Social Networking for Sales Day #3

Be Present

1. Log on at least 3-4 times per week.

2. Get involved in the conversation! Add interesting links or articles that you think others would find interesting.

3. Comment on what others are doing.

4. Be a positive force in your network! Sure, misery loves company, but no one wants to buy from misery either. Keep your messages upbeat.

5. Add friends! Continue to add friends as you meet them, and remember once you meet someone on one site, search for them on your other Social Networking sites as well.

Social Networking for Sales Day #2

Engage with Others

1. Look for groups that interest you, personally & professionally. Social Networking has to be fun for you or it will become a chore. Begin by interacting with those you have something in common with.

• Automotive Sales Related
• Hobbies and interest-fishing, dogs, racing, bikes, car fan clubs
• Alumni or Professional groups-Colleges, Sales Associations, Dealer Groups
• Geographical-Local Networking, Business Associations

2. Follow the groups and add content when ideas or questions are posted, or post some of your own. Interacting within the groups will encourage getting to know new users.

3. Add people to your network. If you're interacting with someone on message boards or via the group chat board add them to your friend list or network.

The "technical stuff"

• On LinkedIn access the groups link in your left sidebar on your home page. It's the second option down below "home." Search group by keyword, or start your own.
• On Facebook access the group info on your home page. It's at the very bottom on the "applications" tool bar three icons over is a little people picture. Clicking here will take you to the "groups" page.

Social Networking for Sales Day #1

The next couple weeks I'll be writing on utilizing Social Networking to gain sales. This could be for individual sales reps or the Dealership marketing as a whole. We'll start simple and build up to the more detailed stuff. This is the future of marketing and those that get on board now will be far ahead of the rest when everything becomes more mainstream.

Getting started-

1. Set up an email devoted to all your social networking. Google, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. all offer free email accounts with a lot of memory. You'll use this email as a user name for all your social networking sites so you are easily search able for people, and you can keep everything in one place.

2. Have someone take a good digital head shot photo of you. Save the photo as your "bio photo" to your desktop so it's always handy.

3. Sign up! Start here: Facebook & LinkedIn. Others would add MySpace to the list too but it seems to be less effective than the other two. We'll cover others later but these need to be a priority.

4. Fill out your profiles. Create and fill out the info on both sites, don't forget to add a picture! Remember to be careful about how personal you get on your info, things like religion, politics & weekend drinking parties are things to consider before posting.

5. Add friends! Search your email contacts for others you know that are already members. Connect with those you know!

Feel free to contact me if you have questions over any of these steps, I'm happy to walk you through them!

PS: If you are already a member of both of these sites, take a minute today or tomorrow to "clean house." Remove any pictures or content you believe could be counter productive to gaining business, or any that present an image of you that isn't what you want presented.