The New Handshake Book Cover

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Book Cover

Contact Sidmel Estes, Breakthrough Inc. 404-630-1976 

13 Tips to Create Visibility with Social Media

1. Blog and blog often.  Search engines love blogs.
2. Be sure to use key words that identify your industry and target audience.  The truth is that people don't know they're looking for you until they find you, so think in generic terms that someone might use to locate your blog.  Use Google AdWords to search free the keywords most often used.
3. Make your blog posts as focused as possible.  If you blog on many different topics, it’s harder for search engines to identify you.  Keep focused around your key words of interest.
4. Create a Facebook page.  Be sure to put your blog content on your page.  You can do that easily on Facebook by employing the notes application to import your blog to appear along with your notes.
5. Keep your Facebook fan page active.  Every time you do anything on your page, it is noted on your profile for everyone to see.
6. Use Hootsuite or TweetDeck to search Twitter for key words and narrow your following to those people most interested in your products or services.  Follow your own key words on Twitter so you can quickly respond to comments or questions related to your offerings.
7. Create content that generates conversation.  The blogs with the most comments are the ones most read.  To get visibility, post your blogs on Digg.  Pay attention to the Digg articles in your industry and around your key words that are generating conversation.  Join in on the conversation.
8. Join the LinkedIn groups that fit your niche.  Become an active participant in the group discussion.  People will get to know you and recognize you as someone knowledgeable on that topic.  Be sure to ask questions and interact with group members.
9. Integrate your blog into your LinkedIn profile using LinkedIn’s blog application.
10. Create a Slideshare presentation that can be integrated with your LinkedIn profile. Presentations can be shared easily through social tools and emails also.  It's also a great way to show your company's messages, brand and benefits.
11. Promote events through LinkedIn and Facebook.  You can send notices about your events to your connections.
12. Create contests for followers.  Create a Twitter contest where the 100^th follower (or some other significant number) that retweets you gets a special deal or prize.  People love to win stuff, it's a great opportunity for an introduction, to encourage trial and potential loyalty.
13. If you have an e-commerce site, build a Twitter applet, Facebook Like button and blog feed that links directly to your storefront.

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com

10 Tips for Salespeople Who Network Online

1. Identify your target buyer.  It could be sales managers, human resource managers, recruiters.  Make sure you locate the right person, otherwise your efforts are wasted on non-essential decision makers.
2. Determine what groups or social communities your target buyer is likely to participate in. Join the dialog and build a social and professional relationship.  The information you provide can position you as an expert and someone they want to work with.
3. Share information that you feel will be valuable to others. This is similar to sharing useful information during a face-to-face networking event.  LinkedIn gives you lots of opportunities to do this in the Discussion section of their groups.  Look over the discussions.  Can you add anything that might answer someone’s qustion?
4. Sign up on other people’s sites.  This is like asking for someone’s business card.
5. Comment on other people’s blogs and follow those blogs that give you the best information about your service, your customers or your industry.
6. Promote the good work of others. This is the “give to receive” form of networking. The more you promote others, the more visibility you also receive. You cannot be all things to all people, so why not share the love? At a face-to-face networking event, this would be like introducing and praising one colleague to another.  This includes promoting your clients too, provided you aren’t breaking any confidentiality agreements.
7. Don't hit potential customers with your pitch right away.  Take time to build relationships with individuals you meet online and offer your information slowly and tactfully.
8. Don't Spam your pitch or company information.  People hate spam and they will ignore you.  It's like crying wolf.  When you have something really important to say, most won't even bother to pay attention.
9. Be kind.  Refrain from getting into petty arguments over social media.  Others will see the interaction and determine you're not someone they want in their network.  If you feel you need to engage this person, email them privately.
10. Take it offline.  Social media can make introductions to people you might not otherwise meet. By to asking someone to meet in person you have a chance to build a stronger relationship with a potential customer or business partner.

