I was recently talking with a friend and she was a bit annoyed. Seems a business acquaintance of hers needed the product she sells…but the acquaintance had simply Googled it and contacted the first company he found—and it wasn’t her.
“I don’t understand it,” said my friend. “I see him every week at various business networking events, and I’ve given him my brochure several times. Why didn’t he call me?”
Now, I didn’t want to upset my friend by saying that there may have been a very specific reason why he didn’t call her, but it may have just been as simple as the fact that he just didn’t remember her.
When we see people at networking events, we don’t always remind them about what we do—or at least not in detail. And regarding brochures…how many times have you tossed the ones you’ve been given, almost immediately after receiving them? Not a good reminder. Sadly, the same goes for business cards. Even if we save them in a special place, sometimes it’s just easier to consult with Google than to look through the pile of cards you’ve accumulated.
As memorable as we all like to think we are, unfortunately, we’re not. We need to remind people we exist—and what we do. Social media is a great way to stay top of mind with your connections. Those posts that many think they’re “too busy” to do are a quick reminder to someone reading them.
Don’t turn into the “snake oil salesman” though, by trying to hit your connections over the head with your product or service every time you post. My rule of thumb is to follow the 70/30 rule: 70% of your posts should be informative, entertaining, inspirational, and so on. Only 30% (or less!) of your posts should talk about your product or service.
Your goal on whatever social media site you use is to post and GENERATE CONVERSATIONS with your followers. As I’ve often said, we work with people we know, like and trust and social media is a great way to develop those relationships. Websites and brochures are one-way communications; social media is two-way…or it should be when done properly.
If my friend had a solid presence on social media, it might have made the difference between her business acquaintance calling her…or resorting to Google.
Obviously, she also needs to up her game so her website comes up higher in a search, but that’s a topic for another blog!
Do you use social media to stay top of mind? What are examples of organizations that you follow who do a good job of this? Feel free to post your comments below.
