Networking That Moves the Needle
You’ve probably heard the old adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you
know,” which, of course, means that you have to engage in networking.
Networking is all about the public relations side of your business. In traditional public
relations (PR) endeavors, you seek out third parties such as newspaper journalists
who can amplify your marketing message. Social networking accomplishes this
same goal by finding and associating with authoritative and influential individuals and brands on the social web.
Although social influencing is about distributing your own content such as blog
posts, podcasts, and videos to establish authority, you can connect with others via
social networking by sharing other people’s content with your audience. As with
person-to-person networking, in social networking you use social media to look
for and to establish connections in the hopes of creating mutually beneficial part-
nerships with an individual or a brand. This mutually beneficial partnership can
involve writing guest posts for each other’s respective blogs or gaining a speaker
for an event that your company is putting on.
You can use social networking to reach out to journalists, bloggers, and podcasters
who hang out on social media channels. Brands that have authority in print pub-
lications or radio stations also fall into this category. Social networking is a high-
impact activity that can move the needle for your business in leaps and bounds.
Tapping into niche media
Consider a startup software company with a great product and a desire to earn
media mentions to grow awareness for the business. This company could target
big players like the NBC network, with the potential to reach millions. Or it could
target mid-sized blogs that specialize in startups like TechCrunch, an online pub-
lisher that primarily covers businesses ranging from startups to established firms.
The reach on TechCrunch is lower than that of NBC, but still significant. It would
be wonderful to be featured in outlets that have enormous reach; however, as a
general rule, the difficulty of earning a media mention on a platform increases as
the amount of reach increases.
The good news is that thousands of niche media players are running blogs, pod-
casts, YouTube channels, and more. Although you sacrifice the amount of reach
you can attain with any one niche media outlet, securing media mentions on these
niche properties is much easier than on the large outlets. Enough niche media
mentions can, in the aggregate, exceed the reach of even major networks like NBC,
however.
Reaching niche media
Niche media companies are small- to medium-sized firms that also focus on and
publish content on a specific topic. These small publishers may be creating great
content but often aren’t well-known nationally or even within their field. To
reach niche media properties en masse, you have to understand what these
properties want. That’s not difficult, though, because it’s the same thing that
every media property needs: great content from reliable sources. A small, niche
media player, however, doesn’t have access to teams of journalists and content
creators working around the clock to produce new content. It’s constantly search-
ing for more content to serve to its audience.
When you reach out to niche media properties, you have to speak their language
and address their pain points. Let them know that you are a reliable, authoritative
resource who can contribute great content to their audience — and all you need in
return is a byline that links to your website or landing page. Remember that great
content educates, inspires, or entertains an audience, and that is exactly what
these niche media properties are searching for.
Networking by topic
As you work to earn media mentions and build partnerships through social net-
working, brainstorm satellite topics that relate to your company, and use those
topics as a way to network with others. Chances are, you’ll determine plenty of
topics from your brainstorming session that are outside your organization’s
expertise. You can take the opportunity to locate brands and individuals who are
authorities in those topics and use social networking strategies to form connec-
tions and partnerships with those people. Share their content with your audience
often, and tag authors or brands as you go. By doing so, you associate and poten-
tially partner with these brands and individuals as part of the networking phase of
your social media marketing mix.
For example, if the language learning software company Rosetta Stone wants to
share content about traveling to Spain on its Facebook page, it might share an
article about that topic from a reliable travel brand like Lonely Planet or Trip-
Advisor. By sharing content about something that interests potential customers,
Rosetta Stone would simultaneously be networking with influential brands.
Creating a social media “short list”
Creating a “short list” of this nature involves a specific process that uses Twitter
to organize the people and brands you want to network with. If there is one thing
that is more valuable to media properties than new content sources, it’s gaining
more exposure to the content that they already have. This means that sharing
your influencers’ content with your audience on the social web is a surefire way to
build goodwill and increase the likelihood that the influencer will notice you and
return the favor in kind. However, the firehose of content on Twitter makes track-
ing down and organizing your influencers’ content challenging. You need a way to
easily identify and share their content. That’s where short lists come into play.
Several tools are available to help you identify the key players in your industry,
niche, and other topics relevant to your audience. Paid tools like GroupHigh and
Inkybee allow you to track down influential bloggers, organized by topic. Free
resources like Klout (https://klout.com/home) or Kred (http://home.kred/)
are social scoring platforms that score social media users based on how influential
they are around particular topics.
