In the first post of this series we discussed how important it is not to look at Twitter as a way to step onto the platform and begin to market your product or service. At the heart of Twitter are the same aspects of any sale: Relationships. The focus one must concentrate on is the building of great relationships on Twitter–and the benefits can be stunning in several aspects. At Webvantix we never looked at Twitter as a way to market our web design/re-design business, and therefore only accessed Twitter on an individual basis, not even using our logo or our name, other than in our link and bio. So, what did that mean? We wanted to develop friendships with people we encountered on Twitter and if they ultimately became interested in what we did, that was fine, but the relationships came first. One aspect of focus was to use the ‘favorite’ tool on Tweet Deck (before Twitter rolled out its ‘List’ function). Through the favorite tool, and now through our Lists, we developed a number of different groups, but most important was our ‘Local’ list that enabled us to talk to people in our area, on a grass-roots level. We were Twittering with other local business owners and they were Twittering with us. Combine this with our seminars and webinars and a natural interest in our work began to bloom. No sales pitch, no pressure, just a natural progression of a relationship. Ultimately we encountered @lisasmith a business owner in desperate need of a professional website design.
Lisa had quickly developed a website for her business that had recently been launched, but as she indicated to me, she needed a professional deployment to be competed before her company was in full sales mode in early Spring.
Concrete Form Rentals BEFORE Webvantix
We worked closely with Lisa to determine who would be visiting her site and what her main products were. We developed a proof that enabled her to silo her site’s visitors onto the appropriate landing pages.
Now you may think this is the end of the story, but actually it’s just beginning. As we discussed, we developed and grew the relationship with Lisa through our ‘Local’ list. While discussing Christmas trees with Lisa one afternoon, I indicated that instead of spending $65 on a tree, that she and her family were welcome to stop by my small farm a cut a tree. She and her sons visited one Saturday before Christmas and we had a great time hiking through the woods to find the right tree.
Concrete Form Rental AFTER Webvantix (with Slio buttons at the bottom)
Now, every relationship you develop on Twitter may not blossom into a great client/vendor friendship, that becomes and actual friendship, but it’s substantially more satisfying from a business and personal standpoint than just trying to peddle you wares.
We continue to encounter new and intriguing people and companies from a local as well as national and international standpoint. Our attempt is to continue interact with people as individuals and not as prospects. If you have a paradigm shift and begin to look at Twitter as a relationships tool, you may find yourself surprised and pleased by the results, and you may find yourself defending Twitter the next time someone tells you that Twitter is a waste of time and is for egocentric people with nothing better to do–my guess is they’ve not had a bunch of kids to their house for a Christmas tree hunt on a snowy Saturday in December, all thanks to Twitter!
Do you have a story about Twitter bringing you together with a new friend or customer? Please share it with us.
Describing how to grow your business with Twitter is a dicey and difficult issue, and I’ve been thinking about this post for a long time. It actually been weighing on my mind and has inhibited my ability to move forward with other posts, simply because I was not sure how to approach this important topic. So, let’s start with the negatives and move into the positives.
What are the negatives? Well, much the opposite of what many think, you cannot jump onto Twitter and start talking about what you sell or how you consult or how what you have or do is going to greatly enhance someone else’s business–or life. Quite simply, it’s not that simple. Unfortunately many who have set up a Twitter account, followed a few people, and have had a few follow them back, posted about what they do and how good they are at it, or listed information on a house they are selling, or that they are a Social Media Marketing expert, find it all for nothing. Then what do they say? “Twitter is a waste of time.” Well, if approached in this fashion yes, it is. Remember the movie “The Graduate” and the cocktail party where the guys says “I want to say one word to you, just one word: Plastics.” I love that quote! So here’s the Twitter version of it: “I want to say one word to you, just one word: Relationships.”
Yes, Twitter is about building relationships, and unfortunately that can be easily overlooked. Yet, it’s not about “Let me know how I can help your business.” The idea is to be MUCH more sincere. How? Easy, interact with people that are on Twitter, but do it sincerely. That means interacting with people who Twitter about things that interest you! Don’t ever look at a person as a ‘mark’ or ‘prospect,’ and you will actually develop more than relationships, you will develop friendships, as I have. When you find yourself looking forward to seeing your friends pop up on Tweet Deck or Seesmic, you will have gotten it–until you’ve reached that point, you haven’t.
In Part 2, I’ll talk about a specific experiences we’ve had developing relationships and actual friendships!
Tell me about your Twitter experiences, have you developed any great friendships as well?
A recent comment on this blog that spoke about overcoming objections prompted the writing of this post, simply because it reminded me of a conversation I had with a senior rep when I was in training at Merrill Lynch in the early 90s. I was frustrated with the fact that I had gotten rejected by a strong prospect, who would have become my largest account. Throughout the sales process I overcame objections, only to have yet another thrown up in its place, eventually the prospect went elsewhere, simply based on price. The senior rep said to me, you would have hated that relationship anyway, try to always focus on working with customers who want to work with you, and sincerely appreciate what you offer. Words to live by.
