I did my first big Twitter group tweet last week. It’s called a “tweetcast.”
Three companies – Adly (adly.com), Evolve!, Inc. (evolvesinc.com), and KiteDesk, (KiteDesk.com) – combined resources and invited 22 experts, including me, to tweet the answers to eight questions as they were posted. The result was a firestorm of tweets, re-tweets, and assorted comments.
In short, it was an overwhelming success. Hundreds of tweets per minute, and value messages flying all over Twitter-space. Mine included.
KiteDesk, Evolve! and a few others were both sponsors and responsible for the platform, the communications, the experts, and creating a set of questions for us to reference and tweet our answers to.
Below are the questions and my tweeted answer replies.
Q1. Isn’t spending too much time on Social Media dangerous? I’d rather my team sell vs. tweet.
• Spend as much time on social selling as you do watching some dumbass TV show A1 #gitomer #socsales
• Allocate time, don’t spend it – at least an hour a day to build your social net-worth #gitomer A1 – #socsales
• All customers are looking for value, why not communicate with all of them at once. #gitomer A1 #SocSales
• Anyone that does not allocate at least an hour a day communicating value messages to your customers is a fool. #gitomer A1 #SocSales
Q2. Give me real examples of situations where social selling produced results. Better yet – tell me how social selling has produced results that would not have been possible without it (company name, campaign, outcome, etc).
• NOTE WELL: Just because you are ready to sell, does not mean they are ready to buy. #gitomer A2 #SocSales
• Value messages not sales messages, will ultimately create buyers. #gitomer A2 #SocSales
• Wanna meet more valuable people on social selling networks? Offer more valuable messages! #gitomer A2 #socsales
Q3. How do best-in-class companies measure and manage social selling results?
• Apple doesn’t measure – how are they doing? Microsoft does – how are they doing? #gitomer A3 #SocSales
• Apple doesn’t measure – how are they doing? Blackberry does – how are they doing? #gitomer A3 #SocSales
• Measuring results of social media and social sales is a total waste of time – just do it! #gitomer A3 #SocSales
Q4. How do I get my team to change their behavior to incorporate social selling into their routine?
• Marketing: Solicit testimonial videos and real-life examples that can be posted on Facebook and YouTube. #gitomer A4 #SocSales
• Marketing: Provide your team with a full suite of messages and things to say to their customers. #gitomer A4 #SocSales
• Marketing: Provide your team with a full suite of social selling templates. #gitomer A4 #SocSales
Q5. What is marketing’s role in social selling and how can the two departments work together to produce results?
• The best role for marketing is to get all their salespeople up and running on social media and social selling. #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• The best role for marketing is to prepare all salespeople with a full suite of social selling tools. #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• As a customer, I don’t want a sales message I want to value message. Do you get that marketing? #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• The best role for marketing is social media is to stay out of it. #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• In general, marketing has no concept of selling. They pound customers with boring messages that have no value. #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• The best role for marketing is to get all their salespeople up and running on social media and social selling. #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• The best role for marketing is to prepare all salespeople with a full suite of social selling tools. #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• As a customer, I don’t want a sales message I want to value message. Do you get that marketing? #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• The best role for marketing is social media is to stay out of it. #gitomer A5 #SocSales
• In general, marketing has no concept of selling. They pound customers with boring messages that have no value. #gitomer A5 #SocSales
Q6. Are there holes in the social sales toolbox? If so, what’s missing?
• It’s not just social sales, it’s social service. How good are you at social listening? #gitomer A6 #SocSales
• Missing from 99% of all social selling messages: a value message to the prospective buyer. #gitomer A6 #SocSales
Q7. Are traditional sales tools such as email and phone calls still relevant? Why/why not?
• Great salespeople combine traditional selling and social selling. There’s plenty of place for both. #gitomer A7 #SocSales
• Traditional sales calls and traditional selling has lost part of its value and its efficacy based on social selling. #gitomer A7 #SocSales
Take a close look at my answers. Some I prepared in advance, some I created on the spot.
RESULTS: I was re-tweeted and “favorite” more than 250 times during this event, I gained more than 100 new Twitter followers, and I learned some very valuable lessons about the attraction of this type of promotion.
Short answer: It worked.
Long answer: I want to (will) do it again.
FREE GitBit: I created a digital book that contains 365 of my best tweets. If you’d like a copy, go to gitomer.com and enter the word RETWEET in the GitBit box.
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of 12 bestselling books including The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling. His bestselling 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling is now available as a book and an online course at www.gitomerVT.com. For public event dates and information about training and seminars visit www.gitomer.com or email Jeffrey personally at salesman@gitomer.com.
