MY BIGGEST SOCIAL MEDIA MISTAKE

Mistake? “Isn’t that just a little bit risky, Leslie - to admit a big mistake right when many of us in the furniture industry are on the verge of adopting a social media strategy in 2010 and might consider hiring your company?” My answer to you would be, “We’re ALL still learning and if SOMEONE like me who does social media for a living doesn’t admit that I screw up because my ego gets in the way, then how it will ever be ok for YOU to know that it’s ok to jump in to social media and take the risk of transparency and, yes, there WILL be some missteps that will be public, but, generally, they all work out?”I hope you can learn from my mistake. If there’s one thing I have learned this year, the BEST strategy is to admit your screw ups out loud and fast. Why?

Nothing is hidden anymore. Your employees, customers and competitors can see or are hearing about EVERY action your company takes and have opinions - which they are most likely sharing on Facebook or the other social networking sites where they are hanging out when they are not at work!. The MORE transparent and honest you can be, the HIGHER the trust factor from your employees, your customers and your competitors (who may someday be hiring you or buying you or vice versa). As Chris Brogan states in his excellent book, “TRUST AGENTS” trust is THE defining factor in the new economy and TRUST translates into sales.

So, HERE IS MY BIG EGO MISTAKE:

Thinking that Twitter was all about the number of followers you have. When I first got on Twitter in October of last year (I joined in April of last year but my first serious use was at the October HP market in ‘08), I was ALL ABOUT trying to get more followers. I thought this would give me more “power” with the people, like you, who might hire me. I thought, “If my clients see that I have lots of people following me, they will want to hire me - they will think I’m important” Huge EGO thought! Yikes!

Here’s the lesson: Twitter is NOT about the number of people following you for those of you who are retailers, manufacturers or suppliers. If you try to say ANYTHING on Twitter about the number of people following you YOU LOSE. No one cares. It comes across as a HUGE EGO trip. Learn from me! I did this when I first started and it almost sunk me. Luckily, someone named @sashakane gently explained to me what I was doing wrong and I corrected course immediately. BUT, if Sasha had not told me, I would have lost complete respect in the community before I even got going as I really thought it was ALL about the follower numbers.

(Know this: it is now possible to BUY followers on Twitter. Many services do this. You will see many who have 20, 40, 50K+ followers-this, in general, is how they are achieving those numbers. What does this mean? Their followers are not CHOOSING to listen to them, they are being bought by that person to inflate that persons’ follower numbers so that person will SEEM more important and, thereby, will get even more followers, because it is, unfortunately, human nature to look at the number of followers and ASSUME influence or importance and follow in hopes of getting a follow back).

So, from your BUSINESS’ perspective, what DOES MATTER about how many followers you have? NOTHING. What matters is, WHO are the followers you DO have and:

a. Can they you buy from you, refer you business or otherwise influence your ability to attract more business?

b Are they adding value through the knowledge or other information they are imparting in a way that will allow you to achieve one of your business’ objectives?

c. Do they engage in conversations with others in a way that is consistent, reciprocal and friendly in tone - because this will mean they might be willing to do the same with you if you engage them first.

You may be thinking, ” But, if I am a manufacturer or an ecommerce retailer, isn’t it a good idea to have lots and lots of consumers following me?” Here’s the truth: It SEEMS important BUT -unless you are online ALL THE TIME and can be IN CONVERSATION with a large majority of those following you so your company begins to break through the marketing noise- it really will not matter. You will not be in a position to form REAL relationships with those consumers and they, in turn, will not trust you enough to buy from you.

For those reading this who know me from Twitter, one of the things that has made my work successful in developing business for my clients is the amount of CONVERSATIONS I’ve had with real people. Some people on Twitter have said to me, “Leslie, I have to unfollow you, you tweet too much!” Yes, it’s true. I tweet A LOT - and will continue to do so because I know this: The key to any LONG LASTING business relationship is trust. How is trust developed? By investing a lot of time in conversation with someone - consistently - over time.

So, the key to using social media to develop business is not to fall into the ego trap - like I definitely did - of having lots of followers because you’ll appear to be more important to others or more influential than you really are, but in having real conversations with the followers you DO have - and, if you’re a business, focus those convos on those that can bring you business, refer you business or influence others to look more closely at doing business with you.

If, as a business, you can ALSO learn to focus YOUR tweets on sharing information that those following you might find helpful - decorating tips, your community outreach and how they can participate, local events in the area that other businesses are holding that you know people might want to attend, etc. and real info re: the fact that you are fallible, your family, etc., then you WILL see, over time, your relationships on Twitter deepening and paying off in business and goodwill. Just ask @thecenturyhouse or @thesilverbarn. They are both retailers who can give you excellent insight into the power of Twitter for their businesses. (Neither one, by the way, is a client and they are both smaller independent retailers).

Really, NOTHING HAS CHANGED about what we have always done extremely well as an industry - building relationships with people interested in furnishing their homes in ways that nourish the hopes and dreams they have for themselves and their families.

If you, dear readers, are willing to spend the time to understand social media and take the risk of transparency and making mistakes along the way, then a new world will open to you that will give you a less expensive, faster and more efficient way to reach customers and form new business relationships than has been possible in the past.

And, finally, if you DO want to invest in learning more, pls. consider attending WITHIT’s @WITHIT Technology Symposium on January 13th from 1-5 at the Airport Marriot in Greensboro, NC. This half-day symposium for our industry’s CEO’s and senior managers will take an in-depth look at the impact of social media across the enterprise. Keynoting will be Forrester senior research analyst Emily Riley. Maggie Fox @maggiefox will be delivering a case study on her social media client, Ford Motors @scottmonty @Ford and I will be moderating our panel @tkpleslie which includes Bert DuMars @bwdumars-Vice President E-Business & Interactive Marketing for Newell Rubbermaid , Pamela Jordan @bleueyedbeauty - head of Online Marketing and E-Commerce for Furniture Brands International and Jessica Koster @BiOH4ALLjk, Marketing Manager for Cargill’s BiOH Poylols division.

To register for the conference, please go to http://withit.org

I would love to have your comments on this post. What’s been your biggest mistake as you’ve stepped into the social media sphere? What have you learned from it? What’s your take-away? Where are you now and what do you still need to learn?