social networking – Chuck Blakeman

A Focus on Finding Customers Online Doesn’t Work.

September 13, 2011/in Uncategorized/by chuckblakeman

But social networking does – there’s a big difference.

If you’re focusing on getting new customers online, research shows you’re not going to get many. By they way, it’s no different offline. This study could rock the online marketing world, or at least the SEO’rs, who focus on activity vs. results.

In the dark ages (Nov. 2008), when the biggest Twitter account had “only” 73,395 followers, I did a post on Why Social Networking Can Be a Bad Idea . A year later (Sept. 2009) I challenged the common usage of the term Social Networking .

This month Gallup released results of an intensive survey – Social Media: The Three Big Myths – saying much the same thing – you won’t get new clients from social media. So why do it?

Stop Focusing on Selling
The big myth is that using social media to focus on getting new clients works. Gallup confirmed that it doesn’t. They surveyed 17,000 people to find out this big duh. Gallup went on to say that we should instead focus on engaging our CURRENT and ENGAGED customers instead. Another big duh.

We just don’t believe being human works.

Social Networking is Best Done in Person, THEN Online
We keep trying to digitize our relationships, and big surprise, people actually want to talk with people instead. A study by the Wharton School backed this up in Dec. of 2010 – over 90% of word-of-mouth product discussions happen offline and a significant chunk of the 10% of online discussions, start offline. Social networking has always been, and will always be more of an offline way for people to engage with each other.

Here’s a clue:

People buy from people, and they buy more from people they like.

This manic need to avoid relationships and just sell our shiny object isn’t new. You’ve all met “that guy” at a networking event who is the offline version of the pop-up ad, always in your face with a product you weren’t looking for. He has no interest in you as a person, just as a target. Online marketing suffers from the same self-focus.

We just assume that because our product is so great, all we have to do is get it in front of new potential clients and they will buy. Gallup confirms that not only will this focus on new customers not work online, you can’t even expect to retain your existing ones via online communications.

The key word here – focus.

Gallup confirms what I’ve believed about online media all along – you are unlikely to engage new prospects by focusing on them directly through online media. Instead, Gallup shows that the best use of online media is to engage with your most ACTIVE and COMMITTED customers online, and as you engage them, gently encourage them to advocate for you.

We think social engagement online will make someone want to buy, but now we have hard core evidence that’s not true. Just the opposite – being engaged as a customer will drive social engagement and make them want to talk to you online. And those existing customers will advocate and bring new clients – you won’t.

The Game Changing Conclusion
Want to win new clients online? Stop focusing on them, and go back to building raving fans with your existing clients – they will bring others to you.

Again is there anything new here? My wife went to this place called Panera Bread many years ago. They focused on her as a customer, not me as a potential customer. She came home and told me about the place, and I’ve spent thousands there since.

The big successes will come when you can engage your existing clients and raving fans both online and offline simultaneously. That’s a powerful use of the online world – as another place to meet your friends.

The SEO’rs won’t like this, but it’s not about click-throughs, which by this study, are largely added noise. It’s about existing committed/loyal clients bringing others to your site.

Why are you online? To get new customers? Think again. The best way to make that happen is to focus instead on the people who already love you, and let them do the Panera Bread thing for you.

When we use the phrase Social Networking, do we really get it?

September 25, 2009/in Uncategorized/by chuckblakeman

I’m not at all opposed to online networking – I use it all the time to build relationships, but no matter what medium you use to connect with people, it’s not about CONTACTS, but meaningful and lasting CONNECTIONS. It’s ALWAYS about being social. So maybe I don’t get it.

“Social networking” is the apparent standard description of online networking. But how is it that “social networking” is somehow just an online thing? I get business from my neighbors, my family, my bicyling friends, my golf friends, my business friends, my clients, and from people I meet in a restaurant, as well as from people on Twitter and Facebook.

“SOCIAL” networking is a great idea, in fact it’s the only way to network, by being social, not salesy – making friends and meeting needs. But most people who do offline or online networking aren’t social about it at all. Most networking opportunities are simply a place to collect business cards and try to sell things to people, which is why most serious business people with a true network and lasting connections don’t show up at networking events.

They’re too business doing real social networking – playing golf with a friend, hosting a small and intimate wine tasting at their house, having a cup of coffee with a few business associates, riding a bike with a half dozen others, or meeting with their very committed referral network. And in all this, their objective is to serve people and meet THEIR needs, which is the opposite of most classic networking strategies.

When truly social business people move online, they have no interest in networking, but in building a network, and they don’t focus on contacts, but on lasting connections. Twitter and Facebook look the same to them as a cup of coffee with a few friends – they’re focused on trying to serve others and see how they can push them forward, not on selling things to everyone that says hello.

So I’m confused. If “social networking” is something you do online, then what is connecting a friend with a potential employee for her, or meeting someone over a cup of coffee – is that “unsocial networking”?

The communications medium is not the magic. The willingness to serve other people where they are at, not where I want them to be, and to get them to their goals are the keys to the business kingdom. No matter what the medium, I will get farther by serving people than selling to them.

