Have you ever Googled "Social CRM for Sales"?
There's a lot of information on the subject, but I was little disappointed to find the CRM's dominating the search results not articles on how social media can be used. Let me explain...
Client / Customer / Contact Relationship Management (CRM) solution providers are desperately trying to integrate social media into their products. On a basic level, CRM's allow their users to connect a contact's Twitter and LinkedIn so the user can quickly link to those channels and do some social listening to potentially build a stronger relationship with that contact. Some are trying to go further. Have you ever considered turning this idea on its head... and use social media as your CRM?
First let me state that I love CRM's and have used various ones consistently for the last 6 years. They are an amazing tool for sales, managing leads and measuring what's in your sales pipeline. The following information is not being shared as a replacement for a CRM. It's simply another technique I've employed with some success.
I've been practising using social media as a CRM for sales for a few years now. Let me share what I've been doing and you can see if it is a technique that will work for you. It's quite simple and I've broken it out into the following steps. We'll use Twitter and LinkedIn as our social media tools in our Social CRM solution, but you could probably use Instagram and LinkedIn, Pinterest and LinkedIn or others. LinkedIn is where we end this journey typically as I explain below.
Step #1: Follow Leads on Twitter
Once I've found a company or person I want to work with, I do my best to find all of their social media channels. If they're on Twitter I start there. Twitter is ideal as you need no prior relationship with a person or a brand to start following them... it's not creepy... in fact it's expected. It's helpful also that you break the people / brands you're following into lists. This makes the next step easier.
Step #2: Engage
This may take some time but eventually the leads you're following on Twitter may say something or ask something through Twitter that you can contribute to. As with many things, timing is everything, but it's what we're expected to do on social media - engage, network, provide value, develop new relationships and expand our networks.
I like to use Twitter's lists. I choose a list of people / companies I want to engage with, review recent posts or tweets and if I can add value to a conversation, I'll jump in!
Here's an example of a conversation from the other night:
Now I don't know Tari and Tom Di Bello and they don't know me. But I LOVE Okanagan wine and Tom is one of the best winemakers in the region! I love the winery business and the stories and experiences they create with their brands and I've had the pleasure of working with a few great Okanagan wineries.
It's important to note that I didn't reach out to Tom and Tari to try to develop a business relationship with them. I reached out because I had some valuable information, insight and experience that might help them answer the question they posed. If a business relationship develops where I can help their business or another business in their network - great! If not, I was happy to help them with this question - that's it!
Step #3: Move Contacts to LinkedIn for Conversion
So, once you've engaged contacts on Twitter and you have developed a rapport, you can ask to add your contact to your LinkedIn network. LinkedIn, more than any other network, has been the best network for my business. I have established relationships with every connection and when I message a contact on LinkedIn to meet for a coffee, I always get a meeting.
This may ruffle some feathers out there, but if you and I don't know each other and you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn - you're wasting your time and mine. LinkedIn is my special happy place where I only keep my most precious business contacts.
LinkedIn has always maintained that you must know the person you want to connect with on their platform. They've lightened up on this in recent years in my opinion and lately I've been getting connection requests like followers on Twitter.
So that's it. For me, by using Twitter and LinkedIn in this way it helps me to filter legitimate business contacts from business contacts I'd like to get to know better. How do you use social media to develop business leads? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Or do you have questions? Connect with me through my website and let's chat!
D