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com

Nine Tips for Selling on Twitter

1. Niche your Twitter following.  Search your product, services and/or industry.  Follow people with like interests.  Your search will not only produce people with that word in their bios but also people who Tweet about what you’re interested in.  It's not about the quantity of followers but the quality. 
2. When you Tweet, be sure to use all the methods of communication.  
   1. Ask questions of your following. 
   2. Retweet something another person in your following sent that you found useful. 
   3. Use the @ symbol to communicate directly and publicly with your following and when you are ready direct mail someone privately. 
   4. Do not send a direct mail with a sales pitch unless someone asks for it.   
3. Set up additional Twitter accounts targeting different audiences.  You don’t need followers, who are interested in cooking to blend together with followers interested in your products and services.  Keep your accounts niched (or really targeted) and Tweet relevant information to each account.   
4. Use TweetLater (www.tweetlater.com) to set up daily tweets.  You can backlog as many tweets as you like and schedule them.  That way you can stay active without staying on Twitter all day. 
5. Identify key thought leaders, authors or notable bloggers in your niche and follow them.  They may not follow you back, but you want to follow them so you’ll stay up to date with the latest trends in your industry.  When you read their blogs or online articles, you can Tweet them to your followers.  That way your customers begin to rely on you for the timeliest information. 
6. Sprinkle your Tweets with industry information as well as the latest information about your products or services.  When you hear or see questions or concerns either online or offline, share answers to those questions in your Tweets.  You become the knowledge leader. 
7. Write your own articles and blogs that deal with industry related issues.  What are customers saying?  What do they want?  Provide answers in your articles and blogs and then tweet links to your articles and blogs. 
8. Share inspiring stories about client successes.  You don't have to directly sell your company to potential customers.  Sharing success stories provides credibility and builds credibility. 
9. Talk with clients via social media.  Interacting with your clients directly on social media tells prospects that you're hands on and connected with customers.  You can always ask them to help your credibility by giving a rave review on social media for all to see.

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com

Nine Tips for Salespeople to Use Social Media and Get Results

1. Look for online niches that sell to your market or where your customers hang out.  These niches may or may not include the big social networks.  Smaller specialized networks might better suit your needs. 
2. Let your customers know about your products through Facebook fan pages or Twitter accounts.  Dell has seen huge success with Twitter.  Niche your following by finding the people tweeting about your product or service.   
3. Be social! Get to know the people in your following by watching what they are tweeting about.  Then, send updates about new products, services or features.  Another example:  New York’s Rickshaw Dumping Truck regularly tweets its location in update tweets and customer service information. 
4. Offer specials to your valued customers by posting coupons on Twitter.  Encourage them to try your company's products or services before they purchase.  If they have a positive experience, they'll be more likely to purchase and provide valuable word-of-mouth for you. 
5. Use the LinkedIn Answers section to ask questions of the greater LinkedIn community. The response become real time trending information that you can share with clients and potential buyers. 
6. Use Delicious to tag articles, news and blog posts that will provide value to your customers and prospective buyers.  You save them time and become known as a trusted advisor and thought leader in your industry. 
7. Become an expert in your field on LinkedIn.  Answer questions on the LinkedIn Discussions.   Eventually, you’ll get a best answer vote and that leads to expert status. 
8. Use Twitter to survey your customer base.  Find out which product features your customers like best.  Run a contest to see which service people want the most. 
9. Listen to what your customers are saying by reading Twitter and scanning blogs that mention your company, industry or services.  This helps you understand how they're interacting with your company and what needs to be done to improve the experience.

