Business Excellence with Jennifer Fong

We spend a lot of time, if we’re using social media well, avoiding the hard sell in social media channels.  We remember that this is “social” media, not “sales” media, and therefore focus on building relationships with people that may ultimately result in new business.  But even if you are the best relationship-builder in the world, and neglect the necessary next step, your efforts may be wasted.

You see, once someone comes to know, like, and trust you, the natural next step is to want to find out more about you.  So what will they do?  They’ll visit your profile.  And this is when you have a big opportunity that some direct sellers are missing.

It’s not a hard sell to list your business on your profile.  In every bio, every place you have the opportunity to list a link or work history, you should be highlighting your business.  After all, people are now coming TO YOU to find out more about you.  Are you prepared to receive them?  It amazes me how many direct sellers don’t list, or make publicly available through privacy settings, the business that they are in, and links where people can do business with them.

Here are the places your business should be listed:

• Work History: If there is a work history section, add your company, title, and a link to your personal website.
• 1 Sentence Bio: Most social networks provide a place for a bio.  List your business in a soft way.  For example, “I’m a mom of 3 kids who loves helping other moms save time in the kitchen, thanks to my Pampered Chef business.”  Emphasize how you help others, and give them a way to relate to you.
• Links: Most social networks also allow you to list at least one link.  If you have a blog (and can only add one link) make your blog your link.  If not, include a link to your personal website.  Otherwise, list both of these.  If possible, make it a link to the “about” page on your site.

And this brings me to another point.  You should also make sure your About page on your personal website is well done.  It constantly astounds me how poor these are.  Now this is partly due to the fact that you can’t do too much personalization on the “About” page of your personal website.  (I understand the reasons for this, but consultants often make it worse.)  But you should ABSOLUTELY strip out the default text, and have a friendly, conversational tone focused on how you help others and why you love the business.  You also need to make sure you include a picture.

Chances are the person checking out your About page may be interested in the business.  If I just want to shop, I don’t really need to know much about you.  So is your About page geared towards recruiting?  Does it tell people how you love to support them?  Does it focus on the needs of the opportunity-seeker?  If you blog, does it contain information about how to reach your blog?

A few years back, when I was thinking about signing up with a particular direct sales company, I used the consultant finder and got a list of consultants in my area.  There were two who were quite close, so I visited their personal websites, and checked out their About pages.  One consultant included a picture of herself with her kids, and her story was one I could relate to.  I could tell she could help me learn the business and succeed.  The other one hadn’t bothered to fill it out.  All there was on her page was the default text, and she hadn’t even included a picture.  (Guess who I signed up under?)

Far too many people set up the About page on their personal website without thinking strategically about it.  This page can bring you business.  So make sure that when you set yours up, you consider your goal for that page, and how best to convert traffic from that page.

Building relationships is an important part of your efforts, but not the end of the story.  You must be building online presences that convert traffic from people who want to know more to people who want to do business.  If people can’t see that you’re in business, however, you’ve just wasted your efforts (and they’ll never convert.)

Can people tell that you’re in business?  How?  Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

Image Credit: Symlink