a while but I found, Amanda Kinsella of Cincinnati-based Logan Services who is selling dozens of heating and air conditioning systems each month on Facebook. Then I met entrepreneur, Marcus Sheridan who is busy selling more in-ground, fiberglass swimming pools than any business in North America using a blog—and who’s being courted by manufacturers clamoring to buy it.

What’s their secret sauce?

Form 3 Simple Habits

I’ve come to learn that fundamental concepts powering effective social marketing programs are rooted in a return to marketing basics. Successful social sellers understand the difference between fooling around on social media and selling with it relies on developing three habits:

1. Getting back to basics, trusting instincts and solving customers problems
2. Designing to sell, planning social experiences to induce behavior/response
3. Translating, discovering customer need and feeding it back into marketing design

Your business can immediately begin selling using social media by applying these 3 success principles. And it’s not as difficult as you may think. Why? Because the social aspects of attracting, nurturing and successfully earning a purchase are already known to your marketing team and sales force.

This isn’t a revolution of how marketing is done. This is simply evolution. Don’t buy into the hype and buy into the easy answers.

Join the Evolution

“What’s working” is what has always worked. Successful social sellers are merely designing digital interactions (“conversations”) in ways that solve customers’ problems. This makes it easier to help guide customers toward technically-oriented products and services. That’s how social media can deliver sales to your business.

It’s true: social media rarely reveals a clearer path forward. For most businesses Facebook, blogs and such are just confusing them more. Even more perplexing, experts keep claiming social media’s arrival represents a revolution. Yet in practice most of us are experiencing the same, mediocre results from social marketing that traditional advertising has produced—customers’ fleeting attention. And that’s why I’ve decided to research, write and speak on this subject and bring needed information into the hands of people like you.

Photo credit:  Caveman Chuck Coker

1) Defining and measuring ROI is more important than earning a business lead or making a sale.
2) Listening and gaining customers’ attention is the end game.

In theory, nobody will disagree with the above yet in practice nearly everyone does. This is why I took a year off and got to work—researching WHO is selling with social media and HOW they’re doing it. What I found was shocking and exciting: from small businesses to global corporations those who are selling with social media are all using the same basic technique—the same success principles.

I met people like Amanda Kinsella of Logan Services who’s selling dozens of heating and air conditioning systems using Facebook. And people like Laura Messerschmidt of Intuit. By combining a cash grant program with social media training for customers, Intuit is feeding thousands of new leads each month to its Payroll product. The same technique is being used by people like Gunner Branson. He’s helping global corporations like Jones Lang LaSalle get clients interested in signing seven-figure commercial real estate contracts using YouTube.

Each of these very different companies are using the same techniques to make social media sell products and services. The most surprising and empowering part of these stories is how these businesses are getting back to basics. As it turns out, selling with social media involves evolution—not a total revolution of how business is done.

On December 2nd I’ll introduce you to people who are making social sell. When you hear how they’re getting the job done you’ll be empowered with knowledge and inspired, motivated to make change. I’m bringing these remarkably simple simple, world class strategies to Antwerp, Belgium at the Fusion Marketing Experience. Will you be there to hear them?

First, it’s important to realize that having a constant stream of content emanating from your business is not that important. Despite what “the experts” keep saying, the most effective content is not that which gets discovered in search engines and gets people to your Web site. It’s not a numbers game. Nor is it that which has “your voice” or “reflects your culture” or “is authentic.” Nor is effective content a blog or article or video which convinces customers to prefer or choose your brand.

The most effective content produces measurable sales. Period.

If leads and sales are what you’re after with content marketing then you’ve got to come to grips with the truth: Effective content marketing goes beyond providing your target audience with useful information. That’s essential but you’ve got to go the extra mile—you’ve got to provide NEW, previously unknown information that tells customers how to avoid risk or exploit opportunity. Good luck finding someone on the outside that a) understands that and b) understands enough about your competitive environment to know how and where to find what your customers truly need to know and c) can actually research such content—let alone produce it reliably, over time!

Getting to the sale demands that your company’s content create addictions among customers. People need to crave your tips and tricks or educational materials. That means your content must always help them solve problems, generate wealth or avoid risk. If your content isn’t doing these things then it blends right in to the environment. It’s crap.

Want your content to look like your competitors? Just outsource it to people who repackage information your customers already know. They’ll take your money and in return pass off what they create as thought leadership or insightful information. And then you’ll pass that junk on to your customers.

95% of content marketing is crap—information that everyone already knows surrounded by buzzwords.

Want your content to produce leads and sales? Hire people who know how to produce written or multi-media materials that make readers/viewers say, “hmm, I never thought of it THAT way… that’s scary” or “I see the opportunity in that, I better get in touch with these people to take action!”

