» Why Sometimes It IS About You

One of the phrases you hear a lot in discussions about social media is

“It is not about you”

This is because when you come across anyone who is all “me-me-me” that is a turn off. It is certainly not attractive, and in business attraction is a vital first step in making our online efforts turn a profit.

The danger though is that people take the simplistic view, they take the guidance and exaggerate it to mean “It is not about you at all“. This is just as bad as having too much you.

People come to you for a reason. They want to hear what you have to say, and they want to get to know the people behind those words.

When I left the advertising agency world to strike out on my own, I set up a company website. The language in that site was all “we”, “us”, “team”, “our solutions” with a view to making my company look corporate friendly. Quickly though I found out my customers were not attracted by that, it in fact made them nervous. They wanted to work with me, and would be constantly looking for reassurance that I was not going to hand their business over to someone else who they did not know.

Of course the solution would have been to have a team page showing photographs and descriptions of team members, and get them involved in blogging and communicating with customers. I could not do that though, because my “team” was actually a basket of freelancers who I would outsource to on a case by case basis, so my solution was to drop the company site entirely and base my whole business around my blog.

The lesson was while the services were the same, and my ability to deliver did not change, this stand-off approach was damaging my business rather than helping it.

You might be doing the same thing.

Social Media is Socializing the Internet

More and more customers are becoming attuned to the social side of the internet. They like to deal with people rather than faceless corporate robots. This means letting personality shine, and relating to them.

Consider this as relationship building. Relationships are not just about gaining “opt-in” to your communications. It is like in any human interaction, yes there are narcissists who talk to you just to hear their own voice, but for the most part there needs to be an exchange of information, and some kind of bonding process for any kind of relationship to form.

When it is about you

• Are you real? - There are so many spammers and scams online that anything that shows you are real human beings will provide reassurance. This human face will also encourage people to interact with you, it is much more welcoming and inviting, and will encourage people to want to get to know you better.
  • Write under your real names
  • Show photographs
  • Add personal details to anecdotes
  • Use multimedia so people can hear and see you
• Your stories – We do not want to hear the same old stories that everyone tells, we want to hear your case studies, your anecdotes, and learn from your experience.
• Show proof - Potential customers want to see evidence of your solution and expertise, can you actually deliver on the promises you are making? When I write a public blog critique I get more customers. My expertise becomes self-evident, because they can see real world solutions in action. How can you make your expertise self-evident?
• Build trust – For anyone to make the leap to actually putting down money with you they need to be able trust you. Are you established, capable, honest, and reliable?
• Do I like you? – Service businesses where the customer works closely with the vendor are often differentiated by relationships, they need to like you and want to work with you.

In summary … Why YOU rather than anyone else?

… But it is not ALL about you

We should not get carried away, as mentioned earlier, “me-me-me” is not good. Your messages still need to come down to how everything relates to your prospects issues, wants, challenges, problems and desires.

• Audience focus – Focus on the exact people who you want to attract and on serving their needs. It is not about selling your product but about matching your solutions to their problems and communicating how that works.
• Find the pain points – Continually drill down into your audience, do surveys, polls and speak to customers to find out the issues they are facing and what their biggest challenges are.
• Provide beneficial context – Rather than talk about your products features, describe your customers problems then explain how you solved them and the benefits and results your customers achieved.
• Show empathy – If you do all of this right then you are demonstrating that you understand your audience and therefore can help them better than anyone else. The combination of this empathy together with expertise and an attractive persona will encourage more customers to confidently go with you rather than any competitor.

In summary … WIIFM – answer the big question in any prospects mind; “What’s In It For Me?”.

Be the Solution With Personality

Today with social media quickly becoming a key weapon in your outreach arsenal, it is not enough to just have a solution, you have to be the people your customers are happy to work with and want to interact with. This means being three dimensional human beings, with compelling stories, and self-evident expertise to back it up.

Talk to your customers about their subjects, presented how they want it, but with your personality and case studies, and your customers will be attracted and buy from you with confidence.

Over to you

What is your experience? Have you bought something based on your relationship with the people in the company? Do people buy from you because of your relationships? Please share your thoughts in the comments …