More likely than not, however, you already have an idea of the people and brands
who can move the needle for your business! Find their Twitter profiles and create
a Twitter list with their handles. Next, set up a stream for your new short list
using Hootsuite. You can then sort out the people and brands to network with
from the general noise of Twitter. You can easily reference the content they are
sharing, join the conversation, and create some goodwill by sharing their content
with your audience. Start with 10 to 20 influencers and then keep an eye on who
they are networking with so that you can grow and curate your list. Keep your list
up to date. If an influencer starts to wander outside the realm of your topic,
remove him and start the search all over again.
Flipping the script on media outreach
The web holds such an abundance of information that a phenomenon in digital
public relations has been developing: reverse media outreach. Not only are you
working to reach out to long-tail media but the media, in general, are also using
the Internet to find reliable sources for their content. Media properties use search
engines like Google to find experts they can interview, quote, and otherwise use to
create content for their media properties. To take advantage of this phenomenon,
you need to position yourself as an expert and make yourself available to these
media players.
To attract the media to your business, create authoritative, relevant content on a
regular schedule and distribute it on your social channels. By becoming a content
creator yourself, you increase the likelihood of contact by both traditional and
niche publishers to get information for the content they produce for their audi-
ence. Second, accept interviews. If you show a little inclination to provide blurbs
for blogs or appear as a guest on a podcast, you won’t be asked to do so very often.
Allow media to contact you, accept the interviews, and more requests will follow.
Third, learn the basics of SEO for the content you create. Media are using search
engines like Google to locate their sources, so you need to understand how a
search engine finds you, your information, and your products or services.
taying compliant with the law
The Federal Trade Commission regulates how businesses use earned or paid media
mentions for promotion. If you give any sort of incentive or reward to a media
property in exchange for a mention — be it a blog, video, podcast, or other type of
media — make sure to disclose that information in the content. Incentives can
include money, free samples, or anything else you’ve given in exchange for the
mention. To stay current on the FTC Endorsement Guidelines, visit www.ftc.gov.
Selling on Social Channels
How do you generate sales on social media channels? The answer is that you
don’t at least not directly. Instead, use a value-first strategy to generate leads
and sales. The ultimate goal with social selling is to move prospects and leads
from channels that you don’t own, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, to
channels that you do own, such as your email list. By doing so, you position your
prospects and leads to engage with you on a channel you control.
Leading with content is the first rule of the value-first strategy on social media.
Content is the native communication medium on the social web; everyone wants
information that entertains, inspires, or educates. Use this content in your social
selling strategy to move people from social channels like Facebook to your website
and, ultimately, onto your email list.
Leading with value
The primary concept to understand about social selling is that it is contingent on
consistent implementation of the social listening, influencing, and networking.
Prospects are much more likely to become loyal, repeat customers if they know,
like, and trust your brand. Providing value first means that you frequently give
your social media followers a reason to know, like, and trust you by providing
social customer care, solid content, and participating in conversations with your
prospects, customers, and influencers. After you give your social media followers
a reason to trust you, only then do you see results from your social selling efforts.
Designing “value first” offers
Approach social selling with care; high-dollar and complex offers not only go
against protocol on most social channels but also just don’t perform well. Instead,
focus on offers that provide value before you ask your prospect or customer to
make huge commitments. You can place three different offers on any of your
social media channels that allow you to sell without moving your prospects along
the customer journey too quickly:
» Ungated offers: Asking someone to read your blog post is considered an
offer. Reading a blog post may not cost money, but it does cost time. The
majority of your offers on social media should be ungated.
» Gated offers: This is content that requires contact information (name, email
address, and other information) to access. Keep in mind that you’re not asking
for money at this stage; you’re asking for permission to contact a lead.
» Deep discounts: Flash sales or offers at 50 percent off or greater are
value-first offers and are appropriate for social media marketing.
We discuss ungated, gated, and deep-discount offers in greater detailI.
Avoiding Social Media Mistakes
No discussion about social media marketing would be complete without acknowl-
edging some big mistakes to avoid on the social web:
» Don’t respond when you’re angry. Some social media users try to bait you
into responding unprofessionally. If someone makes you angry, give yourself
time to cool off before responding, or assign someone else you trust to
handle the situation. Always be professional in your response.
» Don’t buy followers/connections. It doesn’t make ethical or business sense
to have robots or fake accounts follow your social channels. Focus these
resources on creating a great experience for the followers you do have, and
your social channels will grow naturally.
» Don’t try to be everywhere. The social web is far too large to have a
presence everywhere. Master a few channels where you can have influence,
network with people, and sell your products and services. Use a tool (dis-
cussed in this chapter and also in Chapter 16) to conduct social listening on
channels where you don’t have an active presence.
» Don’t be a salesperson. There is a time and place for social selling. Be
strategic and intentional with offers that are appropriate for social media
channels.
» Don’t automate everything. Your social channels should be personable and
approachable. Avoid automating every update, and leave room for your users
to connect with you on a human level.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your happy
Comments