| | ... continued from page
10
To take Twitter as an
example, I think of it
as the twenty-first
century equivalent of
the seventeenth century
coffee houses in London.
Coffee houses enabled
clusters of people to
come together to discuss
issues of mutual
interest. Much of what
was said turned out to
be unreliable rubbish –
think of the South Sea
Bubble for starters. As
with Twitter, there
would have been a great
deal of empty
self-promotion of one
kind or another. But
there was no doubt that
the right coffee house
was the place to be if
you wanted to be a
‘player’.
If you monitor, the
right people, it’s
possible to get a sense
of mood and what is
going on. In particular,
I find following the
right people leads me to
new sources of
information.
With social media,
just as in the coffee
house, over time we
learn who is worth
listening to and who is
not; who is there to
grandstand and who is
likely to be a source of
surprising and
interesting information.
Intelligence about
customers and
competition
When I first started
using Twitter, like many
people my intention was
to see if I could use it
to get better
professional exposure
for myself. To help
identify my target
audience, I set up a
number of searches using
key words that I thought
relevant, and monitored
what came up.
| |
|
| |
Within a week I had
learned more about what
else was going on in my
own field than I had
learned in the previous
twelve months. At first
it was a very
uncomfortable
experience. I came
across people who were
clearly much better at
doing some of the things
I thought I was doing
quite well.
I didn’t learn about
these people as a result
of their own
self-promotion, but from
people who had read
their articles and blogs
on line and decided to
tell others.
Frankly, some of the
material I found was so
good that at times I
wanted to give up
altogether. But then I
realised what I was
getting out of it. It
was helping me to
identify my real
competitive advantage.
Although many people
seemed to do many things
better than me, I could
clearly identify what I
could do better than
them.
It helped me to be
clearer about the value
I was adding to my own
clients and educated me
in better ways to
communicate what that
value was. It signalled
clear choices about my
strategy. I could try to
incorporate what others
did into my own
offerings, or use what I
was learning to define
my own niche more
tightly and set out to
dominate it.
Before you go rushing
off to my website to see
what I have learned, I
must point out this is
an ongoing ‘work in
progress’. Like the
farmer in the last
century who refused to
buy an agricultural | |
| |
| | and show up regularly to
do it. It requires a
great deal of work.
Don’t rush into it.
Think of it as visiting
a club as a guest, with
the possible intention
of becoming a member.
Allow yourself a week or
two to get a sense of
what is going on. Look
at what other people do,
and decide for yourself
what works and what
doesn’t.
In the case of
Twitter, you will find
that some tweets
intrigue you enough to
look up the originator’s
profile, and perhaps
even go to their web
site and decide to
follow them. Monitor
your own reactions and
what makes you decide to
follow or not follow
someone. And then
observe what makes you
decide to ‘unfollow’
someone.
You will hear it said
that you should project
an individual
personality, as opposed
to a corporate presence.
Some people do this in a
rather clumsy way by
(for example) posting a
great deal about the
antics of the family
kitten before dropping
in a clunking piece of
self-promotion. After a
couple of weeks of this,
I tire of it and stop
following them.
For a professional
persona, try making any
personal information
relevant to your
audience. For example,
if your audience is
likely to be travelling
a great deal, they may
actually find it
interesting to hear
about your Eurostar
experience. They are
less likely to want to
know that someone in
your household has just
boiled the kettle dry.
| |
|
| |
If you are tempted to
treat social media as if
it was a real-time
personal diary
(immediate, intimate,
and indiscreet but
without the protection
of a clasp lock and
illegibility) then get
another profile for your
personal stuff.
Otherwise, make sure
that what you share
about yourself is
consistent with your
professional image.
People are more
likely to click on the
abbreviated links in
your tweets if they
think they will lead to
something interesting.
To build an
authoritative
professional presence,
with a reputation for
objectivity, think in
terms of an 80/20 rule.
For example: if eighty
percent of what you post
on Twitter is of
interest to your target
audience but is not
originated by you, and
only twenty percent of
the stuff you post links
to an article or blog
posting you have
produced, you are more
likely to be seen as a
reliable source of
relevant and interesting
information than if you
simply post about your
own material.
But this is just a
rule of thumb. Even if
it works today, there is
nothing to say that it
will work tomorrow.
You’ll only find out by
doing it and monitoring
the outcome.
Like ‘networking’,
the rewards from social
media are not usually
what you think they are
going to be, and they
result more from what
you put in than what you
take out. | |
|
| | encyclopaedia from a
travelling salesman, “I
don’t farm half as well
as I already know how
to”. I’ve got weeks
ahead of me of solid
hard work. But without
the exposure to the
ideas of others, forced
on me by following links
provided by people whose
thoughts I had learned
to respect, I would
still be going around in
circles instead of
seeing where I needed to
go next.
In my experience,
customers are a harder
nut to crack than
competition in that
social media is a very
indirect form of lead
generation. What I tend
to pick up is the way
people are currently
expressing
dissatisfaction with the
way things are. This is
a very good starting
point for a dialogue. It
is something I can begin
to reflect in my blogs,
articles, and other more
direct forms of
promotion.
Building
reputation
For the consultant,
social media can be an
important platform for
building credibility and
trust by grabbing and
then holding attention
over time. But you
cannot build your own
reputation except by
providing the raw
material for other
people to build it for
you.
To begin the process
of building reputation,
you need a clear idea of
your target audience and
what will interest them.
You have to consistently
address their concerns | |
|
Previous Page 
