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Using Instagram is not an option; it’s an opportunity!

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QUESTION: Why did Facebook pay one billion dollars for Instagram?
ANSWER: So that instead of worrying about how many people joined Instagram (and abandoned Facebook), they could brag about it.

Are you on Instagram? I am. All of my family is. ALL of my family is. Daughters, granddaughters, in-laws, outlaws. All of them. All of my close friends are too. And a few hundred other people I don’t know, who looked me up or found me through a hash tag. Are you on?

Do you post on Instagram? I do. Almost every day. Why? Because I take pictures on my iPhone that I believe are worth sharing. That’s what Instagram is all about.

With more that 130 million ‘users’ Instagram is what’s new and what’s next. If you doubt it, ask yourself why Facebook bought a company – that never made a dime of profit – for a billion dollars.

I’m certain that in a Facebook research-marketing lab someplace in Silicone Valley they’re talking about Instaface or Facegram.

Instagram is an app of the future. It’s really only usable on mobile and tablet devices. But it makes sense because mobile is where you take pictures.

Take a look at mine @jeffreygitomer

Here’s what Instagram offers to your social media mix:

  • It’s instant. Shoot the photo, minor edit, short description, add the people you’re with and or the location the photo was taken, and post it.
  • It takes less time than other social media. Not just for you, but for everyone else you’re connected to.
  • People typically post positive things. They ‘like’ it, and they can say a few words.
  • No drama. Facebook is a soap opera. Instagram is a happy place.
  • It’s a document of your daily life. In a light and non-time-consuming way.
  • It’s personal. Family sees family. Friends see friends. And you are able to stay in touch with family friends in a personal way. KEY: Invite your family and friends to join you.
  • It’s available to others. Your business friends and close customers can get a glimpse of your personal side without all the Facebook crap and your past life.
  • You don’t have to be a writer, just a smartphone user. Very few words are needed – just photos and short videos.
  • There’s a chance to be ‘liked.’ For your photos, your travels, your creativity, your career, your achievements, your cute kids, your passions, and your family.
  • There’s a chance to comment. And you can send words of praise to those you follow.
  • There’s a chance to acknowledge others. When you appear in a photo with others or want to send them a message.
  • It’s fun. It is by far, my favorite of the social media options.

YOU MUST: Get your parents, kids, close relatives, and friends involved to ‘share’ the spirit of Instagram.

IT’S NOT A TREND, IT’S A MOVEMENT: Kids are ON IT, and ALL OVER IT. My grandchildren have all but abandoned Facebook in favor of Instagram.

NOTE: I just texted Morgan, my 15-year-old granddaughter, and asked her when her last post on Facebook was. ‘September 16, 2012’ (Almost a year ago – and she was on it every hour before then). Last post on Instagram? ‘Yesterday.’ Morgan has 447 followers (knows most of them), is following 272 people, and has posted 584 photos. She is the future of Instagram – and Facebook knows it.

WAKE UP – Microsoft Word still thinks the word Instagram is a misspelling. Sad.

WANT MORE FOLLOWERS? Besides your inner circle of people and family, if you want more followers, take great photos and #hashtag key words and places of interest when you post a photo or video. Others go searching for those words and places, find you, and (some) will follow you.

Here are a few more things about Instagram that will help you learn more and take full advantage of the opportunity:

  • Hashtag (#) search for a few things you love, and find a few people to follow that have similar interests. I follow people who photograph Paris. It has led me to other amazing photographers.
  • Be authentic – post your own photos.
  • Study the experts. There are hundreds of them on Instagram.

Do it. If you’re already doing it, improve and expand your doing. It’s an easy way to share joy, memories, and passions. Oh, and it’s FREE.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Like me! Why should I like you? Eh, I have no idea!

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If you can remember that far back in Facebook history (2007), it started as a ‘fan’ page. Then one day (way back in 2010), out of the blue, Facebook decided to change it to a ‘like’ page.

Why did they change it? Here’s their reason: “To improve your experience and promote consistency across the site, we’ve changed the language for Pages from ‘Fan’ to ‘Like.’ We believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.”

Huh? Oh, that’s corporate-speak. What it really means is to create a business page where your customers or fans can go and interact. Kind of like what it was.

