Getting over the Twitter jitters

Sales teams should be engaging with prospects via social media, rather than cold-calling them, argues Fordway's Jon Beck

Social media has become part of daily life for a large proportion of the population. So I'm surprised to find that many in the IT community are still not using it as an integral part of their business communications.

We recently completed a customer survey and included some questions about other issues. We found that just 29 per cent of the respondents actively use social media for business, with a further nine per cent planning to do so. Interestingly, most of those who have embraced social media are in the public sector, rather than B2B companies.

While this shows that social media is not a substitute for more traditional communications, it is clearly a useful means of reaching out to a significant number of your target audience to increase engagement with you and your business.

I was surprised when many attendees at a channel event last year said they had not included social media in their marketing activities.

When using social media you need to consider what you say before putting fingers to phone or keyboard – as many sports stars and celebrities have found to their cost. Once a comment is out there, it won't go away. But a healthy dose of common sense is all that is needed, and most marketing teams have developed some simple guidelines to help colleagues get started.

One reason some organisations are less than enthusiastic could be the lack of an executive sponsor. We were fortunate that Fordway's managing director Richard Blanford was on board from the outset and quickly became an enthusiastic tweeter. Another reason may be that they simply don't know where to start.

My advice is to start small, keep focused and don't spread your social conversation too thin. Start with one platform and treat it as another communications channel within your marketing strategy. As your confidence grows and you find out where your target audience spend their time, you can add different platforms and identify the topics that generate the most relevant discussions.

Interestingly, where social media is really gaining traction is one-to-one conversations. If a prospect is social media savvy, this should be the primary method your sales team uses to engage with them. Why cold-call and leave 20 voicemails when you can converse instantly with them on their preferred social platform? You'll have a lot more success by replying to a recent tweet or sending a quick message to say "Really liked your blog post...".

Social media is so wide ranging that it can be easy to dismiss. It's important to understand, however, that while it can be led by the marketing team, ultimately the major benefits of social media come from expanding it beyond them. By providing appropriate guidance to all employees and empowering them to use relevant social channels, your organisation can engage with many more people at an individual level. The potential benefits are too great to ignore.

Do tweet me on @FordwayPartners and let me know what you think.

Jon Beck is marketing and alliance manager at Fordway