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Are You An Employee or a Person?

September 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Business social media is not just an opportunity. It’s also an obstacle. Many businesses have rules, regulations, policies, and barriers that may preclude you from using any and all forms of social media that include their business name.

ACTION: Continue as an employee, but divorce yourself from the company as a person. There are no rules that preclude you from participating in any of the social media as a human being.

If you’re in banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, or any other business that has a legal department that begins with the word no and ends with the word no, then take the business name out of everything you do.

You can tweet about, and you can blog about, and you can Facebook about aspects of your relationship that customers and prospects deem significant, never mentioning the name of your company, or your affiliation with it.

There is no rule against telling people the best place to take a weekend vacation, how to keep your front yard safe, how to reduce costs of heating and air conditioning in your home, or your personal philosophies and insights about life.

NOTE WELL: Leave out offers to buy.

Rather, create opportunities that will allow you to connect and opportunities to get together and meet. A seminar, a networking event, even a party.

Make the information valuable, and I guarantee it will get forwarded. Business social media is an opportunity for you to build your personal brand, build personal awareness, build your personal network, and build your personal reputation.

Yes, it takes a little chutzpah, but it will save you the embarrassment, and loss of ground, of not doing it at all.

CONSIDER THIS: Suppose you left your job tomorrow, or get laid off, or get fired. The first thing your prospective new employer is going to do when considering you for a position is check your online status and your Google ranking.

In today’s employment world, you don’t even need a resume because your Google rank, your social media presence, and your overall online presence speaks way louder than what your high school gym teacher (from 20 years ago) thinks of you.

There is a big difference between reference and reputation.

And if you’re in sales, the only people I’m going to call for a reference are your prior customers.

FINAL PIECE OF ADVICE: If you’re frustrated by what you can’t do, start doing what you can do.

Filed Under: business, customers, sales, Social BOOM!, social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Difference Between Social Media and Business Social Media on YouTube

August 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

YouTube provides the biggest opportunity for you to promote your name and your brand. Anyone in the world can find you and your information. And it’s FREE!

If you have a YouTube channel, go to the main page and see how many total views you have. If it’s less than 1,000 you haven’t provided enough opportunities for others to find you, or enough value for any kind of viral activity.

Let me share some YouTube opportunities with you:

  • Create a library of customer testimonials, tips, and ideas about your product that appear in no brochure.
  • Record business philosophies that you have and want to share with others.
  • Record your best idea of the week.
  • Record your favorite customer of the week.
  • Record your favorite restaurant in your city.

You get the idea. Your ability to broadcast on your own YouTube channel is limited only by your imagination and your allocated time. And did I mention, IT’S FREE!

Start with customer testimonial videos because they will lead you to more customers and you can pull them up when you’re making a sales presentation to provide a point.

KEY POINT OF UNDERSTANDING: Keep all videos short and light. (One to four minutes is the idea length.) Keep all videos fun and real. Make sure the videos that you post are an accurate representation of who you are in the business world, and what you believe to be true with your customers, your product, your company, and you.

I am on social media providing examples for my customers so they can do the exact same thing. Spend some time watching some of the value videos I have uploaded onto my own YouTube channel:

Filed Under: business, customers, lead generation, sales, Social BOOM!, social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Understanding The Power Of Twitter

July 1, 2012 By 2 Comments

It seems as though the mature (seasoned) salespeople are resisting Twitter or simply do not understand the power in it and efficacy of it. With an estimated 175 million accounts and millions of tweets a day, there MAY be something to it. Especially because the Fortune 1000s are tweeting. Every newspaper and news agency is tweeting. Thousands of small businesses are tweeting.

What are you doing? Are you tweeting every day? Or are you stymied by the process and don’t quite know what to do? (Like most people.)

WARNING: Twitter for business has nothing to do with being in your pajamas, having a tough day, heading to the office, or other inane useless information. It also has nothing to do with “tweeple,” “tweeps,” or other buzzwords that are cute and condescending.

  • Twitter is about informing.
  • Twitter is about passing on information.
  • Twitter is about value messages.
  • Twitter is about connecting.

Twitter is about others finding value in your messages or information and passing it on to others. And when you’re retweeted, it’s proof that your message had enough value, content, or vital information that people in your network were willing to pass it on to their network.

How does a daily value tweet help you?

