Google_ for Business_ How Google's Social Network Changes Everything - Chris Brogan [45]
Something like this that includes bullet points about specific takeaways works. Also, end with a Reserve Your Seat link that takes people to a sales page.
This is how I would do it, and I should be clear that I have a reputation in the space that I wrote about here and that people know me for this kind of information. What if you’re a lot less known, and what if the people who have opted to circle you don’t yet know you enough to trust you as a business leader? And what if your product is a little more difficult to sell? Now look at those premises, too.
Getting to Know You
If you join Google+ and somehow convince a bunch of people to circle you to follow your posts, and the first thing you do is offer them products or services to buy, you’ll quickly be uncircled. A little bit of warming up is necessary.
Take the community-minded approach. If you sell special soaps, your buyers are primarily women, primarily people who like to pamper themselves, and people with some discretionary income. To build community around that, share other items that would be of interest to that demographic. For instance, share posts about inspiring books, posts about new trends in beauty, and other topics not directly related to the soap you sell, but related to the buyers you’re courting.
Make sure your About page on your profile is complete. Tell people exactly who you are. Give them pictures of you. Make sure they have ample ways to contact you. The more people can feel that they understand who you are, what you stand for, what you believe in, the more they can identify with you.
Another point about helping people get to know you is that the more you comment on your prospects’ posts (and never in a way that’s selling your stuff—unless it’s exactly what they’re asking about), the more they will feel a connection to you that can help you help them in the future.
The Difficult Sell
I bought my car on the Internet. The story is useful to explain how social networks can help you build a sale. I’ll talk you through the story to see if there are nuggets of information that can help you, should you be selling something a little more complex than books, energy bars, or software.
Aaron Manley Smith runs a virtual car dealership called Motorphilia. He used to sell quite heavily through eBay but has since expanded to building business on Facebook and now also Google+. I met him once at an event in Austin, Texas, and found his story interesting, but I also filed it in the “But I’m not looking for a car, and Aaron seems to sell mostly exotic cars” file.
Then, one day, I thought I’d search around to find a new Chevy Camaro SS. I looked at my local car dealership websites and found them terribly lacking. They basically are all built to have you come in for a test drive. There’s not enough information on the site. The pricing wasn’t posted. It was just a mess.
So, I did what any blogger would do: I wrote a blog post complaining about it. I wrote “Dear Car Dealerships: Your Website Sucks.” In the post, I explained how buyers have changed how they buy, and that most of the websites I visited were old school and that it was dissuading me from making a purchase.
The blog post found its way onto Facebook, and within 4 minutes of seeing it, Aaron Manley Smith sent me a message via Facebook saying that he’d located exactly the car I had mentioned in the blog post, and that if I sent him $1,000 via PayPal, he’d acquire it for me. (Yes, this is a Facebook story, but this was a year before Google+ had come out. The same details translate handsomely to G+).
I did it. I sent Aaron the money. A handful of days later, I had a brand new Camaro that cost me about $5,000 less than the dealership up the street,