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Do you do business with Companies or People? Essential Social Media Marketing Lesson.
Me and Beth Schoenfeldt at Collective-E launch party
One of the mantras I learned from my entrepreneur Dad a long time ago is
“Businesses do not do business with businesses. There is always a person in a company doing business with another person in a company.”
Let me explain why understanding this is vital for your success in social media marketing.
TWO WAY COMMUNICATION
The main thing about social media marketing is that it’s not one way communication. It’s TWO way - you talk to your audience/community and it talks to you and you listen, take notes, act and that’s how you make the results!
There are several how-to-get-rich-on-social-media handbooks telling you to send auto-response notes and teaching how to do advertising on social media sites. The same type of handbooks tell you how to increase the number of followers or subscribers, how to “catch” people’s email addresses and how to build “landing pages”.
Don’t waste your money or time on those handbooks.
While learning how to make Facebook fan pages or how to really use Twitter for self-promotion is important, SEO is important and advertising is important, the most important thing about social media marketing is to learn to do two-way-one-to-one-communication, not how to blast out information to masses.
See, blasting out information is the old school way of doing things, also called “shoot and pray” - blasting out information to large quantities and praying something sticks somewhere and you receive the wanted result. The new way of doing things is to send out information to a trusted network of people who already know you.
CASE STUDY: BLASTING TO MASSES VERSUS CONTACTING YOUR NETWORK
I was recently working with a project that needed bloggers’ participation and I needed to get 5-10 bloggers involved. I contacted 10 bloggers who already knew who I was, and 10 bloggers who didn’t know me, but who blogged in the target market I was looking for. Out the first group, of ten people who already knew me, nine said yes to the project. Out of the ten who didn’t know me, nobody said yes.
Out of 20 bloggers I contacted I got 9, that’s 45% return rate on the whole group, and 90% return rate on the group who already knew me. Sadly, in this example the return rate on the “shoot and pray” method was 0% - I wonder how many unknown to me bloggers I would have had to contact to get the 9 bloggers I needed for the project.Katja Presnal
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS MAKES DOING BUSINESS A PLEASURE
Don’t get me wrong here - I’m not even close to suggesting mixing business and pleasure, but saying that doing business with people you like and know is much more pleasurable than doing business with someone you don’t like. Me? Frankly, I try to avoid doing business with people I don’t like.
The personal relationships matter in business, and with the social media tools people can easier find the people they want to do business. Social media sites also make referring people easy and finding business partners people who you already know recommend. The whole beauty of sites like Twitter is that you can easily jump into a conversation with people and get connected without even having to just talk business. When people know who you are as a person, they are more likely to do business with you.
Also, when you get to know a business person you like, you will want to do business with her/him and often can create something new and exciting with a company that on the first look may have seemed like the unlikely match with your company.
CASE STUDY: CROSS-PROMOTION WITH A “FRIEND” OR AN “ENEMY”
Sam’s Sandwich Shop had been open for a year and Sam wanted to do a big birthday party to get more potential customers to visit his shop. Sam sort of wanted to do cross-promotion with one of the other store-owners in the same strip-mall. A lot of customers bought both, a sandwich from Sam and a smoothie from Pete’s Smoothies next door, and it would have been a natural connection to do cross-promotion. However, Sam and Pete didn’t get along at all.
Sam mentioned this to Ashley, the flower shop owner, and since they had been helping each others out in with other business questions, they decided to do a cross-promotional campaign together. Sam’s Sandwich Shop was decorated by flowers (giving ideas what kind of bouquets work for birthdays) and Ashley hosted a “How to make centerpieces” class and served sandwiches for her clients. They advertised both events on a same newspaper ad, splitting the cost. Many people had only visited either one of the businesses before and now were introduced to another business in the same location. Both Sam and Ashley received positive feedback for their events, and received new customers for their businesses.
Many people in the social media world focus more on the word “media” and they even call it “new media” instead of social media. However, the “social” part is essential, and being the gal or guy who everyone wants to do business with is the key to success. You do not get there by just blasting self-promotional information.
When your business partners and customers become part of your community, you will have a word-of-mouth marketing network built in, and you can leverage it for business when needed. These people already know you and trust you, and know that you are not just using them to promote your business, they know they can trust you to give your helping hand for them too.
Me? I have taken social media to the next level - I am meeting people in person, like Beth Schoenfeldt, Sabina Ptacin and Katie Hellmuth from the recently launched Collective-E, a women’s networking company offering support and advice for womenpreneurs. It would be risky to take your online business relations offline, if you are not being authentic and honest online, my tip is - be yourself, no matter what.
34 People have left comments on this post
Nov 4, 2008 - 01:11:33Great subject, great post, Satja - I’ve just read your Twitter post, and came to read this.
