Theme 2: Open a Window into Your Business
A second issue people have is that they wonder what it will be like to do business with you.
Social media provides a great way to invite people into your business and show them what your company is like. Let them get comfortable with who you are and how you do business.
You can do this in many ways…
On Facebook, introduce team members. Upload a photo and say what each person does for the company.
You can tweet about projects you are involved in for clients.
You can also use Twitter to provide customer service – show how quickly you respond, how courteous and helpful you are, how much knowledge you have about your products and services.
Tweet about deals with customers, partners, investors and vendors.
Blog about advanced tips for using what you sell, so customers can get more out of their purchases.
Thank people who send referrals.
Share results clients have achieved from your services.
Use videos to show people how to use your products.
Blog about the steps prospects should take to prepare to do business with you. For example, if you have a needs analysis as part of your methodology, what information will they need to pull together.
When you post on Facebook, talk about the wide variety of problems you can solve for people – share signs that they need what you do.
Do a top 10 reasons to do business with you.
Get your employees or subcontractors or partners to interact with you – ask them to comment and like your posts on Facebook, to retweet, to circle you.
You can ask customers to participate in videos or do audios about how much they like your company.
If your company has rituals or does holiday celebrations, extend them into social media.
What are you doing to let people feel like they know your business on social media? Share what works for you by posting a comment…
Easy Way to Get Quotes and Testimonials
Everyone loves seeing quotes and testimonials – they are a great way to get prospects more comfortable with your business. But a lot of people have trouble coming up with a good quote, so they put off giving you one. Here’s how to make it easier for them…
The easiest way to get good quotes and testimonials is to ask customers to spend 10 minutes on the phone with you, talking about the product or service.
Record the call (with their permission) or take notes.
Then you draft a quote based on what they said and send it to them for them to edit.
That’s all!
The trick, of course, is that you do the work for them. The bonus is that you will get a better quote, since you can work in the points you want most to make.
Here are some other tips for crafting the quote:
- Make sure you include the company or product name.
- Use the customer’s phrasing, not yours. This can actually give you some great keywords.
- Keep it short! Most people won’t read a long quote. If they gave you a long list of wonderful compliments and you want to use them all, create several quotes.
Here is a sample email asking for permission to have that call:
[Name] suggested that I contact you to see if you would be willing to give us a quote about your experiences with [product/company].
Would you be willing to give us a quote we can use on our website?
The way we usually do it is that we schedule a call and spend about 10 minutes on the phone. You just talk to me about your experiences and I’ll take notes. Then I’ll draft a quote or two and send it to you for you to edit.
If that would be OK with you, is there a good time for me to call?
Here are questions to ask during the call:
- How did you first hear about [product/company]?
- What problem were you having at that time?
- Did you look at other products or solutions too?
- What made you decide to go with [product/company]?
- How did things go?
- Was there anything that particularly impressed you about the company or the people you worked with?
- What kind of results did you get?
- Are you planning to do more with the [product/company] in the future?
Here is a sample email to send with the quotes you have drafted:
Thank you so much for spending the time on the phone with me today! I really appreciate it. You gave me some excellent information.
Here are the quotes I have drafted for your approval. Please let me know which you are comfortable having us use – feel free to edit them as much as you like.
Could you please confirm how you would like your name, title and company name to appear with the quote?
To get extra leverage from the quote, ask if they would be willing to post the quote as a recommendation on LinkedIn or share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or another social site.
Theme 1: Demonstrate Expertise
One of the first questions people will always have about your company is “Do they know what they are doing?”
They need to have ways to confirm that you will do a good job for them.
Social media gives you a lot of opportunities to show off your knowledge in your field.
- On Facebook, you could give a series of short tips relating to your area of expertise.
- One virtual assistant has been doing 2-minute videos with office organization tips and shortcuts.
- I’ve seen SEO consultants give tips about choosing keywords and using alt tags.
- Graphic designers give tips about page layout and optimizing your site.
- Social media consultants give advice about getting better results with Facebook or tips on how to use Google+.
In your blog, you can tell stories about projects you have worked on for clients. You can do mini case studies – with brief outlines of what the client’s problem was, how you solved it, and what results they achieved.
You can upload short videos that answer questions prospects commonly ask.
You can tweet when you close a new deal.
You can forward news from industry sources and explain why it matters.
You can quote a statistic from a recent report and say why you think it’s wrong.
You can quote two statistics from different reports that seem to contradict each other and explain why they are really two different ways of looking at the same thing.
You can blog about trends you’re seeing in the market.
You can forward news from others who are respected in your field.
You can share useful websites.
You can do reviews of tools you find useful.
You can compare methodologies and talk about the strengths and disadvantages of each.
This is usually one of the easiest ways to find content for social media. There are dozens of ways to show off your knowledge – if you have some that aren’t included here, add them as comments. I’d love to hear how you do this.
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