Sociable! is a new bible on how firms are profiting from their uses of Social Media. The authors – Shane Gibson and Steve Jagger – are both entrepreneurs + seasoned sales professionals. They’re hard wired to only do things that deliver a positive return on effort. This makes their perspectives on social media useful pointers on the little things one can do using social media to improve sales productivity. Specifically:
ON CONNECTING
Social Media are all about connecting conversationally with folks who you might otherwise never have the opportunity to connect with. Such media can, when used properly, create connections and shrink distances and do both, quickly. Social Media are an opportunity to stop pitching + start connecting. In a conversation economy, there’s a huge need for conversation engendering ways of doing business. Used successfully, they create a dialogue. ‘Me’ focused conversations will fail. When you master the art of conversational connecting, you’ll thaw the cold call or cold event.
ON BEING A LEADER IN BEING SOCIABLE
Social Media are new + create new opportunities for thought leadership. Those who emerge as thought leaders will be able to harness the power of the crowd.
Real thought leaders are exceptionally helpful. They make it easy for influencers to digest and evaluate information. Thought leaders don’t make their colleagues do mundane work – they do it for them.
As you seek to be helpful to others, be authentic. Most people work on a relationship to get a deal, but the relationship is the deal.
Measure your success as a thought leader thoughtfully. With Twitter, it’s not about the number of followers. With LinkedIn, it’s not about your number of connections. In both cases, what matters is the number of relationships. Becoming a thought leader isn’t about getting referrals … it’s about becoming referable.
ON BEING ENORMOUSLY SUCCESSFUL
Social media bring not only the potential to connect, but also the potential to learn, quickly, how to most effectively connect. The reason: the feedback mechanisms such media provide. Use those feedback mechanisms to discover how successfully you are connecting and, then, be prepared to be wrong. Expect to make mistakes + learn when you do. When you’re pioneering uses of social media, there are no set rules for avoiding mistakes. Failure is part of the process of becoming successful. If you do make a mistake, don’t be afraid to apologize. It’s part of learning. It’s part of being authentic.
Shane and Steve offer rules for profiting from Social Media which are simple and sensible. Their rules are also authentic, backed by numerous stories of the successes enjoyed by those who’ve lived by them.
If you’re wondering about how using Social Media might improve your sales productivity, read what Shane and Steve have discovered. Then sign-on to Social Media. The hit send. At that point, your journey will begin. With their book as a guide, the journey will be a rewarding one.
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These points are what I discovered from a first read of Sociable! The wisdom in these discoveries is the authors’. The mistakes, if any, are mine. FYI, the 1st chapter’s available for free download from here
