Myth: People who like you will buy from you
During what I call my “summer of chats,” I, as you might guess, participated in a lot of Twitter chats. So many, in fact, that I now call that time period my “summer of chats.” Ehem. I was participating in chats because #blogchat had introduced me to the fact that Twitter chats are great ways to meet people with similar interests, share ideas, learn, and network. So, I participated in #blogchat on Sunday, #mmChat (Marketing Monday) on Monday, #leadershipchat and #Custserv on Tuesday, #imcchat on Wednesday, and #b2bChat on Thursday.
It was a lot of chats.
In terms of my social media presence (or “stuff” as I like to call it) all of these chats were great. But there was one little flaw with my great plan, and I bet you may be falling into the same trap.
You see, by participating in chats with “people like me” I was actually networking with peers or even competitors. I was not participating in chats where potential customers were likely to be hanging out.
That whole community and being human thing
A lot of emphasis has always been given to the power of community in the online world, and with good reason. When you find yourself participating with a specific group of people in lots of conversations and chats, it’s pretty nice and it can even be pretty powerful. The online world is a great place to meet great people, to share ideas, to learn how to expand your business, and more. But the shiny factor in this part of the online world can really take your eye off your ultimate purpose if you are using social media for business. You need to be looking for people who will buy from you.
Now, in my own online community, I can count as friends many great people. Some of them are PR experts. Others are marketing or SEO experts. Others are social media wizards. I wouldn’t trade any of these folks for the world, but do you think it’s likely that a full service agency person is going to contact me, a woman from a full service agency, to do some work? It’s possible, but not highly probable. They might like me a lot, but our services simply are not what they are going to need.
The Serendipity Factor
A lot of people, when talk about online communities comes up, notes that you never know who one person may know. Any person you meet could end up referring a person they know to you. That’s true to a certain extent, but if you are networking solely with people who are in the same business as you, is it likely they are going to send that person to you when they could just as easily earn that person’s business? People are good, but not usually that good, especially during these trying times, right?
This logic applies regardless of the business you’re in. If you’re a lawn and garden person who has networked with other lawn and garden people, you’re not likely to get a lot of new customers. If you’re a jewelry maker who has networked with a lot of other jewelry makers…well you see where this is going. Yes, a person might give you a referral if a person would benefit from local or person-to-person attention, but beyond that, your sales will probably not see a bump.
So what should you do?
You don’t have to ditch the idea of networking with peers (or competitors). It’s still fun to meet people who might share similar life experiences. Just make sure that you balance that part of your online presence with what will pay your bills. Try to find some chats that might be of interest to existing or potential customers and get yourself known in that crowd. Do searches to try to network with people who are asking the kinds of questions you can answer. Focus some of your content on the stuff that would be of interest to existing and potential customers, not just to your colleagues and competitors.
Now it’s your turn
What has your experience been with building sales in the online world? Have you kept that as a priority or have you found yourself networking more with people in the same business as you? How have you balanced your goals? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkmoose/85013785/ via Creative Commons
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A quick profile of my clients backed up by 20 years of anecdotes:
They don’t have time to do social for sake of being social and online. They don’t tweet or read Twitter. They dont blog or read blogs. They google, sometimes. It’s in and out. They’re busy making business decisions and relationships that effect immediate business results. [shrug]
Lucky are those who do things that are interesting to people that need affordable competitive advantage in their online sales and marketing efforts. [smile]
@Faryna Fair enough. There are a lot of businesses and business types who have gotten along more than fine for hundreds of years without any of this stuff. And you know what? If it’s working, and if it’s thought social media may not be an additional kick in the pants – more power to ya. I am not one who believes social media is a *must* for everybody. I know. Shocking 🙂
The headline is slightly misleading. People who like you will buy from you that is definitely not a myth 🙂 .But I know your working your headline magic with a teaser. Participating in chats to find customers is a very time consuming and ineffective way to build a business. Monitoring chats to identify leads will probably be more profitable. As you know I participate in a few chats. primarily because I want to network with peers and those whose insight and knowledge I find interesting and valuable. I also want to reciprocate support I have received from my online community.
There is the potential to develop profitable relationships. This takes more work because that development work is with B2B clients and essentially mean identifying gaps in peers/competitors services and providing value they cannot provide or are not willing to provide.
Every business has different cost drivers. And the opportunity cost of providing particular services may not be worth their time and effort. However it may be worth it for a new business or one with a different cost, operational or strategic focus.
Interesting Margie. 🙂
@KRLRose Nah, I wasn’t trying to be misleading. Maybe I should have said, “Won’t necessarily buy from you” to qualify it more.
You raise great points, of course. Participating in a chat is not always possible or time-effective. But it’s a great way to show what you know, meet people, and put yourself in a situation where a request for your services might be more likely.
Every business is different, and like Stan said below, there are plenty of business out there who don’t use social media at all. There needs to be a plan. And maybe even some research. For everybody!
I can’t spend all my money and that’s all I will say about that………
I am a ‘generic’ networker; my gig is meeting people from all walks of life. I am involved in many things and I never know when I can make a connection that will benefit two or more just from me taking the time to get to know someone. To me, it all starts with connection.
Having said that, I’m not looking to drive business by my social efforts. Maybe more from a branding standpoint so when I talk to my ‘ideal’ prospects it will be real easy to get to know me and what I am about.
@bdorman264 That’s basically what I’m doing out here too, Bill. I’m putting a social face to our family’s agency but our specific niche of clients doesn’t tend to be super active out here. In case a company is, I’m out here and easy to find. If something comes of it, that would be great. If not, it still has done a great deal for me personally and professionally in terms of learning, etc. So, no regrets 🙂
Maybe the myth is more of a “people who _are_ like you will buy from you.” I tend to try and solve that problem by constantly paying it forward myself–surprisingly, a lot of jobs come my way that aren’t my cup of tea for various reasons, so I maintain my brand and relationship with others by sending those away. The other thing I do is network a lot more with pros in adjacent or complementary industries (I’m a marketing copywriter and editor, and my network consists of a lot of PR pros, designers, and freelance journalists), who might think of me when the need arises for themselves or a colleague of theirs. It’s worked well so far, but I’m still trying to strategize how to get out there and grow a crowd of my own customers…
@ShakirahDawud That’s interesting that you get a lot of requests for services you don’t offer. Maybe your message is leading people down a path that isn’t just where you want to be. It’s always interesting to read something you’ve written from another person’s perspective. Everything is so clear in our heads because we know what we want to say. A person coming to us blind may be 100% clueless, or may not even take the time to read anything.
Kind of mind-blowing, that.
@margieclayman
It does seem that way–which led me to rebrand my website. I think it’s amazing, because I do list my services, and I carefully leave out anything I don’t do–like most of us, lol.
Margie,
A couple of things:
1) People in chats tend to be in (roughly) the same line of work as you
2) Lots of peeps who would not have known of you or your business are aware of you
Meanwhile, they are buying services (if they are) from people they already had relationships with.
I think the value of chats is the exchange of ideas. And that (to me) is a real value.
You should participate in chats that a) you really like, or b) show some aspect of your business.
Don’t throw away time, but find the value or the prospect of business in the time you spend.
Also, you completely rock.