1) Joining And Then Hanging Out On The Sidelines: This one hits home with me because its how I quit both Linkedin and Twitter when I first started my “Castain 2.0” journey. I get this dopey “Alright I signed up now entertain me circus boy” vibe from people trying out social networking. Social Networking isn’t some play or event that you show up and expect it to give you the experience. It’s a roll up your sleeves, hands on community. Hint: Start showing up and contributing during your non money hours. Showing up with good quality contributions, content etc, attracts people to you. At least that’s been my experience. Note: It wasn’t my experience when I expected to get something for nothing! I thought it sucked! Truthfully, I was the one who sucked!
2) It’s Short Term & A “Quick” Fix”: Hardly! You are engaging in a “getting to know you” process, a courtship. Q: How long does it take? A: A tad longer than the 30 days you are giving it before throwing your hands in the air labeling it as “sucking” Establishing trust is funny like that!
3) Failure To Transition To Real Time Relationships: Sometimes we can get too caught up in the “social”!Funny thing about all my followers on Twitter . . . my bill collectors don’t want to accept them as currency. The first part of transitioning is to transition the relationship off your screen to real time. The second part is to transition the relationship to a higher level relationship (we’re still courting here folks) Perhaps you can transition the relationship to a matchmaking opportunity between them and others in your network. Perhaps you can offer some advice, help, support, encouragement. And before we get all hung up on that, understand that the relationship then (when its ready) transitions to direct revenue (from that connection) or indirect revenue from the many options that are now open to you.
Warning: This one is going to be R rated toward the end. I have no intention of filtering my thoughts, you’re getting this one straight up. Ear muffs kids
4) Getting Pissed Because Someone You Don’t Know Invited You To Join Their Network: To each their own dude but you’re acting like a stranger just asked you for a quickie in the parking lot. Its an invitation to connect. Don’t make it into some sacred act. Its “Social” Networking . . . get freakin social already. Important Note: If you are worried about people knowing who you are connected to, think Privacy Settings.
5) Engaging In “Julia Roberts ‘Big Mistake’ Moments: This occurs when you write someone off and refuse to connect because you don’t feel they are part of your target audience. Big mistake dude! They might be related or connected to someone who is and guess what? If you think long term then you realize that things change. Besides, we’re just talking about a connection folks, no one just hit you up for a loan! Note: Just because they aren’t giving you money doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable to you. Example: How much could it be worth to you to create an “evangelist” . . . someone who digs you so much they go out and spread the fact that they dig you? Stop thinking short term! Big picture gang!
6) Thinking Twitter Is About People Tweeting About Their Lunch: First of all, I can now relate to all the cops who get pissed at people for making the donut jokes. Its like, enough already. Twitter isn’t about that at all and here’s 3 rather simple thoughts to coach you through that thinking a) Maybe you’re confusing “play by play” with “social” b) Perhaps you’re the idiot for continuing to follow. c) Stop worrying about what everyone else should be doing and concentrate on showing up and contributing. It’s so much easier to just complain about someone else’s house when ours is a messy!
7) Broadcasting Instead Of Interacting: There are several well known companies (and mucho individuals) who just spew content but fail to respond to the “conversation” Content is obviously important but its only part of the deal. We should all live for the conversation. I believe that’s where the money is!
8) Partaking In The Phone vs Social Networking Debate: Why? In the time we even come around to agreeing on the definition of “cold calling” we could have all sold something. They can all coexist quite nicely.
9) Management Thinking Their Employees Are Goofing Off When They Network This Way: 9 out of 10 times when I hear a statement like that, I can point to someone who deep down knows nothing about social networking. Do yourself a favor, read up on this stuff. Study companies like Kodak and Starbucks who are generating revenue because of Social Media. When you get done with that exercise, realize that this is available to you for the low, low price of free! Personally, I don’t see a downside to “Free” but I’m a complex carbohydrate!
10) Failure to Make Social Media A Part Of Your Precall Planning: I’ve heard all different reports (that’s my way of saying I don’t have exact numbers) that there are approximately 400 million blogs out there, right now. That tells me that there’s a good chance that my prospect or their company might be blogging which then allows me to get inside their head prior to our little pow wow. Remember that warm and fuzzy line I keep spewing here “everyone has a story and wants to be heard”? Well its time to embrace it once again because there’s money in it for you! If your prospect is writing stuff and you ignore it, perhaps your competitor will wow them by paying attention? Use tools such as http://socialmention.com to check out your prospect. It will pull things from the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook. You should also check out Linkedin. What groups do they belong to? Think their status update might tell you something?
And just in case you’re getting some self righteous vibe from me today . . . Perhaps those 10 misunderstandings are autobiographical in nature 🙂