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com

Eight Tips for Salespeople to Use Social Media and Save Time

1. Create a social media strategy.  Think about what you want to accomplish by using the social media.  Do not join Facebook or Twitter just because someone asks you.  Decide why you want to participate and then set some clear goals for participation.  Think about how participating on these sites will help move you closer to your customer.
2. Limit your time on the social media.  Allow yourself no more than an hour a day to update, explore and contribute to the social media sites.  Block off the time as if it were an appointment. Use a timer to keep you on track.
3. Look for ways to network on the social sites without having to go to networking events.  Networking events consume a lot of time.  They require you to get in your car and go someplace.  Use the social sites to network with others as you would at a networking event, and then take it offline.
4. Use the social sites to search for potential leads.  In other words, use the social sites to prospect.  You can use the search function on LinkedIn or Twitter to locate businesses that fit your niche.
5. Use tools like Tweetlater.com or Hootsuite to backlog your Tweets.  You can prepare 8 to 10 Tweets and schedule them throughout the day.  Use tools like Delicious and StumbleUpon to file interesting blog posts to send out later.  While you’re at it write several blog posts and backlog them to schedule release several times in a week.
6. Use Hootsuite as your social media dashboard. Follow and communicate with people in your various networks – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. – all at the same time. Using Hootsuite, you'll save time by managing your most important networks from one central location. You can also queue up future status updates to save you time later in the week.
7. Set up Google Alerts to let you know when something is written about you, your company, industry or service.
8. Participate more. With all the time you’ve saved by not going to networking events and eliminating cold calling, add another hour or 30 minutes to your social media daily schedule, but never allow yourself to exceed two hours a day on the social sites.

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com

Seven Tips to Beef up Your Twitter Presence

1. Post a photo.  On Twitter you can create a company site as well as an individual site.  If you develop a product profile for your company, you’ll post the company logo.  But, you’ll also want your own individual profiles. People like to see people, not logos.  Twitter is very personal.  You “follow” someone.  That means you follow someone, not something.  Make sure your photo says what you want it to say.  Take care to post a tasteful picture that represents you professionally. 
2. Describe who you are and the benefits for knowing you.  On Twitter you have very few words to describe yourself.  Imagine creating your 10-second elevator speech.  That’s what you are doing on Twitter. You must reveal what it is about you that makes you interesting enough to follow.   
3. Keep your profile up to date.  If things change, make sure you update your profile.  For example when Joan published her second book, she changed her 10 second to read: “Say It Just Right Master communications coach, author and speaker.” 
4. Make sure you put your company web sites on your profile.  Twitter allows you to put your web site on your headline page.  If people like what they see, it’s the first place they will go. 
5. Brand yourself with your background.  Twitter gives you an opportunity to create your own background colors and logo.  If you take a look at people’s Twitter pages, you’ll see all kinds of interesting, colorful backgrounds.  It’s better to put your own logo up in the background, using the company colors than to use one of the default selections Twitter offers.  Even photos of you placed in an interesting way can attract people to your site.  Remember Twitter is about branding.   
6. Be interesting! Post a variety of Tweets and information. The most prominent things you’ll see on the Twitter profile are Tweets.  If you're constantly “in your face” with Tweets that sell, sell, sell,  you will turn people off.  Most people look for a variety of Tweets.  They look for @ symbols that suggest that you are interacting with people.  They look for RTs that suggest that you read other people’s Tweets, for links that suggest that you share stuff, and for questions suggesting that you don’t know all the answers. 
7. Know your audience.  Tweets give you a great indication of what your audience is interested in.  You can learn not only what your target market is interested in but also what your competitors are up to.  In a blog, “Social Media and Twitter:  10 Principles for Getting Started,” the author encourages Tweeters to use this information to figure out what to share with people.  A large company, for example, like Dell, has several Twitter accounts, each Tweeting about different things.

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com

Photo's Joan and Barb

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Joan Curtis

Barbara Giamanco

Contact Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications 773/529-7547

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com

Photo of Joan and Barb--Color and B/W

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Contact Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications 773/529-7547

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com

Black and White Photo of Joan and Barb

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Contact Jennifer Fortney, Cascade Communications 773/529-7547

jfortney@cascadecommunications.com