1. It challenges you to think and write. Daily discipline.

2. It challenges you to create viral messages so that you become better known as a person of value.

3. It challenges you to create the REAL law of attraction. Attraction = potential customer.

3.5 People will proactively connect with you. If they agree with you, and they respect you, they’ll tell others to connect with you as well.

There is a secret to Twitter success. And it’s the same secret for all of social media, especially business social media: Wake up and WRITE.

Here are some Twitter conversations going on right now about me:


Filed Under: business, customers, lead generation, sales, Social BOOM!, social media, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Your (Personal) Business Social Media Game Plan

June 25, 2012 By 2 Comments

Regardless of where you are in the construction or operation of your business social media outreach, I’m asking you to relook at and rethink about the process because the odds are you started it with the wrong motive: money and sales.

In regard to your business Facebook page, your Twitter account, your LinkedIn connections, and your YouTube channel — ask yourself these questions (for each of the four individually):

  • What am I hoping to achieve?
  • Who am I wanting to attract, engage, and connect with?
  • Who will help me design?
  • Who will help me launch?
  • Who will help me post?
  • Who will be in charge of this process short term?
  • Who will be in charge of this process long term?
  • Do I need professional help?
  • How much time am I willing to allocate each day?
  • How often am I committing to update?
  • What type of value messaging am I going to offer?

The answers to these questions (written down) will create both structure and architecture for your entire business social media game plan. It will also determine your strategy for attracting, engaging, and connecting.

Luckily for you, most people started a Facebook page because their neighbor did or one of their friends did. Don’t do that. Start (or restart) your business social media outreach with purpose, plan, and design. And start (or restart) it with an understanding of what you want to achieve. Not just a goal to launch, but also a goal to attract, a goal to engage, a goal to connect, and a goal for what you want the OUTCOME to be.

Whatever you do, do not follow the ill-fated “Begin with the end in mind.” A more bogus, meaningless statement has never been written to the world business population.

It should say “Begin with the outcome defined.”

If you don’t begin knowing what you want to achieve, and how you intend to achieve it, then don’t begin.

Business social media is far different from, and far more powerful than, social media. Business social media will allow you to keep existing customers loyal, attract new customers, build your reputation, and create more brand awareness than you could ever do with a full page ad every week in Time magazine, or a full page ad every Sunday in The New York Times.

MATH: Those ads will cost you millions of dollars a year, and guarantee you NOTHING. Business social media is free, and a million times more powerful, more authentic, and more valuable.

And if done correctly, business social media puts you in direct one-to-one contact with paying customers. That’s a game plan you can take to the bank.

Filed Under: business, customers, lead generation, sales, Social BOOM!, social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

HOW TO: Start Your Own Business Facebook Page

June 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Here is a 5.5-part success formula:

1. Gather the email address of each one of your customer contacts. There may be three or four connections at one place. Then gather all your prospective customers whether you have spoken to them or not (email addresses and names). Then gather all your vendors, prime connections, and the CEO of every vendor you have. If there are end users involved in your sales chain, gather as many of them as well. How many names and email addresses do you have? Never think, “I don’t have enough names.” Even if you have only 50, and those people are loyal advocates of yours, you can begin to create your own business Facebook page.

2. Begin gathering valuable content that your customers would perceive as usable and profitable. Information that they would consider so valuable that they might forward it to somebody else. Gather lots of it. Think of it this way: Every paragraph that you have can be one day’s post. Don’t start your business page without at least 30 days of postings.

3. Have your business page designed graphically and strategically. Sometimes it pays to pay. If you seek out and hire credible, professional help in design AND strategy, you will get incredible results. Although the ability for graphic alteration within Facebook is limited, that doesn’t mean you can’t use what’s available to its maximum power. How your page looks to others, and the value of what you post, created the attraction power. How you link to other ports of “you” builds your following, your reputation, and your limelight.

4. Your Facebook page has to be a door that swings both ways. People attracted in from value and people that can immediately click out to find out more about you.

5. Use my page as a guideline. It’s designed to make certain that I have a linkage to all other business social media and all other forms of attraction. It even has a welcome video that describes what the page does so that people have no hesitancy to “Like” me.

5.5 Sign up for Ace of Sales to create the coolest emails on the planet. And then construct a short email that invites people to join you on your business Facebook Page.

Just remember: All business social media in interconnected. You have to do ALL of them consistently to gain effective results. And you have to do all of them well if you expect to monetize your efforts.