Because that’s what good social media marketing and content marketing does—induces responses that leads to sales.

photo credit: feck_aRt_post

The Idea

ASME paired a new, information-rich member recruitment-focused microsite with Facebook to lure young members. The Facebook page uses YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, to deliver images of energetic, motivated teens and young adults enjoying competition, camaraderie and success.

The Goal

ASME’s goal was to recruit bright young people into the field. This would be done by using Facebook to lure target member toward a Web site with various guidance, job opportunities and advice on careers in mechanical engineering.

The Results

The end result was heralded as a huge success by Web marketing trade media like B2BOnline but it provided little value to the association beyond gaining fleeting attention of young engineers and engineering students. The association failed to discover and nurture demand. It failed to prompt useful behavior that shepherded potential members along — on a journey that could have led to a membership application being filled out.

Facebook “likes” increased 46% in three months, to more than 10,000. Monthly visits to Facebook increased 300%, and Facebook drives 25% of all traffic to the FutureME microsite.

But few memberships were generated.

What ASME Should Have Done to Get Members

What if the trade association had given people a reason to “like” their page? The association chose to force thousands of potential members it to “like” its Facebook page just to see what was on it. Then they walked away. But what if the association used Facebook to give something valuable to potential members in return for being “liked” AND being able to communicate directly with them?

For instance, serious engineering students want access to “real life” experiences in engineering. And that includes accessing engineering firms, discovering the latest “real world” theories and practices being pioneered, and meeting engineers who are at the top of their game. ASME could have given away an all-expenses paid trip to its annual convention where that kind of experience would come to life for a student.

Mechanical engineering students also need cash. In fact, this would be an excellent opportunity for any professional association to make a scholarship or stipend available as part of a “like us and be entered to win” Facebook contest. The ASME could have discovered and qualified new members with a short Web form asking for first name, school and email address (as part of the contest).

This way the association is left with e-mail leads—a way to contact qualified students in the future for direct recruitment purposes.

What You Can Do to Get Members—Right Now

Students also need to find a way toward jobs. An association can step forward on Facebook and literally reward students for asking job-hunting related questions. Sure, many of these questions are answered on association Web sites but students aren’t there. There’s no reason to be there versus being on Facebook. Much like grocery store Harris-Teeter pays customers to ask its dietician health-related questions on Facebook, an association can provide incentive to do the same.

Why would you do that? Because trying to draw potential members away from Facebook to an informational microsite is not as compelling as putting out a fire, right on the spot, for a student. Answering burning questions can open the door to making a call to action — a suggestion to become a member right then and there on Facebook.

What about your association? Could you be letting enthusiasm for social media distract from the real goal? And when investing in Facebook or other social marketing tools shouldn’t you be creating “quality time” with potential members… by helping them solve problems ?

I discuss exactly how to help existing and potential/new members solve problems… in ways that earn memberships… in Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell.

Please be clear: I’m not calling ASAE’s staff or advertising agency stupid or short-sighted. Their team is working hard to make social media serve a purpose just like you are. But in this particular case they could have designed social media to generate more member applications. I’m sure they learned from it. And now you can too!

photo credit: davesandford

Time to read 3 minutes. Selling home furnishings, kitchens, appliances, sofas, beds, mattresses and textiles using social media can be a snap. But only if you don’t follow the leading examples of best practices. That’s because most social marketing best practices fail to create sales. Case in point, Ikea’s Facebook campaign earned lots of industry buzz and customer engagement but few if any sales. Here’s how you can avoid making the same mistakes and create sales with social media marketing.

The Idea

Ikea had a promotional idea to open its new Malmo, Sweden store. Management would use Facebook to spread product images far and wide across the social network.  Ikea’s Malmo store set up a fan page and uploaded product images as photos within. When seeing a product image, any Facebook user could “tag” the image (associate themselves with it) and win it. First come, first served.

The Goal

Through product images, the new store would become more known to Facebook users. This was the store’s first mistake: setting the bar too low. Ikea’s idea was to give away a handful of store items. In return, those products would be seen virally as widely and as often as possible across Facebook.

Ikea’s “big idea” was to spread images of its store’s products far and wide. Ikea’s stated goal was limited to “lots of views.” Plus, the retailer failed to build a useful marketing asset for itself—something the store could use over time to foster sales.

The Results

The end result was heralded as a huge success by Web marketing trade media, bloggers, and gurus, but it it provided little value to Ikea beyond a massive display of product images across Facebook pages. This retail store failed to discover and nurture demand. It failed to prompt useful customer behavior that shepherded customers along — on a journey that could have led to purchase activity.

What Ikea Should Have Done to Create Sales

But what if Ikea took its photo-tagging concept and focused on a market segment important to that particular store, and what if they added an element that discovered more about that segment’s needs? For instance, the store could have traded the chance to win free stuff for a bit of insightful information about  a specific customer group as a requirement to participate. That way Ikea would develop a prospecting database for future follow-up.

