Buzzwords and “rules” aside, content is really about communication.
Those of us who market ourselves or our clients with content aren’t necessarily doing it because we like to write. We’re not all camera-hogs who can’t wait to upload our shining mug one more time.
Nope, we’re in it for the connection.
And when a brand gets involved, they’re in it for the same reason: to connect, to communicate.
Communication – (n): the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs. — Dictionary.com
I think we’ve all got the “imparting” part of that definition down, to varying degrees. But what about the ”interchange”?
How do we get people talking?
Find ‘em
Step one is to find the right people.
Your audience, your tribe… those one-in-a-million folks who can and will become your evangelists and ambassadors, your influencers and your key constituents.
(There, I think I got my buzzword jones out on that one paragraph. We’ll see if it comes back later on.)
There are plenty of different ways to do this, but many of the most common established methods in use today involve content and social media. With literally hundreds of million users on any of a dozen different social sites, the audience is simply huge. Done right, this is quite possibly the most effective and most consistent strategy available to the majority of individuals and brands.
The only trouble is time.
Establishing relationships via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ takes time. And it can feel like time poorly spent, especially at the beginning, unless you’re one of those few angels who just live for gabbing.
I’m not one of those folks, and I’ve upset more than one “friend” by having the audacity to bring up the fact that I’m actually selling something over here.
But, that’s probably a discussion for another post.
An important factor in making social media actually work for building your business is to clearly delineate your personal and professional activities, and (by extension) your personal and professional connections.
There’s nothing at all wrong with having some of your college buddies “like” your business page on Facebook. But if 95% of your page activity is comprised of their Friday night exploits, you have a problem. Not only are potential leads going to be confused or even turned off by it, you’re going to wasting every second you spend updating it too.
Instead, by keeping personal and professional sides separate, you can focus on connecting with people who may actually help you build your business. Identify these folks by what they’re talking about already, then take a reasonable amount of time to get to know them.
Which brings us to step two…
Talk to ‘em
Everyone and their brother seems to be talking about “engagement” these days. (There’s another buzzword, dammit.) And there’s good reason for that.
It’s about that interchange we talked about earlier. And I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s not happening on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or on any other social network. At least not deeply enough to close a deal.
OK, I’ll backpedal a step or two… a lot of excellent marketers are having a lot of valuable conversations on these social platforms and are doing a few things really well:
- Figuring out what their customers care about
- Solving problems that pop up
- Spreading their content far and wide
- and Putting a human face on a soulless corporation
But when you get down to the final step in the process – closing the deal – which, may I remind you, is what businesses are here to do, social media falls short.
And that’s where some very talented social media marketers lose their way.
A deal is closed over coffee, or over the telephone. At the very least, an e-mail conversation is necessary. But even that’s a little too standoffish. Generally speaking, anyone who’s going to give you percentage of their paycheck is going to need to connect on a deeper level than Facebook allows.
So a talented marketer who’s actually interested in locating and nurturing leads rather than “friends” will eventually need to identify those social contacts who could potentially use his help, and he’ll need to start bringing them into the fold.
The best way to do that is by getting them back to your website. Your hub. Don’t spend so much time at your digital outposts that you forget why you’re keeping the home fires burning. Your main website is the place where you can (politely) control the conversation and really let a prospect have it with both barrels.
So get them there just as fast as your little fingers can fly.
Then, you can manage step three…
Work With ‘em
No matter how many barrels you use on a given prospect, you’re not going to force them to love you. Still, once you’ve got them to your site, you can work with them.
Hand them a gorgeous piece of juicy content they’d gladly pay for and just ask for their e-mail address in return.
Show them that there’s tons more of that kind of content just sitting there waiting for them to consume, and more coming out all the time. Tell them to make sure they subscribe to your blog, lest they miss something awesome.
Make it clear as crystal that you are ready, willing and able to handle any question or concern they may have regarding X, Y or Z (your niches). Even more, make them feel just a little silly going anywhere else.
Then, you leave it up to them.
No one likes a pushy salesperson. But with this kind of arrangement in place, you’re not just pushing anything. You’ve located the right person, you’ve started the conversation, you’ve actually communicated, you’ve handed them the keys to a treasure vault filled with information they’re going to love, and now you’re simply taking the next logical step in the process:
You’re looking to expand the relationship.
If they’re not ready today, no problem. Good friends can pick up a conversation right where they left off no matter how much time has intervened. So you just hang onto their e-mail and phone, and you touch base every now and then, like a good friend would.
And eventually, who knows?