Filed Under: business, customers, lead generation, sales, Social BOOM!, social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

The sales world is changing. Are you changing?

June 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The sales world is changing. Are you changing? Been in sales for more than five years? Notice any changes? Of course you have – but probably not the ones I’m going to talk about. I’m NOT talking about the economy, or customers in financial trouble, or slow sales, or price pressures from competition, or pressures from your boss to “sell more now.” Oh and, by the way, how about YOUR changes? Still cold calling? Still learning “how to close?” Still “finding the pain?” Still trying to figure out social media? Still a bit behind technology? That’s your problem.

I AM talking about changes that have taken place over the past five years that will affect sales into the next decade. Your sales. Here are the major changes that have taken place, and how you must take advantage of them and master them to sell and succeed:

Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube today.

Filed Under: business, customers, lead generation, sales, Social BOOM!, social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

5.5 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Writing Skills

June 11, 2012 By 1 Comment

The core process of business social media is writing. Every aspect of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube requires writing. Clear, concise, compelling writing. I can’t teach you “how to write.” Or “how to write better.” I can share with you how I write, and you can take it from there.

Everyone needs to (learn to) write in a more compelling manner: clear, concise, compelling writing is a rarity in our world. Email and text messaging has helped with clear and concise, but it has taken “compelling” out of the formula.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, e-zines, and blogs have put compelling back in.

Here are 5.5 things you can do to improve your writing skills:

1. Just sit down and write something. Every day.

2. Save your best thoughts and ideas the second they occur. Not on a pad of paper or a diary. ON A COMPUTER. Where you can reread it, expand it, and edit it.

3. Write it like you would say it.

4. Make sure your thoughts are simple, easy to understand, and complete.

5. Edit early and often

5.5. Remember that you’re writing for the reader AND yourself.

For more writing and business social media tips, read some of my books:

Filed Under: business, customers, lead generation, sales, Social BOOM!, social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m Gonna Google You, And You Can’t Stop Me

May 24, 2012 By 3 Comments

As business social media evolved and matures, all salespeople, executives, and entrepreneurs will expose themselves for who they are and who they aren’t…WAY BEFORE a sales call or sales meeting of any kind takes place.

Think about the impact of that…

  • I’m gonna Google YOU.
  • I’m gonna Facebook YOU.
  • I’m gonna find you on LinkedIn.
  • I’m gonna look you up on Twitter.
  • I’m gonna search you on YouTube.

And you can’t stop me.

Here are the NEW standards by which you’ll  be evaluated, granted appointment time, decided upon, measured, branded, and talked about:

Are you ready to be found?

Filed Under: business, customers, lead generation, sales, Social BOOM!, social media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

6.5 Tough Questions Designed To Make You Think, Plan, And Act

May 20, 2012 By 1 Comment

The social media boom is here! Are you participating? Or are you just watching from the sidelines? If you still haven’t decided if you’re ready to enter the world of business social media, I want you to ask yourself these 6.5 tough questions designed to make you think, plan, and act:

1. What are you doing about the social media opportunity?
2. How are you attracting customers and prospects?
3. What’s your value message beyond product offerings?
4. How are you engaging customers and prospects?
5. How are you connecting with the people you engage?
6. What’s your social media doubling plan?
6.5. What policies, trust issues, and lawyers are holding you back? Get rid of them!

Those are painful questions that need answering. Here’s what I can tell you: Individuals (like you) can safely set up their own value-based, value-messaging BUSINESS Facebook page INSIDE the parameters of whatever guidelines their business has. And they can do the same with LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

It requires hard work and consistency, but the benefits are well worth your time and energy.

Don’t wait any longer to enter the world of business social media. Start today.

Need ideas or inspiration? Visit my Facebook page. Connect with me on Twitter. Watch my videos on YouTube. Find me on LinkedIn.

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Is Your Boss Against Social Media?

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I get a lot of emails from salespeople complaining that their bosses won’t let them use Facebook for business, orLinkedIn for business, or Tweet for business on the internet. That there’s all kinds of policies against social media and all kinds of lawyers telling them what you can do and what you can’t do.

Yes there’s government regulations if you’re in certain industries but there’s also bosses that are chicken. They don’t trust their people enough. They won’t give them an hours worth of time and say, “Ok, between 9 and 10 you can build your base of social media contacts.” All bosses that are against social media are the ones who don’t know how to use it. Why don’t you offer them a tutorial?

Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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