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Social Networking and Your Business – Part 2

Posted by Trish Bertuzzi on Tue, Jun 09, 2009 @ 09:51 AM
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Last week, I outlined 4 approaches businesses can take towards Social Networking. Read Part 1 here. By way of a recap, here is the approach I recommended:

Approach #4 - Aim Before You Fire

You must invest some time and research in understanding your Buyer Personas and how they use Social Networking before you build out your strategy.

Now onto Part 2:
Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim (Part2)

Step 1: Know Thy Buyer Personas

People still confuse their Ideal Customer Profile with their Buyer Personas.  Your Ideal Customer Profile typically looks something like this:

Verticals: Healthcare, Financial Services
Revenue: Over $1B
Role: Anyone with "security" in their title

Ideal Customer Profiles point you in the right direction and make it easy to purchase lists, size target markets, etc. 

Buyer Personas, on the other hand, provide you with the information you need to communicate with your buyers in a way that is meaningful to them.  Think The Bachelor - you need to make a "connection" with your buyers and that connection has to be personal, emotional & relevant.

So, how do you do that?  Well, you start by fleshing out your Buyer Personas to the point that they are people with faces, names, specific challenges & goals.

Let's walk through a high level example which is a representation of Jennifer, a Director of Marketing.

What do we know about Jennifer?

  • We know her background
  • We understand her role and how she is measured
  • We understand the things that frustrate her
  • We know how she defines a "win"
  • We understand her expectations of vendor relationships

If you are like most companies, you will have multiple Buyer Personas and you should execute this exercise for each of them.  It will provide you with the language you need to communicate with these buyers.  They don't want to hear about how wonderful you are. They want to know how you are going to help them solve the challenges they face on a daily basis.
 

Step 2: Find the Jennifer's

Now that you know what Jennifer looks like, you can find sample Jennifer's in your customer and prospect base.

Next, go do some research to find out how they are using Social Networking. It has never been easier to conduct this research: Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook - they all provide search capabilities.

The matrix displayed above is all you need to create your Social Networking strategy.  That matrix will tell you where to invest your time for your specific Buyer Personas.

In this instance, the strategy is clearly laid out for you.  You want to invest significant time on LinkedIn, establish a presence on Facebook and then investigate Twitter to connect with your Jennifers.
 

Step 3: Find the Conversation

So, now we know who to target and we know what networking sites to target.  Next, find the conversations that are meaningful to Jennifer.

We already know our Jennifer's are active in LinkedIn groups so why not start there. Your research on Jennifer's groups will provide you insight into where your Buyer Personas are spending time.

Join those Groups with the goal of engaging in meaningful conversation, not indulging in self promotion. Ask questions, answer questions - establish yourself as a thought leader. This is about sharing information and becoming part of a community with your buyers.
 

Summary

Ready...Aim...Fire is a great approach to Social Networking.  Taking the time to understand your buyer is an investment that will pay off!  It takes some planning (and requires some work), but would you trust any Sales & Marketing strategy that didn't?
 

Agree? Disagree? Please share your thoughts on getting started with Social Networking!

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Social Networking and Your Business – Part 1

Posted by Trish Bertuzzi on Thu, Jun 04, 2009 @ 12:02 PM
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I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston.  I participated in a panel on Social Networking in a Sales 2.0 World. Hmmm....got me thinking.

As Inside Sales experts, we are always interested in new ways to generate leads.  While I concede that Social Networking does not yet have a consistently proven ROI in "hard metrics", I speak from personal experience when I say that it certainly does have a proven ROI in "soft metrics". 

I read a quote on Twitter the other day that I'm not going to do justice to, but it read something like this: "If you speak with passion on Twitter, others with a similar passion will hear you."  Makes sense right? 

So, where should you begin?  With so much on all our plates, how do we add in Social Networking and does it even make sense to add it to our daily task lists?  Well, that is what we are going to talk about. 

There are really 4 options for how you pursue a Social Networking strategy for your business and I want to lay them out for you (see presentation below).

The title of my presentation is "Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim."  I chose this title because before you do anything else, you have to understand how, where & why your buyers are using Social Networking.

Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim (Part1)

There are so many social networking sites out there...and this number only continues to grow.  How do you figure out where to invest your energy? 