Recently Webvantix was working to land two pieces of business. One that had come to us via our website, the other that had attended a seminar we held on Social Media Marketing, who we initiated contact with via Twitter (I will get more granular on Twitter in our next post). At face value the prospect that had come to us via our site was more sizable, but proved over a three month period of time, to be unable to make a decision (classic paralysis-by-analysis), and kept throwing up objection after objection, that was, essentially, pulling Webvantix away from its core operating values. While it was important to win this customer, especially during such a soft economy, and classically quiet time of year (late November to late December), I began to remember my time at mother Merrill, “work with customers that want to work with you.” Yes, still words to live by. I shot off a quick e-mail to the prospect informing them that I believed it best if we did not continue to move forward in attempting to secure their business, and wished them well. Done and done, further aggravation and possible problems averted.
The second prospect, while smaller, was energetic, smart, and excited about what we offered. In reviewing our Before/After video as well as our quotations from our existing customers, we quickly reached a price-point with a flex-payment structure that worked for them, executed the necessary paperwork and were on our way! When they received their first proof, they quickly realized the stark difference between what they had, and what their new site will look like–and just in time as their late winter sales push is beginning. Oh, and did I mention, they have a second business that needs a new site, and have referred two other businesses to us. Well eclipsing the relationship that did not work out.
Remember, work with customers that want to work with you. Don’t force the fit, you will just end up with problems down the road. Words to live by.
As a web development company working with businesses throughout the country, we get a great deal of questions regarding driving traffic to a website. Almost always the customer leads the discussion to SEO, and while we think a proper, yet basic, SEO setup is warranted, our belief is that fresh content drives both traffic and indexing.
Participation in blogging, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are far less expensive than both ongoing SEO work and traditional advertising and have the potential to quickly reach exponentially more people, yet we still hear the following reasoning NOT to participate:
1. ”We are too busy.”
(Response: That’s great, especially in this economy, but if you’re busy, your competition has taken notice, and is doing EVERYTHING they can to take business away from you, EVERYTHING.)
2. ”We don’t know anything about computers.”
(Response: Business is dynamic. It is no longer sufficient to open a local brick and mortar business, and hope for the best. Be proactive, learn what to do–blog about the passion you feel for your business. If you have an antique store, blog and video blog about your passion for the pieces in your shop. If you own a restaurant blog and Twitter about your specials and anything going on such as live music–I promise you, your customers want to know!)
3. ”Our customers are not online.”
(Response: If your customers are seniors, they are the fastest growing demographic online, and, as they move into retirement, their children and those taking their positions at companies that may be your clients, are online.)
4. ”I tried Twitter and had only 8 people following me.”
(Response: Social Media Marketing is a long-term investment. You cannot be online for a couple of weeks and expect major changes, yet time invested will have a lasting effect.)
5. ”I don’t like Facebook.”
(Response: Facebook recently crossed the 350 million person threshold. Your customers are there, if you don’t connect to them there–someone else will, that’s for sure! And while you are considering spending a few thousand dollars to create one of those awful local cable TV advertisements, you could spend a fraction of that money to advertise via pay-per-click on Facebook in only your geographic area, and reach far more people.)
As a reader of this blog, what are your thoughts about businesses using Social Media to market themselves? Do you have questions about getting started, or have you had some specific success or failures?
Here are a few thoughts on Social Media Marketing and books by Gary Vaynerchuk (Crush It!) and Tamar Weinberg (The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web). These are two great books that will enlighten any business when preparing to kick off a social media marketing campaign, and as they are very different, both should be required reading!
As many of you know, I LOVE sales and marketing books. At the moment I reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It!” A great little book that if nothing else will motivate you to look rather harshly at how you are marketing your company. Are your efforts tepid and weak at best? Does your website suck, do you blog to add new content and create interest? Are you passionate about what you do?
Here’s a video blog by Gary–you can see his passion. Oh, and by the way, his marketing tactics that employ Social Media (yeah, that social media that you’ve shunned), have taken his family’s wine business in New Jersey Wine Library from $4 mil per year in revenue to $50 mil…I would like that too! Wow!
Get Crush It! and read it quickly…it’s a small book and only about 150 pages.
You owe it to yourself, your family and your business to understand what you can do now, yes in this terrible economy, to explode your business, while people are busy saying you can’t.
Note, this is no get rich quick scheme, it’s just a lesson in how to begin to utilize the platforms that are out there, and are free, that you probably have not used.
When I first sat down to read The Road, I quickly read ten or so pages and was off to something else; how typical in this era of “must be multitasking.” Returning to the book two days later on a Saturday morning I was mesmerized, completing the balance of the book in one sitting.
In his book Cormac McCarthy painted a picture that I have had difficulty putting out of my mind, and has left me reeling with apocalyptic visions that have shaken me to the core of my being–with the movie coming out, though delayed several times, I knew I had to see it. I was simply drawn to it.
Viggo Mortensen (expect an Oscar nomination here), Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall and newcomer Kodi Smith-McPhee , along with Director John Hillcoat and Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe have created a masterpiece that will endure as a sincere testament to the bond a parent feels for a child, and the obligation that bond engenders.
