Social Media as a Negotiating Tool
Social media has blown onto the scene the last couple of years with the popular websites of Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and many others. Nobody can tell for sure what social media will look like five years from now, but what everyone can agree upon is that the concept of using the internet to socially communicate is not going away.
For salespeople, an important question is, “Can social media help in negotiating?”
My answer is, “Yes, it can.” I’m not saying you should directly negotiate with another person by way of a social media (although I suppose there might be exceptions where this is possible). What I am saying is that social media is a perfect tool that someone can use to help frame a situation or build their on-line reputation before the negotiations even begin.
Social Media Marketing Agencies
Experts exist for a reason. For example, there are many tasks the average car owner can perform on their own with a little practice; they maybe can change the oil, replace brake pads, tune a few elements. But in many cases it’s far more efficient and effective to let an expert dig into the heart of the machine to make it really purr.
Marketing has its own experts, for every conceivable aspect. Entire businesses are founded on the effort to market a product to a client, and there are people who are very, very good at what they do. Almost as soon as there was radio, there were commercials. Television followed suit, and advertising on the Web has begun to follow the same trend.
Promoting Your Website Using Facebook
Are you using Facebook to promote your business; if you’re not you’re missing out on a potential gold mine? As of 2012 Facebook has grown to 845 million monthly active users making 100 billion connections on the web; that’s a lot of potential customers.
Facebook users upload 250 million photos daily to their pages and Like 2.7 billion times each day. There are 37 million pages with 10 Likes or more with an average time per visit of 20 minutes per page. How can you get some of those users to your website?
There is a two-step approach to using Facebook to promote your website. The first step is to get as many Fans as possible to visit your Like page and give it a “Like.” Second, as the number of Likes builds, you start sending as many of those Fans as you can to your website. This whole process requires you to have a Facebook Like page. There are several articles on this topic so I won’t be discussing it here.
List Building In The Age Of Twitter
Andy Warhol got it wrong, he meant to say 15 seconds instead of 15 minutes! That lower number seems much more appropriate in the fast moving world of Twitter, the souped up mass online messaging tool that never quits or takes a breather. But how effective is Twitter as a list building tool? Recently, one well-known Internet Marketer deleted his Twitter account which had over 25,000 followers, saying his messages or tweets were no longer being read and the response rate was next to nil. While this seems a little drastic, for SEO reasons alone it would be very foolish to delete a Twitter account with that many subscribers. However, does this marketer have a point? Do your tweets get read or are they lost in the endless flood of other tweets quickly passing through the system. There is probably a lot of unread tweets flowing in our cyber-age wasteland and the effectiveness of tweeting has diminished drastically as countless marketers plaster this latest medium with their marketing sales pitches. So is Twitter an effective list building tool or not? Yes and no, it would all depend on how you approach the situation.
Tips for Using Twitter
When it comes to social media, no one “gets it” as well as Twitter. According to Econsultancy, as of Jan 2010, Twitter has 75 million user accounts, with about 15 million of that total being active users. See http://tinyurl.com/yetgcru. That’s a lot of people sending a lot of Tweets. This micro-blogging service makes it easy for small businesses and entrepreneurs to stay in touch with those who choose to follow them, and stay updated on new products, services, special offers, industry news and more. It’s a win-win for both the Tweeter, and their followers.When it comes to using Twitter, there’s a right way and a wrong way to use it. Your messages must be kept short, under 140 characters, and they need to be helpful or informative. Don’t carry on about what you ate for breakfast, or the fact that you just brushed your teeth. People will unfollow you faster than they can hit the button, even if you do have good oral habits.
I’ve been using Twitter for a long time now and here’s what I’ve found works best when participating in this close knit community of few words.
