Why the fuss about letting people know about your services....on social media?
A Tempest in a Teapot....
This post is inspired by Matt Sanders' LinkedIn status update chastising people for contacting him with a sales offer and some of the comments on:
First, I agree that we are all inundated with unwanted sales pitches. I agree with Matt that it is frustrating when someone you don't know pitches you out of the blue or a brand new contact sends you a sales offer as soon as you have given them permission to join your network. That is definitely spam and an abuse of a connection.
I have already weighed in on:
The reaction to Jim Murray's post about his new business venture is disturbing on SO many levels. Jim has shared helpful tips and insights in 405 LinkedIn Publisher articles and well over 100 beBee posts. (I stopped counting because there are so many.) Jim has GIVEN and given generously.
I consider myself to be in the same boat. In addition to the blogs that I have written for clients, I have written more posts than I can count in 2 of my own blogs, HuffPost, the now defunct Event Coup, and as a guest blogger for other portals. I also managed a community of 17 LinkedIn Groups plus their 2 leadership groups for over 8 years.
Jim and I are not alone. Perhaps people are under the mistaken notion that those who share content and manage groups on social media channels are paid for their contributions. In the examples I have provided of my work and Jim's work, many of our contributions are shared without compensation of any kind. Blog posts we write for clients are, of course, a different matter. I know that I have tended to treat some of that work as a loss leader, hoping that the exposure would lead to business inquiries. It does not.
In an effort to encourage people to consider using the services of other members, during tough economic periods, I have created group discussions where members can share their services or let other members know about the services they require. I also set up 2 specific groups to encourage reciprocity.
-
I am Looking For...Event Supplier & Venue Requests, Recommendations & Suggestions [Member Moderated]
- Event Planning RFPs
(I can't take credit for those. They were the brainchild of the community owner, Julius Solaris).
When businesses engage on social media, it is not a hobby or something they do just for fun. The purpose of business social media channels is to build brand awareness, generate leads, and engage with clients. I weighed in on this in a blog post, and a presentation:
When I want to engage just for the sake of engaging or interact with friends and family, I do that off-line or through my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts.
So, what would one suggest to business owners? The expectation in some corners seems to be that some people should always be giving and others should always be taking.
Newsflash: Businesses that don't generate business eventually go OUT of business.
There is a huge difference between spam and sharing information about one's services. After years of posting tips, advice, and content for free, I think that content producers have earned the right to share information about their services without being chastised.What do you think?
Anne Thornley-Brown, MBA, is the President of Executive Oasis International, a consulting firm that specializes in the facilitation of executive retreats, meetings, and team building. In addition to her own blogs, Anne has also written for clients including Plan Your Meetings by MPI, EventMobi, Event Manager Blog, Meetings.net, Cvent, and Elite Meetings.
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Comments
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #30
Sorry Clare. Just seeing this now. With all due respects, business R.O.I. is about quantifying and measuring results.
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #29
Definitely, getting to know individuals on a personal level can lead to more opportunities. I agree with you Praveen Raj Gullepalli.
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #28
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #27
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #26
Getting people interested in a free monthly subscription was never a concern. The issue is that people did not migrate to other services or make a 1 time contribution that was about the cost of a cup of coffee to keep the ezine free. Since archiving it, people have paid to access the articles. Some have paid for access to the full collection. No one has ever said it is not possible to generate business this way. I have seen consultants and coaches who market their services to individuals and very small businesses succeed with this strategy. It's because they are interacting directly with potential clients and potential clients are reading their content. When it comes to B2B sales, there still aren't enough executives who are actively engaged. This is likely to change with time.
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
6 years ago #25
#52 it is a simple click on the link available in any email. If you get tired doing a click, just let me know. I can do it for you LOL
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
6 years ago #24
Michael O'Neil
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #23
The definition of content marketing (not yours necessarily) that you quote here, Anne, is naively theoretical. For if it were not, we wouldn't see all of the content "curation" (which I see as soft plagiarism most of the time) that goes on, in which people and companies use the content of others for their own marketing purposes. This is how I see it. I provide free original content which I try to make of value to the reader. My objective in doing so is, in part, to engage and build relationships. Readers are free to enjoy my content and do what they want in terms of engaging -- or not. However, just as on TV, the free content is provided in exchange for the opportunity to put a "commercial advert" in front of the audience. As a reader, you can choose to view the advert or not, but it's silly to say that I offend you by putting it in front of you. And if I get annoyingly aggressive with the advertising presented with my content, you are free not to read my posts. After all, I don't force you to read the commercial before looking at the content or make you sign up with your email address before showing you the promised content. Cheers!
