Social media is a powerful business tool for three things and three things only:
- Search engine optimization. Use your key words and raise your presence on the Web.
- Find out who people are. Learn about a person's background and your connections.
- Find out who people know. Look for close connections you can leverage.
Technology won't save our sales career. Our smartest, tried-and- true business development, lead-generation, deal-closing tool has always been ourselves.
The Web won't deliver world peace or cure the common cold. It won't fix our business development, sales or customer-relationship management challenges. Who really seals the deal? You do.
Data abounds. It's overwhelming: websites, e-mail, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, virtual group conversations. How do you make sense of it all? And who helps you decide where to put your energy? I'll bet it's a real person–a trusted friend, colleague or mentor. Your social networks help you narrow down your options, but there's nothing like the one-on-one conversation to make the difference in your sales. My colleague Jim Blasingame says, "Face-to-face is the original social media." I couldn't agree more.