Very insightful, and I totally agree about the relationship part - very good advice!
Diana
Thank you for this article ! I am soooo tired of hearing ” you need to build your list !” ” get 10 emails a day and add them to you mailing list, if people don’t like it they will unsubscribe”.
I just can’t add people to my list and send them messages without their authorization. It’s just plain wrong !
I am a Business Coach and I want people to feel deeply respected and safe around me.
I will post your article on my blog if that’s ok with you.
Thanks and see you on Twitter !
Christine Lewicki
Certified Career and Business Coach for Success minded women and Mothers
http://www.ocoaching.com
Outstanding post. digging now.
This is a great article and a lesson that should be learned by many. Relationship marketing is very important and when you take the time to learn about a prospect instead of just sending them your ad or pitch, it makes a huge difference.
Thanks again:)
I think you summed it all up at the very end, be authentic and genuine. I work with companies all the time and they just want to know how but knowing how isn’t all they need to know or understand. It’s why and who and then to remind them that they aren’t just blasting, like you mentioned. Great article.
I can name at least 10 people right now that should read your post! I am much more likely to click on someone’s link (via twitter) that took the time to build a relationship with me than someone who follows me and sends a DM saying, “hey, check out my store!” There is a lot of truth to your father’s advice and i’m glad you’re passing it along!
Excellent post!!! Your dad was 100% correct. Ultimately, social media enable the conversation and help connect people through convenient tools, but nothing beats real connections.
Less email, more face.
Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Olivier
Katja, another common sense and on-target post. There perhaps was a time when “bigger” was perceived as better, but now “connected to me” (or my values, or interests) means much more. In social media, the connection is often literal, but it really goes much deeper.
This lesson goes for the smallest start-up to the biggest corporation. Find a way to connect, and you’ll find a way to increase your business goals.
I believe so strongly in this point that I’m writing a whole book around this with Julien Smith. We think rehumanizing the web is where businesses will succeed in 2009-2011.
Great post!
Excellent post! I am so about the personal side of business. Really making contact and connecting. Do not get to meet too many in person but do connect through skype or vonage to at least hear a voice!
Love it.
Noelle
@TakeRoot
Very astute observations. I just recently began with Twitter and am trying to find the right balance. I certainly know when I’m sounding too self-promoting. I try and give more than I can get. I think that’s working for me–I have to trust my intuition about when the time is right.
This message is so simple and so true. I like what your dad said about businesses and people. What gets us truly motivated are the relationships that build with the people we meet.
The challenge is doing with your business brain “on” - enjoy the relationship but see where you can give and share values and benefits. I’ll see an opportunity that has nothing to do with me but might help a colleague - I enjoy helping to make that connection. And I’m bowled over when the favor is returned.
Katja as usual an excellent post.
Sharon
Hello Katja,
I am new to really maximizing the web for my business, but I already can see that you are correct, it means much more to receive a personal inquiry from someone rather than a generic blast. I am much more likely to respond to someone I know, or have something in common with. It just helps make us all feel that we belong to a community - the whole purpose of the ‘net.
Thanks for doing so many things right Katja. Great post and glad you finally met Beth!
Wow, you really nailed this Katja! I am constantly harping on this point AND I think it’s where most companies are so behind. They don’t get that the line between business and personal are completely blurred now. This is the future. What I think is so wonderful? For years, people have complained that the internet is so impersonal and it drives as all apart. What you talk about… meeting people you socialize with online in real life… this is the evolution! I mean, I know this sounds dramatic, but I really think we are at a key juncture in how we as a society evolve, change and communicate. Some people get that… some people don’t and won’t. Briliant post, and I will be tweeting, Digging and stumbling.
Not only is this so true, and many companies are doing this right, but this post rocks because you are becoming an evangelist and helping change the culture in which we work. Connecting on a personal level, which is really effortless online since it’s just an email, a tweet away, is the key to everything.
I tell everyone in every presentation I give that it’s not about the technology or the tools…it’s about the people. ALWAYS about the people. Twitter and blogs and Facebook can help bring you face to face with real people, giving you great reasons to participate in meetups and conferences and such - to get eyeball to eyeball with these same people.
I am sending this to a whole lot of people I love - because sharing is what I do.
Very well put, Katja! Marketing has always been about relationships but the “how” of creating those relationships has changed - for the better. Technology gives us the ability to reach more people than ever, faster than ever. But we need to be careful that we don’t take that as a license to “shoot and pray”, like you said. Personally, I love connecting with people so I’m glad to see that marketing is becoming more organic and that customer loyalty is becoming more valued again.
I’d love to see the “old school” marketing where people took time to get to know their clients and prospects meet “new school media” where we have the ability to do that not just with our neighbors down the street, but our neighbors all over the world.