Possible Approach #1 - Ignore It!
This analysis by Forrester clearly states that ignoring the phenomena is not in your best interest.  Although the data is from 2007/2008 (here is the current research tool), you can see that increasingly B2B technology buyers embracing social media.  This trend is changing the nature of the B2B buyer/seller realtionship at a fundamental level.


Possible Approach #2 - Let Your Reps Figure It Out
This one is a little scary to me.  Your Reps are using Social  Networking in their personal lives and are starting to dabble with it in their professional lives.  But, not having a corporate strategy for how they do so puts you at risk in 2 areas.

First, you have no control over what they are saying about you, your product, your company and/or your competitors.  Are they on message, are they being professional, are they articulate? 

Second, if everyone is off doing their own thing, how do you measure what is working and what isn't?  Defining repeatable, scalable success is the cornerstone of all great strategies.


Possible Approach #3 - Go For It
Build business profiles on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook and just dive in.  The good news is that it gets you out there.  The bad news is that you are probably going out there with a vanilla strategy that may or may not resonate with your buyers.  You may also be investing time, effort and energy on social networking sites that your buyers don't frequent.  This is an investment that you need to have pay off.


Possible Approach #4- Aim Before You Fire
This is the approach we recommend to our clients.  You want to invest some time in research to understand your buyer personas and how they use social networking before you articulate your strategy. 

You need to fish where your buyers swim!

Next week's Part 2 post will lay the groundwork for how you can use buyer personas to build your Social Networking strategy.  Stay tuned....

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LinkedIn - Join The Inside Sales Experts Group

Posted by Trish Bertuzzi on Thu, Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:09 PM
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We all recognize that LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social networking sites in existence.  There are dozens of blog postings, and even books, being written on how to leverage LinkedIn for business. 

One of the ways to get the most out of this network is to join groups where you have a common interest.  I have joined several marketing and sales groups on LinkedIn.  So far....

  • The good news is that I have permission to connect directly with all the other members in the group. 
  • The bad news is that I have yet to receive value add from being a member.  
Where is the networking? Where is the sharing of information?

This got me thinking about what I would like to see from a group focused on Inside Sales so I created one!  Here are my initial thoughts on how it will work:

  • Inside Sales Practitioners - We are targeting members that are Inside Sales Reps or Inside Sales Executives.  We will deliver information on best practices, compensation trends, training, technology etc. 
  • Recruiters - Yes, this group is a great place to find new talent but we are going to ask you to give as well as receive.  On a quarterly basis you will be asked to submit an update about what is going on in your industry.  What trends you are seeing and what challenges you are facing? This will be a great way for us to understand more about you and your business!
  • Vendors - Call center and technology vendors will also be asked to contribute.  What is new?  How can we as Inside Sales practitioners most effectively utilize your product or service?  What guarantees success when we work with you?

Networking events, job fairs, seminars, group discounts on products and services....these are all under consideration.

So, sound good?  If you are a member of the LinkedIn Inside Sales Experts Group and you have ideas about what you would consider value add, please post your comments.  If you are not yet a member and are an Inside Sales practitioner, please feel to request membership via this link.

To make this work we all need to contribute so don't be shy!  This is our forum to share information so let's make the most of it.

Update: Find out more about the Inside Sales Experts Group on LinkedIn.

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Social Networking and Selling

Posted by Trish Bertuzzi on Fri, Feb 08, 2008 @ 01:21 PM
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I must be getting a bit long in the tooth because all this talk about how to promote your business via social media has me in a panic!  Now, don't get me wrong, I love technology and I am one of the first to embrace whatever will help me expand my network and build my business. But really...do I have to build a profile on Facebook?

I just put my picture on LinkedIn and it took years for me get up the courage to do that.  Now every time I go to my profile I see myself staring back at me.  When the heck did I have to start wearing glasses?

So, I decided to start to educate myself.  I read a great blog posting this week written by Jill Konrath author of "Selling to Big Companies".  In it she talks about what she has learned about effectively using LinkedIn to your advantage and how to present yourself most effectively on the site.  She also quotes other authors and experts - all very interesting!

Take a peek at http://sellingtobigcompanies.blogs.com/selling/2008/02/can-linkedin-in.html

I can only assume there are many of you out there on the same mission. So I ask of you....what social media sites do you use to promote you and your business?

I look forward to your feedback!

 

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