In case you haven’t noticed, social media rules the world.
Take a walk down the street and just watch people. Odds are, most of them are engaged in some form of social media on their phone. They’re checking the news on Twitter, or sharing pictures on Instagram.
Social media is king.
So how do you set your business up for success in an increasingly social world? What does it look like to go from viewing social media as an afterthought to making it a key part of your business plan?
Jamie Shanks, CEO at Sales for Life, was recently a guest on the B2B Revenue Acceleration Podcast, and in our short interview, offered some fantastic insights into the world of social media, why you shouldn’t focus on likes, and the number one thing you should do if you’re looking to establish an online presence.
Ignore Social Media?
No, your company shouldn’t delete your social media accounts. You shouldn’t shutter your companies accounts and fire your social media coordinators.
But what you should do is learn WHICH social media channels work best for your company. And the only way to do that?
Draw out all your ideas without a social media platform in mind. Because if you’re thinking of Twitter, you’re going to try and shoehorn your ideas to fit Twitter. If you focus on Instagram, you’re going to skew your ideas and plans towards that platform.
The whole world can’t be all of our costumers, so how do we focus on a particular country, or vertical?
Jamie Shanks
Once you’ve drawn out your ideas and have a solid plan in place, THEN you can begin to identify a platform that best fits your ideals and best communicates with your audience.
Maybe you get your plan down on paper and realize that Instagram makes absolutely no sense for you. If your customers aren’t on Instagram, why would you waste your resources on a platform where your customers aren’t?
The tool is only the accelerant. It is not social selling in and of itself.
Jamie Shanks
Ignore Likes & Comments
People spend far too much time focusing on the KPIs available within a social media platform. Whether they’re likes, comments, shares, or hearts, at the end of the day they’re a worthless currency.
Likes aren’t the goal. How much business are you getting because people liked your post? Unless those people are converting those likes into actual dollars, chasing them is a fruitless errand.
What should be the goal of social is your sales objectives.
Say your goal is one net new discovery call every week more than you’re doing right now. That’s a sales objective. The KPI that you’re measuring against is your ability to increase meetings and have conversations.
Do not focus on the ability to measure what is in front of your face inside a social media platform. Think about what achieves a sales objective.
Jamie Shanks
Ask yourself, “What constitutes a sales objective?” Now go execute against that. Forget about likes and comments.
It’s better to send one email that gets results than to send a million emails with no response.
Where Do I Start?
Ultimately, whatever business you’re in, you’re creating subject matter expertise and intellectual property that other companies are going to want to hear.
It’s up to you to DOCUMENT that knowledge and dispense it into the marketplace. To get it in the hands of the people that want to consume it.
A blog is a great place to start.
Have your key sellers talk into a video camera. Have them tell sales stories. Then have someone turn that video into text and get that text out as a blog post. Companies love to read it because it’s the voice of the customer, and sellers love to share it because it comes from them.
A blog is the simplest place to get started. Take the ideas that are in your head and actually record them. Then you can move to webinars, videos, podcasts, and whatever else you may be drawn to.
No matter where you get started, the important thing is to GET STARTED. The world is social, and if you don’t adapt your business to an increasingly social world, you’re going to get left behind. You don’t have to master everything, but the thing that you do choose? Make sure you master that.
This post is based on an interview with Jamie Shanks from Sales for Life.
To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to The B2B Revenue Acceleration Podcast.
If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.