REALITY: It’s hard to make fun of the third largest country in the world, so everyone went along – me included.

And then the begging began. PLEASE LIKE ME! Or LIKE US ON FACEBOOK! The signs were everywhere. Still are.

And many people did:
Zappos – 833,000 likes
Elvis – 8.5 million likes
Lady Gagam – 53.5 million likes
Chevrolet – 1.9 million likes
Tesla – 234,000 likes
Jeffrey Gitomer – 35,451 likes (Not bad. But not as many as I would like. I try to give people a reason to like me, rather than just ask.)

What about your business? Who is liking you? And why? What’s the reason customers would like you beyond the beg?

Want more ‘likes’? Consider the process, not just the ask. Asking for a like gives me or anyone else little or no incentive to do so. Can you imagine this conversation, “Honey, as soon as we get home, let’s like them.” No, not gonna happen.

Here are a few thoughts to get your mind wrapped around the “like” process and help you understand how to attract and earn more of them:

  • Maybe remind people WHY they like you. If you love our service, share the love on Facebook. Facebook.com/yourbusiness THANK YOU!
  • What’s to like? Ask yourself WHY people like you and talk about that.
  • Where’s the value? Like me – and my 10 best ideas for summer weekend getaways will be yours!
  • Where’s the one on one? Interacting with customers one-on-one will get people talking about you on THEIR Facebook page, and liking you.
  • Maybe if you LOVE me, then you’ll be more likely to like me. Your passionate customers are the ones who will like you.
  • Maybe if you’re LOYAL to me, then you’ll be more likely to like me. The customers who buy from you over and over are the ones who will like you.

STRATEGY: Instant like in your store or place of business. DO IT NOW! Where’s your iPad? Why aren’t you asking people to sign in at your cash register or welcome counter and like you on the spot? I mean really, do you think your customers head home and say: “I really gotta ‘like’ the dry cleaner as soon as I walk in the door.” Not likely.
STRATEGY: Smartphones can improve like. Ask customers to like you at the register. Give a coupon.

Okay, so they like you. THEN WHAT?
Like is a one-time click, what’s my reason to post, interact, and return?

STRATEGY: Instead of just asking people to like you, ask them to tell you WHAT they like – or WHY they like it. Or better, why they like YOU. Get people to post something, not just click a button. Expand the like so that others can see your value and your reality.

The value of like is undeniable. Lots of people liking you gives peace of mind to new and prospective customers. Like is proof – social proof that you are ‘safe’ to do business with.

Like is a vote of confidence to the business, not just other customers.
Like is a source of pride and affirmation of self-worth.
Like is reputation building.

PLAN A STRATEGY. You now have some additional awareness of both the value and the strategy of ‘like.’

If you invest a few hours with your team, and maybe an outside professional (we use www.onesocialmedia.com)…
1. You’ll attract more people
2. You’ll become interactive with them
3. You’ll make more sales.

That I guarantee you’ll like.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The evolution of SOCIAL MEDIA ATTRACTION that leads to a sale.

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I am on it.
I am into it.
It’s attracting customers.
It’s making sales.
It’s free!

What is it?
It’s almost social media.
It’s BUSINESS social media.

It’s your ticket to customer and prospect awareness – who you are, how you think, how you serve, what you believe, what your value messages are, and what others think of you. And did I mention? It’s free.

But the mere fact you participate isn’t any assurance it’ll pay off. In fact, the opposite is the norm. Most companies, most business people, and most salespeople have no idea of how to actually ATTRACT customers, potential customers, new followers, and connections. Even fewer companies and salespeople understand that business social media must be combined with, in conjunction with, and in harmony with all other internet and face-to-face marketing outreaches.

The key word to understanding and implementing business social media actions that lead to attraction and connection success is VALUE.

Value in the messages you tweet, post, and share. Value to your customers and prospects so they pass your message on to THEIR connections.

SCENARIO: I tweet to my 65,000+ followers. They resonate with it, and those who believe it’s worthy or applicable to their followers RE-TWEET it, or FAVOR it for their followers to see. That allows me to pick up another 100+ followers a day.

SCENARIO: I post a thought, or a quote, or an idea on my LinkedIn home page. It’s broadcast to my 15,000+ LinkedIn connections. Many of them ‘share’ it with all of their connections. It allows me to pick up more than 100 connections a week.

