Not too long ago, I was at a networking event where someone came up to me and said, in an almost confidential tone, “I really hate these things. I hate these people. I’m just here to promote my business.” Then he gave me his elevator pitch, handed me his card and walked away.
I wasn’t surprised. I meet at least one of these people at every event I go to, even at events that are supposed to be about social media. They say things like, “I want bloggers to promote my product, but I don’t want to have to talk to them,” or, “My customers aren’t smart enough to speak for my brand.”
I always hope these people have the decency to fail quickly so that everyone else involved in their venture can move on with their lives.
Brian Solis argues that businesses need to create content so that they can build engagement and eventually develop influence. That might not seem like a terribly radical statement — until you stop to consider that so many social strategies end with simply getting people’s attention. We put so much thought into casting the line that actually reeling in the fish sometimes takes a back seat.
Today I realized that these poor souls that I meet at conventions probably don’t hate the people they’re pitching to — they’re just frustrated because they’re mastered the art of attracting attention without the ability to convert it into influence. They’re missing out on the middle step: Building engagement.
You can’t forbid a person from saying no to you. You can only ever give them reasons to say yes. The best reason to say yes to a person is because you trust them to take care of you. Whether your social-media platform is out there to make sales or provide customer service, you need to take the time to establish that trust. Even if you’re really just trying to “get the word out” about you product, make sure that word feels authentic and trustworthy. Otherwise, you might just find yourself at a bar down the line, horrifying some social-media blogger with stories about how your customers are the stupid ones.
How can businesses make the leap from attracting attention to building trust? Anyone else met a misanthropic salesmen at a social-media event?
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[...] Why getting attention is never enough By Jesse Stanchak on February 12, 2010 | 0 Comments and 0 Reactions [...]
[...] Why getting attention is never enough By Jesse Stanchak on February 12, 2010 | 0 Comments and 0 Reactions [...]
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by sbosm: Why getting attention is never enough: http://ow.ly/16P0j...
Great post…so true. I sometimes feel guilty that I enjoy networking, connecting, and talking about common passions (social media, marketing, presentation design) that I rarely, if ever, pitch my business. It means less profits in the short term, but deeper relationships/connections and more success in the long term.
I think the trick is work your pitch into asking the other person about their projects. When you meet someone new, show a real interest in who they are and what they do — sounds like you've got that part down — then try to think of a way you can help them. Hand them your card and say, “My business does X and I really think we could help you with Y” and then take it from there. Try to frame what you do in a way that benefits the other person and you'll have their complete attention.
I think my last comment when somewhere into the ether. Regardless, the point of the comment was to check out a business who is actually doing the social media very well and gets the point–SweetGreen and their SweetFlow Mobile which travels around at the request of tweets from SweetGreen followers. As a result, they have a very loyal following of people (like me) who are constantly bringing them business because I feel a connection with them. Great article!
Bingo! By changing from a consumption mindset to a take action mindset. We want people to consume our content (attention) but do we really care if they take action on it (share/implement it)?
To build trust we have to care what they do with our ideas, I think that's the key. This takes time but then again Rome wasn't built in a day and real relationships take months to build.
So the question is: are we doing enough to help them solve their problems?
[...] Why getting attention is never enough Engagement, not the elevator speech, is the important part of social media. (tags: social_media marketing) [...]
[...] Why getting attention is never enough (smartblogs.com) [...]
It's so true. I think people really don't value the importance of building relationships online like you do in the real world.