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #22
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #21
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #20
On this we can agree.
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #19
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #18
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
6 years ago #17
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #16
My question, Anne, is why those who profess to have been so successful in generating business using "non-promotional" content marketing care a whit about what other people do. And why some of them spend so much time telling others what they should not be doing. Oh wait, I get it. They want to help the rest of us secure more business. What a pile of bull chips. My core business is offline consulting in the marine industry. Anyone interested can see a photo-illustrated portfolio of prior projects at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/friedmanphil/ But for the record, all of the business I've secured, which can be directly attributed to my online presence, has been from my activities on LinkedIn, including both work in boatyard management, yacht construction project management, and marine industry marketing writing and several magazine feature writing gigs. To date, my presence on beBee has not generated dollar one for me, except in connection with an online writing improvement course that I offer --- a situation I still hope to change -- which is why I've embarked on a program of more overt marketing promotion. http://tinyurl.com/y7nxel9l How it is all going to shake out is a question in my mind because my business related posts are achieving better engagement numbers on LI than on beBee. And I suspect that beBee has become de facto indifferent to serious business activity, witness some of the reactions you are experiencing here and the rather poor membership numbers in the business-related hives. Cheers!
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #15
I agree with you. This is how it SHOULD work. "The point of "content marketing" is to provide help and information for people so that they will recognize one's expertise, experience, etc, resulting in being retained and being paid." This is NOT how it has been working either with blogs or, before that, ezines. The only business it has generated it blogging business. It's been quite a bit of blogging business but that is not my core service. Very few people other than coaches and consultants working with small businesses or entrepreneurs have been successful in generating business this way. This strategy seems to work in the B2C space not the B2B space where decision making is multi-tiered and senior executives rarely see the content.
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #14
It is too soon to gauge how effective it is to run more promotional posts from time to time. I have not been using this strategy for very long.
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #13
Anne, beBee actively markets itself as a platform on which "business" people can connect with one another because, in the words of Javier 🐝 beBee and Matt 🐝 Sweetwood, people like to do business with other people who share common non-business interests with them. Consequently, it seems ridiculous to me that anyone would be criticized for promoting their business on beBee -- for how can one do business with someone, if you don't know what their business is? Or what their background is? Following is a comment I made on a post by Jim Murray when this same issue came up there: "...It seems to me that Peter Altschuler is entitled to his opinion. What he is not entitled to do is represent his idiosyncratic feelings about writers promoting themselves and their businesses on social media as somehow definitive. For it is not, witness the long-standing practices followed on LinkedIn and beBee from their respective inceptions. I personally have for a long time added author's notes and an "optional to read" business pitch at the end of each of my long-form posts. I initially began the practice as a simple counter-measure to LI's "new" policy of appending the posts of "Influencers" to the ends of mine, thereby turning me into a warm-up act for them. I figured that my pile of bull chips at the end of each post would make it more difficult for readers to accidentally wander onto the "Influencer" posts. But no matter why I started doing that, I continue to do so. And why not? If you don't want to read it, you don't have to. And if it annoys you just being there, well, don't read my posts..." -- PLF
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #12
I have not found that to be the case at all Peter Altschuler. In fact, I once archived my popular free ezine despite the fact that it had thousands of subscribers. People just took and took and took. They never migrated to other services. Just giving away free content for 6 years was not an effective business strategy. For the past 14 years, people have paid to access the archives. http://www.thetrainingoasis.com/ezine.html I have left them in the original format and the pricing has remained the same. Whenever the format is updated, the price will go up. Giving content away for free and never saying a word about your services is a great strategy go go broke.
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #11
So what exactly do you expect businesses to post about Dean Owen? Are they to perpetually give away free tips and advice? It's funny but I don't think it's possible for businesses to give away enough free tips to generate enough income for their owner. Are they to post puzzles and trivia like individuals do on their personal Facebook pages? Watch my video. ANY company would fire employees who spend their days doing that. What exactly do you expect people to share and how do you expect them to market their businesses?
Dean Owen
6 years ago #10
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
6 years ago #9
Jim Murray you will be able to remove comments on your posts soon :) Enjoy beBee.
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
6 years ago #8
Jim Murray
6 years ago #7
Jim Murray
6 years ago #6
Lance 🐝 Scoular
6 years ago #5
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #4
Lance \ud83d\udc1d Scoular! :)
Lance 🐝 Scoular
6 years ago #3
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #2
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #1