Social Media is Not a Place for Broadcasting

Social Media is not a place for broadcasting. It’s a place to network, research your market, other companies, and find out about the people who make the companies and the marketplace happen.

Similar to attending an exhibition or trade event, social media allows you to meet new people, form business relationships, nurture those relationships, identify prospects and leads, and nurture your buyers through their buying process.

Other people on Social Media are the other people at this massive virtual exhibition. If you use social media to broadcast to them, it is similar to shoving a brochure in their face at an exhibition. What about doing this during the post-exhibition cocktails? Would this approach establish you as a thought-leader or a potential business partner? Or just a pest making a noise?

Social Media is simply the marketplace online – imagine people stopping to chat about daily life, human experiences, funny incidents, and also being open for business and ready to identify and act on buying signals without shoving it in your face or down your throat.

Contrary to the assumptions some people still make, Social Media is not faffing about on Facebook posting selfies and trying to get as many “friends” as you can possibly get, even though you have not met, nor are likely to meet these “friends” ever in real life, and, in fact, as an aside, it would actually be really embarrassing for you to meet these “friends” in real life ‘cause, let’s face it, you’re not really in any kind of a relationship social, business, semi-social or otherwise, you’re actually using each other to make yourself look or feel more popular.

A further point is Social Media is not for people operating in isolation of the real marketplace issues of a business or for someone who does not understand that this is a marketplace and that buying and selling are key to keeping the whole place going.

So, taking all this into account, Social Media is a highly valuable tool for sales people. Social Media is how they can go about their business online. However, to return to the exhibition analogy, if you go to an exhibition and try to sell to someone without building a relationship, identifying need, understanding your buyer’s process and mapping your whole sales process to satisfy your buyer, then news will travel fast that you’re not someone people want to deal with. This kind of news you can broadcast.

A final thought is, as with inside selling, or face2face at an exhibition, if you talk at people, make it all about you and what you want, people will simply switch off to you, unless you are a truly fascinating person and are looking to engage with people who have nothing to say for themselves or no desire to have a conversation. If you do enjoy a two-way conversation and see real business value in engaging with prospects and leads like this, then the following does not apply to you: if you are super fascinating remember to be on your toes at all times; if your social media ever makes your followers snooze then you will ultimately lose.

You don’t have to believe me, of course. Here is a link to a research brief from the Aberdeeen Group which “examines the value of utilizing social relationships and user-generated content to improve the quality of B2B sales pipeline content, maximise deal closure rates, and avoid a quota-miss at the end of a selling period”.

The Aberdeen Group identified 57% of Best-in-Class sellers closed a deal that originated though social media and 38% closed a deal that was heavily influenced by social media.

Social Media is Not a Place for Broadcasting