SCENARIO: I upload a new video each week on YouTube. It’s posted on my ezine, on my blog, in my tweets, and on my Facebook page. Somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 people will view it, like it, and not want to miss the next one – so they subscribe to my YouTube uploads.

Those are real world examples that represent a small part of my attraction process. They give you a solid idea it’s not about what I write, post, or do; it’s about the RESPONSE to what I write, post, or do.

It’s not about tweeting. It’s about being re-tweeted.

I REPEAT: All business social media must be combined with your traditional business and Internet outreach.

Here are the business, internet, AND business social media value-based messaging and marketing elements I use to transfer my messages and posts that attract and connect. Study them. Implement yours.

  • LinkedIn Jeffrey Gitomer – The number one business resource. I post my thought of the day or link of the day. RESPONSE: People like it and share it with their connections. That has lead to more than 15,000 connections.
  • Twitter @gitomer I tweet three or four times a day. I usually send out one link a day. RESPONSE: I am re-tweeted or favored more than 100 times a day, and I gain between 50 and 100 new followers a day.
  • Facebook business /jeffreygitomer – Like me, then read a bunch of the posts, then be inspired to comment or post. RESPONSE: All of my followers (likers) read it and all of the poster’s connections can see it too.
  • YouTube channel BuyGitomer – People watch a few of my 300+ videos, RESPONSE: subscribe
  • SalesBlog.com daily posts – Daily value-based posts sent to subscribers and available by search. All emails get you back to the blog. There are lots of offers on the landing page. RESPONSE: People become loyal followers, buy products, and tell others to subscribe.
  • Weekly e-zine SalesCaffeine.com – Ten years of weekly, real-world, value-based sales information. E-zine also has several offers to buy products and services. RESPONSE: People become loyal followers, buy products, and tell others to subscribe.
  • Bought The Little Red Book of Selling, or one of my other 11 books. RESPONSE: Loved it, bought more books, or bought a book for the whole team, or went online and found more about me.
  • Attended one of my public seminars. RESPONSE: Bought a ticket, had a blast, learned a ton, bought more books after the event and subscribed to my full suite of social media offerings.
  • Paid to hear one of my webinars. This came about as a result of our internal electronic marketing. RESPONSE: Person loves it, resonates with it, buys more, becomes loyal.
  • Spent some time on gitomer.com reading my free resources. Found me by searching. RESPONSE: Loved my free stuff, browsed my things for sale – and bought something.
  • Googled Jeffrey Gitomer to find out more about me. RESPONSE: Said WOW when 500,000+ entries appeared. Clicked around and bought something.
  • Googled “sales training” and found me on the first page. That’s a real lead. RESPONSE: Clicked. Called. Bought.

You cannot control how people search. You must be findable by company, person, product, topic, and keywords that will get your name to pop up.

It’s not one thing that creates attraction. It’s a strategic combination of a social, online, and face-to-face outreach MIX to attract interested buyers. It’s a confluence of value-based things that are available to customers and prospects.

I just shared 13 of mine so you could see the diversity of my offerings and the multiple opportunities that prospects have to find you, be attracted to you, connect with you, and buy from you.

ULTIMATE RESPONSE: Someone calls and asks if I’m available to address their sales team at their annual meeting. When they do, we ask how they found out about me, and the customer replies, “He’s everywhere!”

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

How to make sales calls on social media. Kind of.

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Letter from a fan:

Hello Mr. Gitomer, I read your article on LinkedIn in the Daily Herald Business Ledger here in the Chicago Suburbs. I am a fan. You make great points and observations that many people miss. I’m in the process of retooling my profile. I can’t help but to ask if you have ever made a sale through LinkedIn? Thanks, Kyle

The simple answer is YES. But it ain’t that simple.

I have a business brand, a personal brand, and a social brand. All of which are interconnected. All of which are mature. All of which provide value messages. All of which create attraction. All of which generate leads. All of which make sales.

MY MARKETING MANTRA IS THE CORE OF MY SOCIAL EFFORT: I put myself in front of people that can say ‘yes’ to me and I deliver value first.

