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A game plan to generate a thousand social media leads.

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I have a goal and a plan to attract 1,000 leads in the next 30 days.

Six months ago I launched my Gitomer Certified Advisor program. It allows others in the coaching and training field to use my brand and sell my classroom training and my online platform along with their offerings – or by itself.

After a very successful (but limited) launch, I want to take the program to the next level and need to find interested and qualified people to do so.

THINK ABOUT YOU AS I TELL YOU ABOUT ME. Before I get into the strategy and actions I’m going to take, I want you to understand why I’m writing about the process. I want you to compare it to how you attract, how you prospect, and how you connect with willing buyers.

  • How do you get leads?
  • How do you prospects?
  • What is your strategy to socially involve and attract?
  • Is your personal platform strong enough to attract?
  • What is your social media lead-conversion rate?

The answers to these questions will significantly impact results.

BIG PICTURE: The strategy for this ‘attraction campaign’ is to use every form of social media and electronic outreach to find interested people, and offer them multiple ways to connect with me. The goal is to give information immediately without a barrier of registering or giving me their information. I want to get my messages BOTH responded to and passed along.

THE TARGETS: In order to get 1,000 leads, I am going to mass mail my contacts and connections AND specifically target existing coaches, existing sales trainers (corporate and independent), and anyone looking to start their own sales training business that wants to use the Jeffrey Gitomer brand to increase authenticity. As a Gitomer Certified Advisor, I provide them with the content, the brand, and the training to make it happen.

TIMED SOCIAL MESSAGES: Posting time and frequency are directly proportionate to the audience reached and their likelihood of response. From my personal experience, my social media consulting expert, Joe Soto, and the article, The Scientific Guide to Posting Tweets, Facebook Posts, Emails and Blogs at the Best Time in The Huffington Post, the best times to post on social media are as follows http://blog.bufferapp.com/best-time-to-tweet-post-to-facebook-send-emails-publish-blogposts:

Facebook. Best post times are between 1 pm and 3 pm Monday through Friday; engagement rates are 18 percent higher on Thursdays and Fridays.

Twitter. Tweet later in the day. Re-tweets on Twitter are higher at 5 pm compared to any other time during the day; the best times to post are between noon and 6 pm. This same study found that people are on Twitter 181 percent more during their commute. Think about it. Aren’t you more likely to be all about your life and how to improve it before or after work?

LinkedIn The Media Bistro suggests LinkedIn is most often used right before and after work hours (specifically on Tuesday and Thursday, but no one knows exactly (except maybe LinkedIn).

Blog readers read in the morning, with the ‘sweet spot’ being Thursdays around 11 am. But that’s a subjective opinion as well.

YouTube has no ‘best time.’ By comparison to others, its visitors are more search oriented, so I intend to be both searchable and findable. And my new video posts will go out to all my existing subscribers.

CRAP SHOOT REFINED: No one really knows. All messages are different, and all experts are flawed. (I’ve been proving that for years.) I believe that content is a bigger key than what time you post it. And key words will get you found. So that’s where I’m concentrating. I’m going out to my audience, and asking them to go out to their audience (re-tweet, repost, forward, like, comment, and anything else that spreads the word organically).

My overall goal is to generate at least 1,000 leads by May. You may think that is an aggressive goal, but highly achievable through social media and email. Generating 1,000 leads will create a pipeline that will lead me to one sale per day by June 2014.

And I am going to give you the complete detailed outreach plan for you to use as a guide to creating your own game plan for new leads – next week.

If you’d like to see the exact email and subject line I’m going to use, go to www.gitomer.com and enter the word ADVISOR in the GitBit box.

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].

Twitter thoughts and Twitter thinking. Tweet and Re-Tweet.

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Most people reading this have never tweeted. (You included?) On the off chance that you have tweeted, my guess is you have less than 5,000 Twitter followers – maybe less than 500.

Whatever your situation is there’s no denying that Twitter is a major force in business social media. The next few paragraphs will challenge your thinking in regards to participation, specifically why you need to begin to take advantage of it today.

This is not simply a lesson. It’s also a perspective and a business building challenge. Or to put it into your language more sales NOW!

I began tweeting several years ago, but I didn’t really understand the impact it could make or the opportunity it presented. I just took quotes from my books and began to post them.

What happened was very surprising to me. Not only did I gain more followers, but people also began to retweet my tweets to their followers. Cool.

That put my message in front of the followers of my followers. For free. Many of their followers then became my followers. For free. Is that cool, or what?

That was 50,000 followers ago. I now have a much more sophisticated strategy to distribute my message, to add to my followers, and to gain new customers. For free.

Here are my Twitter actions and the thoughts behind them:

  • I tweet several times a day. I’m consistent. Never miss.
  • I include links to my videos or promotions on less than 30% of my tweets. Some days none.
  • I tweet my own thoughts 95% of the time. The other tweets are profound quotes of others, or people I believe are worth following.
  • I only tweet what I believe my followers will benefit from.
  • I tweet what I believe is valuable enough to pass along.

Here are several actual examples of my tweets:

  • Fear of being wrong is more powerful than risk of being right. Leaders emerge as they become fearless. #gitomer #fear #power
  • Social media is everywhere, you may not like it, but you can’t ignore it. #gitomer
  • In a nuts and bolts world, there are far too many nuts, and an extreme shortage of bolts. #gitomer #greatquote
  • Are you a thinker beyond your business? If not you’ll wallow in mediocrity. #gitomer #think

Two hours ago I tweeted: It’s no sin not to tweet or use Twitter, it’s just a tremendous lost opportunity to sell and become known. #gitomer #twitter #opportunity. So far this tweet has been retweeted fifteen times and seven people favored it. It has already reached more than 20,000 followers of other people. With my name on it. For free!

