Social media marketing...get to know me before you pitch me
I received this friend request from a member of a social network site...
Hello Paul, ____________ here from _________,Va, and I would like to connect to you as a business connection. Also would you be open minded to hearing about a business if it could potentially add substantially to your income, without jeopardizing what you do now?
I've removed the person's name and location information as I'm not trying to make an example of him. I am using his request, however, for the purpose of teaching a lesson on social media marketing.
Proper social networking etiquette demands that relationships come first before anything else. Only after establishing a relationship does someone have the right to make a pitch. I call it "winning the right to be heard." This gentleman didn't take the time to do so and, as a result, I ignored his request.
The same protocol used to pitch bloggers can be applied to social networks. Get to know me, what I like/dislike, care about, don't care about, believe, feel and think. Talk to me. Build some rapport. Then, I'll be more open to listening.
Relationship marketing, if I may use that term, is not a fast track route to a quick sale, and obviously that's all he's interested in. Building trusted relationships take time, but offers immense lasting value. For, among numerous other byproducts, comes loyalty.
I've always believed people don't want to do business with businesses so much as they prefer to do business with people - those they know and trust. I don't know this fellow from Adam's house cat, so how can I trust his motive or know his offer is genuine? It may very well be, but I'll never get the chance to know because he didn't take the time to get to know me. Make sense?
That being said, it doesn't necessarily mean that rapport can't be established fairly quickly either. I'm not a hard sell, and even if I'm not personally interested, I might know people who would and be willing to pass along the information. (I did that just the other day in fact.)
But, again, thanks to this gentleman's impetuosity, he won't receive that benefit either.
So far as I'm concerned, rule #1 in social media marketing: Get to know me before you pitch me. Simple enough, yet seemingly very difficult for some to comprehend.
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