Page 167 - Social Media Marketing

152 Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

to meet prospective clients in person. To schedule and pro-
mote face-to-face meetings with likeminded professionals, use
Meetup (www.meetup.com).

• Gather feedback. You can gather feedback from clients and
prospective clients without establishing your own social me-
dia presence by doing some research on the Internet. Search
blogs, social networking sites, and newsgroups to find out what
consumers are saying they like and dislike about the types of
products and services you offer. Research your competitors'
web sites and blogs to learn about issues they have with their
clients. To obtain more direct feedback, add a feature to your
web site or blog that allows clients to submit comments, either
privately via e-mail or publicly via a comments page. Just be
sure to follow up on any feedback you receive.

• Tread very carefully. Social media encourages transparency,
whether you like it or not, so honesty and sincerity are the
keys to success. You don't have to bare your soul, but you do
need to be a straight shooter and deliver on your promises. Be
very careful about what you say and how you say it on the
Internet. Anything you say can and will be used against you or
for you. If you come across as being insincere, pushy, boastful,
rude, or uneducated, an entire community can turn on you in
an instant and destroy your business.

Tip: Before posting anything online, have someone else in your
organization or a close friend proofread it for typos and gram-
matical errors. You should also have someone who is familiar
with your audience read it to determine whether your message
is appropriate or whether it could be misinterpreted as offensive,
particularly if you are responding to a sensitive issue. On the
Internet, anything you post, whether it is interpreted as good or
bad, can spread around the world in a matter of hours. This is
not intended to scare you, but to convince you to proceed with
informed caution.