One to One “Skype is my Twitter”
Today, I had a chat with a friend and peer about the social media space and some of the changes that are happening in the business, marketing and media sectors. I do this frequently. In fact, I believe that true on-to-one relationships that utilize real human interaction through voice, video r in person is WAY more powerful than a few hundred twitter followers.
Value in Connecting
It’s funny. I hear a lot how I have helped someone after a quick 15 minute call on skype, or by cellphone. (I use skype because it’s free/cheap, high quality, and convenient) I am often called when people are facing issues in the new media space with work, strategy, or just general thoughts on how they might improve. This is AWESOME and I love helping. I think the majority if not all of the folks I connect with get a lot of value out of our short conversations. However, to be so bold as to say that I am selfish would be true! I get just as much out of helping others as I do when I have to call one of my mentors for help. (How do you think I got the idea for this post?) Sharing, ideas, stories, trials, tribulations, and wins with others is how I too learn about the space! I hear many folks that say they leave their skype turned off unless it’s absolutely necessary. Heck, I leave mine on all the time, and if I am too busy to connect with you at any point in time, I will get back to you sooner rather than later! The value is in Connecting!
Highly Valued Connections – HVC’s and the 500/1 Ratio.
The 500 Half of the ratio- I have talked before about the importance of blogging and utilizing the interactive technologies that we have to connect to consumers, peers, customer, and colleagues. However, I believe there is a 500/1 ratio here of making highly valued connections(HVC’s) vs. acquaintances. You know the kind! These are the kind of relationships where you share intimate business details, and you refer that person over anyone else because you know their reputation and so on.
Example: You have an acquaintance on twitter or facebook, and you pass them by and give them a virtual wave or tip of the hat almost daily. In Fact, lets say you NEVER miss a day, and you always give that virtual nod. This would equal 365 virtual waves each year. Also, Lets say this person is a blogger and makes media of some kind every day as well. You love their material and you never miss anything that they write or produce. This is rare, but for arguments sake you add up the contacts that you have had with this person over the course of a year. 365+365=730 Contacts.
In terms of my theory and ratio that would mean that it would take approximately 8 months before you felt comfortable and had enough interaction with that individual to call that person a trusted advisor that you would be willing to recommend in their field to almost anyone! This of course is not scientific, but rather based on experiences I have had over the last two and a half years.
The 1 Half of the ratio – As we discussed in the first paragraph, connecting to folks one-on-one is very important! This in my mind not only is better for more valuable interaction but also blows the number of virtual connections that are needed to be made for HVC’s. For instance, One short phone call, free consulting session, or brainstorming meet can be as powerful as 500 virtual waves! Think about that! I have made it a point to connect with at least one new person via skype, cell phone or face-to-face every week for more that a year and a half! I have made some of the most valuable friends and reaped more value from these connections than in any virtual environment!
Example: Last year I connected with a senior manager of a trade show on twitter. Not long after that he and I connected on skype and we just discussed our views on social media and maybe a few ways he could implement some of these ideas in the trade show he was promoting. Not soon after that he connected me with the president of the company and they asked me to fill a consulting and strategy role temporarily for the show that was coming up in just a matter of months. I am not using names and places here as I have agreed to play a back end role in this process. However, that is not the point. The point is that if I don’t connect with these folks one-on-one….that opportunity never comes about! A few tips of the hat on twitter and a half a year of reading my blog and the event would have been over and gone.
All of these new tools, quick bytes of information, and fly by night social media companies are great and have their place. However, don’t forget to make REAL connections. Count your network by HVC’s rather than meaningless twitter followers and you’ll find yourself in a much better place!
Please feel free to tell your stories on how social media has helped you connect and create HVC’s in your life and business. Please link back here with your article or feel free to post your story in the comments below. I’d love to hear about them!
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
My hat is off to you AGAIN! This is what I’m talking about.
People want to work with people who are like them. They want to buy from them. They want to refer them. They want to recommend them.
If you are using this space as a means to simply broadcast or pitch you, yourself and you then you’re not getting it and you need to re-read this post again.
@KeithBurtis says that SM success is defined the moment you lose control of your message. This is where you have successfully created brand fanatics. You must of course acquire, then you need to retain but here’s the moment of truth – you must lose control of your message at this stage to an audience of fanatics. This is what I call Marketer’s Utopia*
Marketer’s Utopia is where you have created brand fanatics who propel your message for you while giving you real time feedback that allows you to continuously course correct.
So your mission is to create brand fanatics. And how do you do that? It is not by:
1. Receiveing relevant and engaging tweets from your audience and ignoring them completely.
2. Feeling you are too big or too busy to talk to or follow the tweeple with less than 10,000 followers. Listen – the fastest way for you to go from 10,000 to 500 followers is to get too big for your britches! but my point still stands.
3. Plugging you, your brand, your service or RETWEETING YOUR COMPLIMENTS! If you have to RT your compliments or the plugs your company gets what you’re really telling all of us is that you don’t get it.
You must make the 1 to 1 connections. @KeithBurtis makes the effort to connect with one new person a week. Do you know that @KeithBurtis is a SMelebrity? He has thousands of followers, speaks all over the place and is consisered an authority in his field. Why do you think that is? Because he knows that his success happens when his audience becomes his fanatics. He knows that brand fanatics result from 1 to 1 connections.
If you’re tweeting on twitter and receiving DM’s, getting tagged by others in a complimentary way, you best be making sure you reach out and give thanks where thanks is due.
I’ll leave you with this thought: If you reach out to an individual and are consistently ignored… are you inclined to develop a professional crush on that person? Are you a fan of theirs? Are you going to refer them, recommend them, buy from them?
I rest my case.