Prospecting on Social

[/caption] Let’s face it. Our personal and professional lives are mixed in a social soup these days. I post as much about my professional interests (social media, ski industry, travel and tourism, video, etc) as i do about my personal interests (Bacon, my family, biking, skiing, bacon, photography, failblog, etc). To most of my followers they are one in the same. It’s my belief that this is because the most active people on social media are the people who have found a way to do what they love and they like to talk about it, and we seek out other people who are like us. That sounds contradictory, but it isn’t, here’s why: All things being equal, people prefer to do business with people the know like and trust. Twitter is a great way to get people to know like and trust you.

3 ways to win business on twitter as gleaned from @JeremyMcRoberts

1 | Show up (Get people to Know you)

I don’t remember when Jeremy popped up on my twitter radar. But I do remember the first time i met him. It was at a MDART meeting. MDART is a startup professional association in Reno Tahoe. I put out an invite on twitter for a lunch meeting at Blue Moon. And Jeremy showed up and I met him. How to do it Respond to conversations you are interested in. This will make more people aware of your existence. Show up for meetings, tweetups, social events that will link your face to your name. People need to know that the people they are interacting with online are real people. Showing up and (this is the important part) not being creepy, is huge, and hard to fake.

2 | Be yourself (Get people to Like you)

Jeremy is a financial advisor and is restricted from promoting his business on social media due to their legal concerns. And really, financial services is a heavily regulated industry so it’s hard for companies to get into it. So Jeremy is just himself on Twitter. I’m sure he makes a solid effort to not be rude, negative, complaining, etc, but he’s funny, conversational, social, topical, etc. He had a tweet about wine that made me chuckle all evening. That i like. Here is a sampling.

How to do it Make jokes, complain, debate, argue, post photos, talk about your life. No one wants to follow a robot who only posts about work. This is just about being a person. Social media, is social first. Without irreverence, jokes, triviality, and the banality of every day life, thought, and commentary, it would die. Marketers fail when they try to shoehorn an agenda into twitter when it doesn’t fit.

3 | Help people out (Get people to Trust you)

We all use our experience to help people, and that builds trust and trust builds friends. When I got laid off Jeremy was there to help by sending a referral my way and offering to help me consolidate my 401Ks. How to do it Refer people to other businesses, respond with info links when you see the need, offer info and contacts when needed, be a resource. When it is appropriate, offer up your professional services. People want to know who can help them. There is a threashold with this, so use your gut. If you feel uncomfortable, hold off. If you think that the person knows, likes and trusts you, go for it, they want it. Depending on your industry you might want to use private or direct messaging for this. In the end, what you do on twitter needs to serve to reinforce, or establish one of the three things the influence people’s social buying decisions. KNOW LIKE TRUST What do you think? What do you do to get people to know like and trust you on social media? -M]]>