The 80/20 rule of social media
In a recent seminar I was harping on people that they need to be constant and consistent in their postings on social media sites. Things were running along smoothly until someone asked a strange question: what is it that we should be posting constantly and consistently?
The question took me back at first. I was expecting questions regarding how to use a certain feature or how to share information in a certain way but not on how to create the content that should be posted. The question lead to a good discussion about what separates the asker in the marketplace and what kind of conversations she wants to have with potential customers. By the end of the discussion everyone was scribbling down ideas on what they could post.
After thinking about it, I realized that very question is what separates me in my marketplace. There are countless trainers out there that will show you exactly how to use every possible feature on social media sites, but so what? The fact of the matter is that I could train a monkey to do 80 percent of my job; anyone can learn how to do it. What is not easily teachable though is how to create dialogue and discussion that will drive consumers to the next step in the sales process.
This careful construction of dialogue is what makes up the other 20 percent of my job. And, like most 80/20 rules, it is that 20 percent that brings in 80 percent of the business. Yes, knowing how to use the tools is important but knowing how to use the tools to increase sales is what makes all of the difference.
To learn how to drive business with social media, pretend that you have a potential customer sitting in front of you. What questions do you want to ask them? What reasons can you give them to buy from you? How will you convince them that they need your product or service? What is the ideal conversation that you will have with them?
It is as you work through this ideal conversation that you start to realize that social media is essentially a combination of sales and networking but on steroids. By applying the solid fundamentals of sales and networking you will start to learn the 20 percent of my job that is so challenging. With a good amount of practice, it should start to drive in the 80 percent of customers that you are currently missing.
TAGS: sales, social media, social networking
This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 3:40 pm and is filed under social media.
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