The end of the world scenario is simple and we’ve heard it over and over, yet in The Road the now standard hyperbole is washed away by the purest of stories: survive in a world where all that once was is gone, food is scarce and the evil the conditions of this nature would breed is everywhere. Protect the boy. Travel the road toward the coast. Eat.
In the movie, as in the book, the world has experienced some sort of naturally occurring geophysical shift, and is now destroying itself. All animals and people are gone, save pockets of survivors. Essentially, as Robert Duvall’s “Old Man” says “I knew this was going to happen, there were warnings, I always felt it…not like some con, but I always felt it” underscores the biblical nuances McCarthy uses to make us understand, this was not caused by man.
Mortensen’s quest, though not and Arthurian quest for good, is to get his son south to the coast–the coast representing hope, and the quest, simply for survival. Along their journey on the road, they portray themselves as “good-guys” in a world of bad guys, but as their journey continues the realities of the stark new world begin to blur the lines between good and evil, and evil could just be a metaphor for survival. These lines, of course, fade much more quickly for some, though in the mind of a child not yet tainted by the real world, be it an apocalyptic world, or today’s world, goodness, hope and purity endure, and as the father knew, would be rewarded. I highly recommend it.
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
As our country’s economic base has morphed from one oriented toward production of actual goods, to a service orientation (how many real estate agents and financial consultants and personal trainers are out there-whew), there is tremendous clamor for customer acquisition–ask anyone who worked in the 60’s and 70’s and they will tell you, they’ve never seen competition so fierce. Customer acquisition is the core issue, period.
What that means is that those of us seeking the all-important customer must use every tool in our bag, or as I have loved to say for years, every arrow in our quiver.
That leads me to my Yelp story.
Back in early October I was in Connecticut for my 25th. year high school reunion–ouch (Wilton High School, 1984), that hurts to even type! One of my closest friends and I were already in the vicinity of the venue, but found we had some extra time before the reunion began, and wanted to have a seat at a nice bar–we are both wine drinkers (he lives in San Francisco, and even makes his own, and it’s amazing). Like a complete tech-head, I pulled out my iPhone and went straight to Yelp, punched in “Wine Bar” only to find the closest was over in New Canaan, about 30 minutes each way–too far.
We decided to run up to Ridgefield and see what we could find. By chance we found a great place that had recently opened, the Bissell House Restaurant and Bar. It’s a really nice place with a beautiful marble bar, and nice wines by the glass (nice, I did not say excellent).
The restaurant had recently opened, and we discussed this with the two bartenders, who, when we mentioned Yelp, had never heard of it, and seemed to dismiss it. When we left we were chatting with the hostesses and again mentioned how we found the restaurant, and recommended they tell the owner to get onto Yelp–they seemed to roll their eyes and yes us as we left. I thought nothing more about it and went on to one of the nicest and most wonderful evenings of my life!
When I started thinking about Yelp again, and checking it for restaurants up in my area (the middle of nowhere in Northeastern Pennsylvania), I wondered if I punched in “Wine Bars” in the Connecticut area if the Bissell House Restaurant and Bar would show up…guess what, it’s now on Yelp and even has a warm review. Lesson: if you have a brick and mortar shop, restaurant, bar, whatever, get onto Yelp, and begin to look at the other Social Media networks that can help you get exposure…why not?
Do you use any networks to promote your local business? Let us know!
Webvantix recently did a complete redo of our website. Working with Preston and the Webvantix team was a great experience, from the quick turn-around of site development to the precise, candidate interaction with the team. The result was a much more aesthetically pleasing and user friendly site. — Kathy Hattansty, The Bramlett Agency
In the first post of this series we discussed how important it is not to look at Twitter as a way to step onto the platform and begin to market your product or service. At the heart of Twitter are the same aspects of any sale: Relationships. The focus one must concentrate on is the building of great relationships on Twitter–and the benefits can be stunning in several aspects. At Webvantix we never looked at Twitter as a way to market our web design/re-design business, and therefore only accessed Twitter on an individual basis, not even using our logo or our name, other than in our link and bio. So, what did that mean? We wanted to develop friendships with people we encountered on Twitter and if they ultimately became interested in what we did, that was fine, but the relationships came first. One aspect of focus was to use the ‘favorite’ tool on Tweet Deck (before Twitter rolled out its ‘List’ function). Through the favorite tool, and now through our Lists, we developed a number of different groups, but most important was our ‘Local’ list that enabled us to talk to people in our area, on a grass-roots level. We were Twittering with other local business owners and they were Twittering with us. Combine this with our seminars and webinars and a natural interest in our work began to bloom. No sales pitch, no pressure, just a natural progression of a relationship. Ultimately we encountered @lisasmith a business owner in desperate need of a professional website design.
We continue to encounter new and intriguing people and companies from a local as well as national and international standpoint. Our attempt is to continue interact with people as individuals and not as prospects. If you have a paradigm shift and begin to look at Twitter as a relationships tool, you may find yourself surprised and pleased by the results, and you may find yourself defending Twitter the next time someone tells you that Twitter is a waste of time and is for egocentric people with nothing better to do–my guess is they’ve not had a bunch of kids to their house for a Christmas tree hunt on a snowy Saturday in December, all thanks to Twitter!