Long before social media, or as I prefer to refer to it business social media, my marketing mantra was the hallmark of my sales success. As a writer and speaker in the early ’90s, I built my brand in print media and created attraction through value messaging. Still do.

It was hard to create attraction (leads and sales) if you weren’t in print.

The HUGE difference (and your advantage) is that now there are a variety of additional media and social media outlets available. Most of them are free. And you can become attractive on all of them, if you choose the right path.

The value messaging path.
The path that will attract the all-important CLICK.
CLICK means someone wants to see more.
Especially if they’re looking to buy or connect.

CLICK AROUND: There are very few ‘one source’ sales anymore. Too many options available. People, you included, click around before they connect, interact, and especially buy.

The omnipresence of mother Google, combined with the advent of business social media, has created new and better ways to search, find, connect, attract, and interact. And one social media outlet proves, promotes, and reinforces the other to someone that clicks around.

Everyone clicks around.

People searching do not just search one source. They keep searching until they find comfort enough to click, and click again in the same spot. And my value messages promote multiple clicks.

ONE CLICK MEANS NOTHING. One click means you get a ‘look.’ Two or more clicks on the same page or site gets a deeper look and maybe a connection. Especially in social media.

If I’m looking for someone or something, I click ALL their social media. Don’t you?

NOTE: Your customers, your prospects, and your potential connections are clicking you. And you can’t stop them.

NUMBERS MATTER: The number of followers and connections you have can be the difference between click and no click. Your prospect is seeking some comfort and assurance that you are safe to connect with or do business with.

COMMENTS, RATINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND ENDORSEMENTS MATTER MORE THAN NUMBERS: Especially in the business world. If you have 500 business connections on LinkedIn, it pales in comparison to who has recommended and endorsed you. Recommendations and endorsements are proof. So are positive ratings and comments. And many businesses live and die by them.

RULE OF THE MORE THE MORE: The more a prospective customer clicks on you and your stuff, the easier it is for them to make a buying decision in your favor. They are more likely to click if your site is easy to navigate, your information is easy to understand, there is clear value to the possible purchaser, and you offer social and video proof that others have purchased from you and love it.

FINAL POINT OF UNDERSTANDING: Building and growing your ‘attraction platform’ is not just about what you say, post, or do; it’s all about what OTHERS think of what you say, post, and do combined with what actions THEY take as a result of it.

Do they post a favorable a comment? Do they re-tweet to their followers? Do they share with their connections? Do they ‘like’ you or what you do? Will they subscribe? And (of course) will they buy?

Those are the actions I seek to achieve in those who click on me.

Am I perfect at it? Heck no.
Do I work on making it better every day? Heck yes!

“OK, SO DID YOU MAKE A LINKEDIN SALE?” No, I made hundreds of them. I have more than 15,000 connections on LinkedIn, and EVERY DAY I post a value message.

Here’s what happens: People comment, people share the post with THEIR connections, people email me, and people call our office. EVERY DAY. And whether they want a twenty-dollar book or a fifty-thousand-dollar training program, the cost of that lead (and that sale) was ZERO.

Understand it was a value message that created the attraction and the sale(s), not an ad or a self-promoting message. Yes, I send out an occasional sales offer, but it’s less that 10% of the time. No one is gonna re-post an ad.

Next week you’ll see the detail of what my social game plan is, how one element ties into and supports the other, and how that creates attraction that leads to sales.

Stay tuned…

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Seven Strategies for Managing Workplace Internet Usage

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As social media and personal email continue to be many individual’s primary forms of communications, it becomes harder to keep them focused at the workplace. An increase in usage of media-rich sites can place a considerable strain on limited bandwidth, which can hurt the performance of critical business tasks. The challenge is establishing a proper workplace balance that allows some personal internet usage without a related drag on business efficiency.

As a business owner or IT manager, you need tips and tactics on striking the right balance. We offer seven strategies:

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About the Author

Keith RossKeith Ross is product manager for Networking products at Black Box Corporation. His product line includes Ethernet switches, media converters, network security, and WAN optimization products. Keith has over 10 years experience in telecommunications and data networking. He worked at FORE Systems, Marconi, and Ericsson previously. Keith has a BSEE from Carnegie-Mellon and an MSEM from Stanford University. To learn more about Black Box, click here.