I’d say you hit the nail right on the head!
Then again - that’s not exactly a surprise to anyone who has met you!
Great post… and yeah, it is all about the people and the relationships we build.
Super Super post. If more people understood the value of the relationship…they would get more about the art of serving others through business.
Thank you so much! It makes perfect sense. I just saw your post on Twitter!!
Great post and love the real case studies. Even in todays age of technology and electronics, people crave contact from other people especially those that are similar to themselves.
Being authentic is key and many of us know who is “real” and who is just trying to get a click on the money button. The ones that are real have earned the trust for my click on their money button.
Kristen Arnold
Moms Business Coach
http://moms-business-coach.com
Glad you Tweeted this post. I’ve never understood the the number game going the way of whoever has the highest number wins. Number=person behind it. Not a difficult concept, but lots of people don’t get it. Great post!
EXCELLENT! You are so spot on in this post! Knowing your audience is twice as important as growing it rapidly. Cultivating your contacts will grow your business in ways that can only be described as exponential! You got it.
Outstanding post- you nailed it! Should be required reading for all “Social Media experts”
Thanks for the link and info, Katja. The art of handling the relationship between a client and vendor is very delicate and always walks the fine line of being personal. I think it’s just natural that it does. “Social” Media finally put a label on that relationship. Thanks again!
Neither, I do business with products. Sometimes just packaging (like branding). I’m visual.
If someone posts on the Etsy forums something I disagree with, but has an intriguing avatar, I’ll still click. I’m about the goods.
Return business has a little more to do with service and of course the 1st product.
The only “people” I don’t do business with, for the most part, are people just trying to stir trouble on purpose, and think they’re funny, but are just jerks.
If someone has a passionate opinion, oh well, I can almost get behind that even if not the opinion. But intending to be a jerk? Come on!
Of course right now, I have little money. (It’s related to the inspiration for this entry, I believe.) So even with handmade, I only occasionally do business with prices. Sigh, I wish I didn’t have to.
Oh and my very favorite Etsy forum poster….haven’t bought anything….but lurve her to bits.
(Might have to do with her forum ID being a buying one and not one of her shops. Oh well.)
Oh wow, I need to read the explanation of the questions before answering just the questions… I figured this related to arguing over politics.
Well, in that case, I’m more complicated. A mix/between thing of what you say and what I said.
Business tactics must uphold to my standards, where does that fit in?
(E.G. I hate “Tweet Blitzes”.)
Katja,
Once again, your finger is on the pulse of the online community - and now that it’s extending offline as well. You have tapped into the pulse of people wanting the desire to connect - and not just to connect in chat rooms, but to connect in business, in helping one another in their businesses, and helping one another just live happy lives.
I have a few blog posts in my head that need to make it into the new and growing Collective-E blog (behind the scenes until the website launches!), but already, there are so many ways I can link to this post to bring home a point! And the comments on this post drive the point home even more! One of our mantras at Collective-E that Beth and Sabina and I say to each other all the time is: Business IS Personal! We believe it, see it in action, and live it.
Amazing, Katja. You have done it again. And on behalf of Collective-E, we are thrilled and honored to be included in this article. I am so glad to have met you - first online, and then finally in person!!
Great post, Katja! Though I’m nowhere near hugely successful yet, I wouldn’t be where I am now without having taken the time to establish relationships with clients and other bloggers. This is a lesson that many need to learn and use.
Katja!
I agree 1000% All this automated bullshit is annoying and absolutely ineffective in my mind. Regarding auto DM’s upon friendship on Twitter, if you do set one up it better say, “Hi, thank you so much for following me, we should totally meet up and get ____ed up together!!! cheers”
Human first….Human first…..Human first
@Aronado
wErd!
Thank you for posting the picture of us, having you at our launch party and as a member of Collective-E is very special.I more than 100% agree with your posting. Nothing bothers me more than when I hear someone say “it’s just business, nothing personal.” In my mind business is all personal. Strong relationships pay off in good times but even more in bad.
Thanks again!
Hi Katja,
Ralationships yes. People yes. Brands–um yes? Believe it or not while I was nodding my head in agreement with your post it occured to me that I actually have relationships with brands as well as the people behind them.
Look at what I wrote about Citibank for example.
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2006/04/i_love_my_citi.html
And if I think about brands like Apple, which I feel like I have a relationship with, from their products to the store.
Social networks for the lack of a better term definitely bring a relationship quality to it. And to your point, it connects us to the individuals who behind companies and provides that human touch.
Assuming we want it. When I want cash from my ATM, the last thing I’m looking for is human interaction. The beauty of social media is that it’s beginning to bring it back in scenerios where we might want it.
Great post.