If you’re reading this blog, you have at least some inclination that this social media thing could be big. If that’s the case, you’ve probably been tasked with converting a social media skeptic at some point. I had an experience with this that’s had a huge impact I how I go about such things, and think it might help you as well.
The Story
My cousin Paul is the founder and CEO of a dessert-only restaurant concept in Boston called Finale. He’s a super guy, and the place is a triumph.
Like most succesful small business owners, Paul is a no-nonsense guy. He tries what makes sense, does the math, uses more of what works and less of what doesn’t. I still remember trying to explain Twitter to him for the first time.
Paul: “So who are you talking to?”
Me: “Well…everyone.”
Paul: “So everyone can talk to you?”
Me: “Well, kind of. But really just the people you follow.”
Paul: “Great. How do you get people to follow you?”
Me: “Well… by tweeting. You share stuff, try to help people.”
Paul: “Help them what?”
Me: “I don’t know, find stuff.”
Paul: “And how do you find that stuff?”
Me. “By listening to people.”
Paul: “So why don’t the other people just listen to those people?…”
On and on. Went nowhere.
Months later I wore him down. We tried some basic stuff, starting with a cheap and spicy listening post, and a Twitter account to complement a facebook fan page.
Looking back, what got Paul engaged in the medium was seeing the conversation already taking place online about his business. He started paying more attention to the RSS feed I’d set up for him, shared highlights (and lowlights) with his team, and one day responded himself to a fan’s post in the comments of her blog. Over time we built up a following, tried a few offers, and eventually found a formula that worked. Boo-ya.
The Point
Those of us attracted to social media by the shiny technologies that make it possible are already sold on the medium. You can’t swing a dead cat right now without hitting a Social Media Expert.
When it comes to bringing new folks into the medium – folks who, it’s important to remember, comprise the vast majority of the planet – the technology ain’t gonna do it. More than that, it gets in the way.
If you need to show a skeptic Twitter, show it to them from a search output page back. Do the same thing wherever the conversation about the brand they care about is most intense – in facebook, on Yelp, MySpace, even in Flickr if that’s where advocates or detractors express themselves. When the person you’re trying to convert expresses a desire to respond to something, your job is done.
The key is to focus on looking through the technology, at the people who are using it.
Remember that technology and people can both be hard to understand. But people are much harder to ignore, particularly for someone running a business that needs to reach them.
So what have you found to be most effective in getting new folks into the tent?
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Mike, nice post. Just to be clear, you are saying that convincing people that SM is important, is done by showing them that the "conversation" about their brand/product/whatever is happening whether or not they are in the conversation. Is that right? If that is true, then to speed adoption, what we need is better reporting tools
I am saying that. The bottleneck is no longer the tools, though, it's people's willingness to *listen* through them.
The problem is the meat, not the machine.
Hey Mike, nice post. Just to be clear, you are saying that convincing people that SM is important, is done by showing them that the "conversation" about their brand/product/whatever is happening whether or not they are in the conversation. Is that right? If that is true, then to speed adoption, what we need is better reporting tools
I am saying that. The bottleneck is no longer the tools, though, it's people's willingness to *listen* through them.
The problem is the meat, not the machine.
Great point about turning people on by letting them see what's already being said about their brand. That's an approach I've taken with clients in the past and it's great to see the light bulb going off.
The story about Paul/Finale is a great example of how most conversations about Twitter (and sometimes social media in general) tend to go.
Oh, and my daughters current favorite exclamation is "boo-ya!"
Jim | @jstorerj
Great point about turning people on by letting them see what's already being said about their brand. That's an approach I've taken with clients in the past and it's great to see the light bulb going off.
The story about Paul/Finale is a great example of how most conversations about Twitter (and sometimes social media in general) tend to go.
Oh, and my daughters current favorite exclamation is "boo-ya!"
Jim | @jstorerj
Mike, I held a brief session introducing and demonstrating the value of twitter to my sales team last week by showing them how to "listen" to what our customers/prospects (and our competitor's customers/prospects) are saying on monitter.com.
The next day (really), one of our prospects tweeted the name of our product, and the name of our competitors trying to decide which product to buy. Happily, for the first time our account executive was listening. He re-tweeted her our product name of course. That tweet sparked a gem of a conversation about some hesitations she had around our product that A) we weren't aware of, and B) we now had the opportunity to address with her.
Long story short, she also shared that she was listening and paying attention to the negative chatter about our competitor. The deal isn't done yet (decision is supposedly tomorrow) , but its safe to say that Twitter helped my organization not lose a deal, and possibly win one. When you are talking about a B2B average deal size of anywhere from $60 to $200K+ that's a very compelling argument! I now work in a growing sea of converts.
Mike, I held a brief session introducing and demonstrating the value of twitter to my sales team last week by showing them how to "listen" to what our customers/prospects (and our competitor's customers/prospects) are saying on monitter.com.
The next day (really), one of our prospects tweeted the name of our product, and the name of our competitors trying to decide which product to buy. Happily, for the first time our account executive was listening. He re-tweeted her our product name of course. That tweet sparked a gem of a conversation about some hesitations she had around our product that A) we weren't aware of, and B) we now had the opportunity to address with her.
Long story short, she also shared that she was listening and paying attention to the negative chatter about our competitor. The deal isn't done yet (decision is supposedly tomorrow) , but its safe to say that Twitter helped my organization not lose a deal, and possibly win one. When you are talking about a B2B average deal size of anywhere from $60 to $200K+ that's a very compelling argument! I now work in a growing sea of converts.
I've never swung a dead cat, but I'll take your word for it. You know the funny thing is, you just covered the high level stuff. Your cousin could get really down n dirty, and I bet he does, with some other social media initiatives out there that have a tad bit more of a learning curve, but good first pass with him. The key here is you "showed" him and then you left him to his own devices for the most part. Good post.
I've never swung a dead cat, but I'll take your word for it. You know the funny thing is, you just covered the high level stuff. Your cousin could get really down n dirty, and I bet he does, with some other social media initiatives out there that have a tad bit more of a learning curve, but good first pass with him. The key here is you "showed" him and then you left him to his own devices for the most part. Good post.
Great story! Had not seen Monitter, kind of like TweetDeck in the browser. Cool.
Mike – Thanks for this post and for your tireless efforts to demonstrate the value of social media. The real-life examples are great.
I just checked out Monitter. It's a great way to filter tweets by topic, which is very useful for brands and marketers.
As a marketer (and NOT stupid Mike lol) I do use monitter. It's a great tool…case in point above. Now if anyone ever finds one like monitter that lets you follow tweet topics AND export the data so you can analyze it easily…THAT would be a great invention. Let me know if you see anything like that. Love the blogs Mike. Keep em coming. I learn from them every day.
Check out ScoutLabs.com, and soon CrimsonHexagon.com. Some new tools coming online soon that should be a big help here.
Great story! Had not seen Monitter, kind of like TweetDeck in the browser. Cool.
Mike – Thanks for this post and for your tireless efforts to demonstrate the value of social media. The real-life examples are great.
I just checked out Monitter. It's a great way to filter tweets by topic, which is very useful for brands and marketers.
As a marketer (and NOT stupid Mike lol) I do use monitter. It's a great tool…case in point above. Now if anyone ever finds one like monitter that lets you follow tweet topics AND export the data so you can analyze it easily…THAT would be a great invention. Let me know if you see anything like that. Love the blogs Mike. Keep em coming. I learn from them every day.
Check out ScoutLabs.com, and soon CrimsonHexagon.com. Some new tools coming online soon that should be a big help here.
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