Two days ago, this tweet: The key to selling is to ask for the sale in a sincere, friendly manner. Don’t push or use high pressure. #sales #gitomer had twenty-four retweets and thirteen ‘favorites’ within twenty-four hours (on a SUNDAY). This tweet reached another 20,000 people. With my name on it. For free!

Three days ago, this tweet: If you lose, ask yourself this all powerful question. Did I do my BEST? If you didn’t, you’ll blame the world for your own lack of effort got fifty-six retweets and twenty-four favorites. ON A HOLIDAY. This tweet reached another 50,000 people. With my name on it. For free.

DESIRED OUTCOME: My Twitter goals are to be re-tweeted 100 times a day, be “favored” fifty times a day, and pick up 250 new followers a week. I usually tweet three or four times a day.

CAUTION: I have been tweeting for four years. In that time I have learned what to do and what not to do. I am far from an expert, but I have more followers than most people who claim they are.

The advice I’m offering is based on my own experience and my own strategy. The best advice that I can give you is to create your own strategy focused around what you believe will help your customers the most. Then follow that strategy consistently. Daily.

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 Twitter you may not know. But should.

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What’s in a tweet? For most people it’s a post and a prayer.

For me, it’s value, information others can use, followers, reputation, image, re-tweets, customers, referrals, sales, and money. Is that enough?

Twitter has the power to generate awareness, create value attraction, keep you or your brand at top-of-mind status, and build relationships. Is that enough to get you to participate?

I want to share some advice about twitter: I am NOT passing myself off as an “expert,” and there is nothing to buy, and no free webinar to attend. These are just my observations and successes based on the past four years of my participation.

Here are my stats as of this writing:

  • My twitter handle is my name: @gitomer
  • Followers – 60,580
  • Following – 17,109
  • Tweets – 3,127
  • Average tweets per day – 4
  • Average links to view a video or an offer – 1 per day
  • Average number of re-tweets/favorites per day – 25-75 per tweet
  • New followers per day – 30-50

Here are 3.5 things I recommend you do in order to really benefit from Twitter:
1. Have an objective and a strategy. Twitter is intended for you to inform with value, influence, brand, and (on occasion) to converse or respond, not chit-chat. The value of your tweets will determine who stays with you and re-tweets you. When I see someone with 14,500 tweets and 285 followers, two words come to mind: NO VALUE. I often use the direct message feature to respond, rather than an open tweet – that’s meaningless to everyone else.
2. Create a list of value-based tweets and subjects you intend to tweet about. Be prepared at least a week in advance. Keep a Twitter file that documents ideas and possible tweets. Itweet quotes from my books, and thoughts that come to me during the day (ornight). You can also re-tweet others if you believe it helps your followers.
NOTE: I try to leave at least 10 characters open, so that others can easily re-tweet me.
NOTE: If you re-tweet me or favor me, I’ll follow you as a courtesy.
3. Approach followers of strategic value. You have an email list. INVITE each person to follow you PERSONALLY. In an email, tell each person about your twitter participation, LIST A FEW OF YOUR TWEETS, and ask them to follow you by clicking a link and the follow button. If you have 1,000 people on your list, and 250 follow you, it’s a GREAT start. Continue to send your tweets out weekly to the rest of the list, and re-ask them to follow you. This will take time, but the earning potential exceeds the stupid TV show you’re watching.
3.5 Be consistent. Tweet every day, at least once a day.

Don’t DM (direct message) me saying “Thanks for the follow.” It’s an annoying waste of my time and yours. Instead, how about sending me the same kind of message I sent you – ONE OF VALUE. A message to make me think, make me smile, or make me money. Insincere politeness and phony thanks makes you sound like a bad flight attendant, reading from a script, into a bad microphone, behind a wall.

Don’t re-tweet the news. You are not the source. Originality counts – especially if it’s valuable or thought provoking to your customers.

Your twitter outreach is not going anywhere if:

  • You talk with other people in superficial chatter more than 10% of your tweets.
  • You re-tweet others more than 50% of the time.
  • You fail to tweet your own thoughts.
  • You have nothing but sales messages with a link to buy something.
  • You’re only trying to get people to ‘go here’ to ‘read this’ and ‘see my blog post’ or ‘watch this video.’
  • Your tweet to follower ratio is out of proportion. You should have a MAXIMUM of one tweet for every 10 followers. 100 tweets = 1,000 followers. The lower the ratio, the better.

Here are the MAJORS:
MAJOR CLUE: Being re-tweeted is the key. My goal is 100 re-tweets a day
MAJOR OPPORTUNITY: Photo and video is becoming commonplace. Do not abuse it. Show value, not your backyard BBQ.
MAJOR FAUX PAS: Your links better work – especially if they’re to your website, your blog, or other social media like LinkedIn.
MAJOR IDIOCY: Please don’t offer advice for sale, or call yourself an expert, if you don’t have AT LEAST 50,000 followers.

I am amazed at how few sales professionals and sales leaders are not taking advantage of Twitter. It’s a resource, it’s a broadcast medium, it’s a vital recognition tool, it’s a reputation builder, and it’s free.

Tweet that. I just did. At 7:30am. In less than two hours I had 9 new followers, and 43 re-tweets or favorites that reached (influenced) MORE than 75,000 people. For free.

How’s your morning going?

What a list of my most powerful tweets? Go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time visitor and enter the word TWITTER in the GitBit box.

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].