As an example, incoming or first-year college students are prime targets for Ikea’s contemporary, cost-effective, and lightweight furniture—home furnishings, appliances, sofas, beds, mattresses, textiles. By identifying contest participants who were students, the company could have developed a targeted follow up e-mail campaign or a Facebook communications routine—something geared to prompt store visits through any number of student-focused promotions.

Or Ikea could have offered the chance to win something in exchange for the chance to solve problems or make life easier for students. “How to Design Your Dorm” video programs, articles, or an interactive application could have been provided—preloaded with stylish tips geared for young men or women. Content can be delivered in whatever format the audience chooses—articles, e-newsletters, podcasts, or short video programs. Each piece of content marketing would be designed to foster demand for Ikea’s products. Calls to action, promotions, and so on may be sprinkled in to induce an exchange of information between Ikea and prospects.

Getting this done is as simple as asking contest participants to identify themselves and choose a problem to have Ikea solve. By segmenting male and female students, the tips, tricks, and valuable content can be tailored by typical, gender-driven needs, goals, and interests.

What Your Store Can Do to Create Sales

In addition to giving a customer segment (like students) a chance to win products, your store can improve the lives of future buyers today and nurture relationships toward sales transactions tomorrow. This kind of “quality time thinking” would have given Ikea’s team something to work with long term when courting customers. Instead, the store settled for a flash-in-the-pan Facebook campaign.

What about your business? Could you be letting enthusiasm for social media distract from the real goal? Shouldn’t you be qualifying specific opportunities social media provides before taking action? And when acting, shouldn’t you be creating purposeful quality time with customers?

I discuss how to do this… in more detail in Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell. And wait until you meet Rok Hrastnik of textile purveyor, Dormeo.com and hear of his email and YouTube successes using the same idea.

Please be clear: I’m not calling Ikea stupid or short-sighted. Their team is working hard to make social media serve a purpose just like you are. But in this particular case they could have designed social media to sell. I’m sure they learned from it. And now you can too!

Photo credit: iquene

Time to read: 2 minutes. You’ve probably gotten your feet wet with social media marketing by tweeting or creating a Facebook page. Good for you. But if you’re like most marketers, you were hoping for more from social media: leads and sales. Sure, you’ve netted a few customers that you suspect came from Facebook or Twitter. But you want more; many more. But how to get a customer from your Facebook page or blog to the point-of-purchase is unclear. And the metrics you’re told to use (like “engagement”) don’t help. Until now.

The key to selling with social media

After a year of interviewing the best social media sellers — businesses that are actually selling using tools like Facebook, blogs and LinkedIn — I found a common thread. The answer to selling more with social media is found in starting conversations that are worth having. And conversing in ways that generate questions—that your products or services give answers to. To do this they’re focusing on solving customers problems.

THIS is how to generate more customer inquiries. In fact, they’ve proven to me that knowing how to “do social media” really well is worthless without knowing how to design it to pay you back.

Forget about learning how to “do social media”

The answers you seek won’t be found in learning how to set up a Facebook page or run promotions within it. Nor will learning how to operate blog software, install plugins, set up widgets or create LinkedIn groups help you generate leads and sales. These skills are essential to have, but success requires a focus on planning social media marketing. Giving it purpose.

Following customers into social spaces without a means to capture sales rarely works. Listening and engaging with customers on Facebook, Twitter, blogs or on mobile devices—they’re all necessary, but doing just these things won’t help you sell more and more often.

Solve customers problems

That’s why successful marketers are going beyond capturing customers’ attention in social spaces. Instead, they’re designing social media marketing in ways that ultimately creates a sale. And here’s how: They’re differentiating, driving sales and keeping more customers by diagnosing and solving customer problems—not by cutting prices and offering coupons.

Social media can be a more powerful servant to your business than you think. But only when you act on the truth that attention is only the beginning. Successful social marketers design to sell.

Follow these rules

Everything I’ve learned from today’s best “social sellers” can be distilled to three success principles. Social media marketers that sell:

1. are translators that discover and solve customers’ evolving problems; They answer routine, everyday questions for customers on their blog or using Facebook

2. always design social experiences to discover customers’ needs, cater to them over time and ultimately capture the sale; They use the answers (to common questions) as a way to help customers guide themselves toward more answers — products and services

3. create sales by mixing in behavior-driven, direct response and classic marketing devices; They use what has always worked (traditional marketing tactics, give-aways, contests, etc.) in social environments and leverage traditional lead nurturing tactics to bring the sale to fruition.

I drill down and give actual examples of businesses using this technique in my 3 Habits of Successful Social Media Marketers white paper here.  Good luck!

Photo credit: cyanocorax

Time to read/listen: Less than 2 minutes. It’s true. I’m finally done with a year’s worth of researching how today’s best social sellers us tools like Facebook and blogs to sell. Starting today, any business can create leads and sales with social media. And I’m giving away the first chapter free just to prove it.

 

Name:

Email:

We respect your email privacy