“What do I tweet about?” pops up often during the Q&A session of my presentations. Social media consultant Keith Burtis gives good counsel in response, “no one cares about your products…tap into their passions.”
What would you talk about here? The product or the person? What would HE want to talk about?
Talking about products is what many of us have been trained to do. Nearly every sales training class I’ve taken (my early career included real estate, insurance, and stocks and bonds; there was something satisfying about having all those licenses as a young 20-something), focused on “product knowledge.” Product knowledge in a social media world is worth approximately _________ (I’ll let you fill in the blank; I’d be something like “nearly worthless,” but maybe you’ll think it’s worth $1.95 or so).
One product-centric company made a valiant effort to move away from product talk on social media—they’re tweeting about a survey (that’s good) which asks “which of these factors are important to you when you considering purchasing a Widgit Xo15?” (that’s not so good).
Maybe it would help if we could separate products and transactions from passion and relationships. In the example above, they’re not talking specifically about a product, but they’re still thinking “make the sale” or TRANSACTION.
Here are some question starters to shuttle the focus from product and transactions to passion and relationships:
- What would you like to accomplish this year/quarter/month?
- What obstacles are between you and what you want to accomplish?
- What about your experience with us makes you laugh?
- What about your experience with us makes you mad?
- If you’ve ever told a friend, “if I owned (insert your company name here), I would ___________,” what did you tell them you’d do?
- If that famous fairy god mother with the wand showed up and gave you the magic wand, what one thing would you change about your situation? (If you could change a second thing, too, what would you use the wand to change about us?)
You’ve heard the old marketing cliché, “people don’t want the drill bit; they want the hole.” Being relational, rather than transactional, means thinking about your customer first and then what your customer is trying to accomplish. Aim your questions at unearthing his or her passions, frustrations, goals, and dreams, and your customer will “make you.” Gear everything you do toward getting the transaction you want, and, well, it just might break you.
