I love input from those who are new to a subject. Take social media. An owner of a large industrial firm is new to the social media / online marketing world. He is a slow convert to LinkedIn though, to his credit, he is recognizing the inherent value of online marketing.
This gentleman asked a question last week that reminded me why we market, whether the marketing is traditional or online in nature. He had been invited to connect on LinkedIn and accepted the invitation. Then he never heard from the other party. This confused him and his question, simple and powerful, was — “Why bother to connect with someone online if you do not follow up with them in person?”
The social media payoff is frequently said to be the ability to build relationships. Lots of companies are saying we build relationships so “friend” us or “link” to us. Too frequently this leads to lots of communication, but all electronic. It seems that connecting with someone automatically increases the volume of incoming messages you get, be they tweets, blog updates, e-newsletters, Facebook posts, etc. What these connections frequently do not do is increase the number of relationships.
Realize that an online connection is merely an electronic link, bits of data that intersect. This is a heck of a lot different than connections in the sense of people relationships. Don’t confuse the two. Relationships are personal; electronic connections are not.
If you believe that relationships are important to your business, then form real relationships. If you reach out to someone via some form of social media, realize that the other person most likely believes that you have an interest in actually connecting with them. So don’t leave them hanging. Follow up in person. Make the link real by putting a voice with the connection.
I know an entrepreneur who extends and accepts thousands of online invitations to connect. He has thousands of connections on LinkedIn. His tweets sometimes come at a rate of 10-20+ per hour. His number of friends on Facebook is also in the thousands. This entrepreneur is firmly convinced that the future of marketing is almost exclusively online.
What is lost in his new reality is that his past success in business came about almost exclusively through relationships and sound strategic marketing. He built his first business based on relationships, and once established leveraged his brand through strong marketing communications. He launched his next business based 100 percent on who he knew. His clients came through relationships.
Now that he is living in an online world what I hear most frequently are comments of impatience and even disdain for the frequency of and annoyance from his barrage of online communication. He has forgotten to stay connected in person. The real relationships he painstakingly built over the years are eroding at a rapid rate.
Social media and online marketing are valuable tools. They have a definite place in the overall set of marketing tactics companies should use to stay connected and broadcast their message. However, for business-to-business organizations these tools should not substitute for the in-person connection. Social media and online marketing tools supplement relationships; they do not supplant relationships. People still do business with people they know and trust.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that a relationship is powerful when it is real and in-person. You can use the simple and somewhat anonymous world of social media and online marketing to find desired relationships and to kick them off. Just make sure you take the next step. If you send out an online invitation to connect, be sure to follow up with a call to that person. Thank them for connecting and maybe suggest getting together to further the relationship and getting to know each other. Build the trust that is the foundation for all business. Build the relationship that enables that trust.
Ken’s new book is reviewed in today’s Biz Books column online.
Author Ken Cook is founder and managing director of Peer to Peer Advisors and developer of the Rainmakers System. Reach him through his website at www.peertopeeradvisors.com.