I can’t bring myself to call either online or offline networking “social networking” because it implies there are types of good networking that aren’t social. If people don’t like me, they won’t buy from me. What part of building a network SHOULDN’T be social? Maybe I just don’t get it.

How Online Networking Might Change the World – Seriously.

February 6, 2009/in Uncategorized/by chuckblakeman

The Jerry Lewis annual telethon was first broadcast in 1955. 54 years later it is broadcast on 180 stations in the United States. Pretty impressive. But wait until you hear this.

In just the last 3 weeks, 180 cities throughout the world have come together to hold simultaneous events on February 12 in every city, to raise funds for a single charity dedicated to providing clean water in third world countries, Charity: Water. The event was called “Twestival”, short for Twitter Festival, and happened worldwide on Feb. 12, 2009.

This event was organized organically by thousands of people who have never met, but are chatting on the internet via a online networking site called www.Twitter.com, thus the name Twestival.

A local fundraiser in one city normally takes a year of planning to pull off. This international event went from idea to event in less then four weeks. The amount of money raised in this initial event won’t come close to what the Jerry Lewis telethon raises, but the potential for next year and beyond is staggering.

Online networking (most call it social networking, which is an oxymoron to me) has made possible a first in history event that gives a window into its potential. Just as when the telephone was introduced, many have questioned the role this new communications medium could play in building businesses or creating revenue. And as with the telephone, many hours can be wasted using it.

But organizing a single event in less than a month in 180 cities worldwide without an existing network or prior relationships might change some minds on the power and usefulness of digital and online networks.

My own bias – online networking can be just as big a waste of time as endlessly attending local networking events and collecting hundreds of business cards we won’t do anything with. Stop networking, and start building a network. Stop collecting contacts and start making true connections. It’s great to have thousands of people following you on Twitter because you are more likely to be able to start a movement like Twestival. But then find the few people you connect with there and build relationships.

See Charity Water to check out the fantastic charity that received hundreds of thousands from this international event.

Find a way to use online networking to make an impact like this.

It just might change the world. Seriously.

Why Social Networking (locally and digitally) Can Be a Bad Idea.

November 15, 2008/in Uncategorized/by chuckblakeman

148.7 – The maximum number of social relationships any average human being can handle, according to research by anthropologist Robin Dunbar (1998) and others.

73,395 – The maximum number of people following one person on Twitter.com (right now.)

Houston, we have a problem. Are we wasting our time with social networking?

As Craig Harrell of Rainmaker Marketing says, “A rubber-banded stack of business cards is not a sales strategy.” We have transferred the impulse to gather stacks of business cards from local networking events, to gathering stacks of “followers” on the internet. Without an intentional strategy, neither one will make us more money in less time. We can use our digital relationships to build business, but not the way we think.

We’ve been taught that the best way to grow our business is to go WIDE, when actually the best way is to go DEEP. The fact is that hundreds to thousands of tepid contacts (these aren’t relationships) online or at a networking event don’t hold a candle to one strategic alliance partner who will feed us business on an ongoing basis. Go deep, not wide.

Can you go deep and still have a wide digital set of “followers”. You bet.

It’s the difference between networking and building a network, the difference between collecting contacts and developing connections.

While 148.7 is the maximum number of social relationships we can have, almost none of us are taking advantage of this relational capacity to grow our business. If you have more than one or two alliance partners truly feeding you customers, you are in an elite group. And yet I’m convinced that the majority of businesses under $50 million a year can be built on one to two dozen truly committed strategic alliance partnerships.

It’s not easy to find a friend. You sift through hundreds if not thousands of people in your life over many years to come up with those few people you feel comfortable letting your hair down around. It’s no easier to find a strategic alliance partner, and we don’t have years in business to do it. That’s where a WIDE reach can lead to a few DEEP relationships that will increase the revenue in your business.

Having 73,395 followers on Twitter is, by itself, largely meaningless, but with a very powerful potential. As with the analog (physical) world, it is our own intentionality that determines whether anything will come out of this stack of contacts to make us more money in less time.

Which of these people are we truly connecting with? Which ones can I truly serve by connecting them to others or to resources to build their business? Zero in on those few relationships at a time and see where they take you. Then go back and dive into the pile of contacts and zero in on a few more. Keep doing this until you find those few people who you can rain on and who can rain on your business for years to come.

The other advantage of having 73,395 people following you is that this “tribal identity” of being on Twitter together gives you a built in WIDE audience that will likely always be a better channel for future clients than a shotgun advertising campaign. If you want to introduce a new product or service, there is no question this is the best place to start – with people who already have a passing familiarity with you.

Continue to develop a following. Get it as big as you can – it’s much better than stone cold advertising. But always be mining this growing group of followers to find the few that you can really serve, the ones you can send clients or customers to regularly. They will be able to do the same for you (hint – the best way to train them to help you is to help them first.)

The short story – Go deep, not just wide. Whether locally or digitally, stop networking and build a network instead. Stop making contacts, and develop connections. You’ll make more money in less time.