Comments on: Social media marketing for professional services

By: Channelship

Channelship — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:02:25 +0000

Thanks for your comment Jonathan.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:57:53 +0000

You have put out some great content in this blog. The crazy part is that small businesses are to old school and think the way they have been doing business will keep working. There is so much more working in the minds of the consumers out there. If you are 23yrs to 38yers old most of the buying process is on line . great information thanks

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:18:44 +0000

You have put out some great content in this blog. The crazy part is that small businesses are to old school and think the way they have been doing business will keep working. There is so much more working in the minds of the consumers out there. if your 23yrs to 38yers old most of the buying process is on line . great information thanks

By: Channelship

Channelship — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:29:52 +0000

Thanks Ali,

Good point. If you think about the “geeting” and “giving” issue, there's actually no difference with what happens in the offline world
What goes on in social networks is a reflection of the offline world with the different that because it happens online, there's a record. We just need to get used to understanding/digesting that concept through a 15 inch screen.

By: Ali Davies

Ali Davies — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:36:29 +0000

Hi Fred, I enjoyed reading your post and the comments. In addition I would add that it is important to enagage in these activites from a place of integrity, authenticity and serving the audience. There seems to be a section of the online and SM community that are all about “getting” rather than “giving” which is so unattractive.

By: Channelship

Channelship — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:10:40 +0000

Thanks for your comment Miriam. You are very welcome!

In order to tackle the three issues that you mentioned, the goal would be to pick the tools that really work for you or that you enjoy using for your day to day activities and then stick to them. The key is not to feel in a race or overwhelmed.
If you are not in the technology field, or keeping up with the latest trends and platforms is not your thing, simply don't let that push you.
As I mentioned, just stick to those tools that work for you and try to get the most out of them.
Seth Godin is a great example of this. Many people cannot understand how come he is not on Twitter. He says that his strategy is only one blog post per day and that's exactly what he delivers.
If you were to farm out your blog, twitter account or imagine your LinkedIn updates... that simply wouldn't be you. The purpose of growing your business network and learning from it would be defeated.

By: Channelship

Channelship — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:59:10 +0000

Reply from @fredchannel on Channelship's Facebook page:

“Thanks a lot for the comment man. I guess we're both in the same fight
I really hope that a significant amount of businesses understand the importance of “being found”, especially this year if they want to make a difference…”

http://www.facebook.com/channelship

By: Channelship

Channelship — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:57:57 +0000

Thanks for the comment and the ReTweets Roy
That's a good point as well: “if only 5% of that network listens”. I'm not suggesting that you should aim or be happy with 5% however, that percentage could actually mean a lot of people. It's an audience that through a specific platform now follows your expertise. As I mentioned in the post, a phone book cannot do that for you.

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:29:25 +0000

Comment by Lorcán Ó hUallacháin on Channelship's Facebook page:

“That's a great line: “lead generation nowadays is more about being found, rather than going out and hunting”. We try to convince people of the merits of being “findable” – and I love it when people “get it” … but there's still a lot of people who don't understand, or refuse to understand – I'm fighting that specific battle in 2 cases right now! )”

http://www.facebook.com/channelship

By: Miriam Ahern

Miriam Ahern — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:50:16 +0000

Hi Fred.

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for taking my comment seriously and for investing your valuable time and effort into crafting a blog-post specifically for professional services consultants. I will pass on the link to the members of the Institute for Management Consultants and Advisers (IMCA).

I agree totally that the key to making sales these days is more about who knows you (and, of course, what you do), than who you know. In this context, your advice on promoting personal/professional branding rather than organisational/industry expertise is spot-on.

Your previous blog and your response to my comments above have given me much food for thought. I believe that you have made an unarguable case why consultants should and could leverage social media. However I think that the resistance or reluctance can be broken down into three key issues for small businesses or sole traders to overcome:

1. Keeping abreast of the fast-moving developments in the Social Media sphere
2. What to do? Knowing how to exploit available opportunities
3. How to do it? Do you try to start from where you are and learn how to use all the technologies?

This begs the question, should non-techie professional consultants really try to get on top of it all or should we 'farm it out' to the experts? Or is there a middle ground?

Best regards and thanks again for your insights.

Miriam

P.S. So disappointed not to see any frogs jumping around Brian Tracy's office