I don’t often see a great deal of conversation about the various Social Networking tools applied to the hotel salesperson.  Other industries’ marketers (and certainly entrepreneurs) seem to be the not-so-early adopters.  But couldn’t that be your customer base?  YES! YES! YES!

To that end, I search for smart folks who can lead you into the Sales 2.0 world.  Chris Brogan is one of those.  He offers the following 50 tips on using Twitter for Business and I invite you to think of ways in which you can say “Yes, I can do that” as you read through them.  I personally think that numbers 5, 10 (done carefully), 14, 17, 18 (got a digital camera?  Use it around the property wit permission), 24 (great to know people are talking about the property..especially if you need to respond to concerns and not just leave the negatives out there alone), 26 (careful…don’t get addicted), 33 (so HAVE a strategy), 43 (like you and your property) and 49 (some of them are…online).

Happy Reading

Jeanne d’Orleans, CHA, PHR
d’Orleans Hospitality Training
www.hotelEtraining.com

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business August 20, 2008 ·

We really can’t deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it’s a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value. I’m not going to address the naysayers much with this. Instead, I’m going to offer 50 thoughts for people looking to use Twitter for business. And by “business,” I mean anything from a solo act to a huge enterprise customer. Your mileage may vary, and that’s okay. Further, you might have some really great ideas to add. That’s why we have lively conversations here at [chrisbrogan.com] in the comments section. Jump right in!

Oh, and please feel free to reblog this wherever. Just be kind and link back to the original article.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)

2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.

3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.

4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.

5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).

6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)

7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.

8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)

9. Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.

10. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga. Ideas About WHAT to Tweet

11. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”

12. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.

13. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.

14. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.

15. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.

16. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”

17. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.

18. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.

19. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I do it all the time. – Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).

20. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too. Want one of the best themes around? Some Sanity For You

21. You don’t have to read every tweet.

22. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).

23. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).

24. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.

25. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.

26. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.

27. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.

28. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.

29. If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.

30. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

The Negatives People Will Throw At You

31. Twitter takes up time.

32. Twitter takes you away from other productive work.

33. Without a strategy, it’s just typing.

34. There are other ways to do this.

35. As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.)

36. Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.

37. Twitter is just for technonerds.

38. Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)

39. Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.

40. Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.

Some Positives to Throw Back

41. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).

42. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.

43. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.

44. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”

45. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).

46. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?

47. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).

48. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.

49. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).

50. Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)

Social Networking has eclipsed email in popularity. The latest Nielsen survey (nielsen_globalfaces_mar09.pdf) found that 66.8 percent of the global online population spends time at “Member Communities”, a category that includes both blogs and social networks. That makes social networking about two percent more popular than email, with one in every 11 minutes online globally spent on Facebook, MySpace, etc.

With this being true, why is it that so few hotel salespeople join LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter in  a professional manner?  How valuable could we in the hospitality industry be to travelers if we blogged about our communities and made sure that our property was the center of the universe when enjoying our destination?

Start small.  Join the above tools and build a profile that paints you in a professional, expert way.  No photos of you out with your friends.  Invite people to be connected to you that make you look by association (you’re know by the company you keep).

A huge number of people are taking part in these online communities.  Contribute!

I was searching for information on using Social Networking tools for profitable sales activities, as perhaps you were.   I came across this excellent set of suggestions on how to use these necessary tools effectively.  I know that tools like LinkedIn can actually connect you to people who can provide honest to goodness, revenue producing business.  I’m super busy with a great project that came my way because of being in the right place at the right time with the right people.

Read the helpful information below.  I’ll keep researching and bring you essential information on sales, marketing, networking….

Direct Sales Success: The Time for Social Networking is Now

Sitting at my desk yesterday, I checked my tweetdeck and found a message from one of my tweeps saying that social networking is the future of direct sales. I tweeted back saying that, in fact, social networking is the now of direct sales. We had a great conversation discussing the various issues that consultants face trying to make a name for themselves in a wired world.

If you’re not familiar with social media sites like myspace, facebook and twitter, chances are good you didn’t understand half of that last paragraph. That’s no excuse to stick your head in the sand. Social media is here to stay, and it’s a powerful tool to add to your direct sales arsenal. Professional marketers are reaping the rewards of online connections on a daily basis. They’ve taken the art of networking and building relationships from the offline world to the online marketplace, and cashed in on the revolution in the process. But before you jump headlong into social networking, there are a few concepts you need to understand.

These caveats can turn your social networking into a lead generating machine – filling your inbox with leads and building your business in unprecedented ways.

1. Social Networks are not a PITCH fest. You can’t just join a social network and start telling everyone how great your company or product is. That’s the online equivalent of shoving your business card into the hand of everyone you meet without saying ‘hello’ first. Depending on the social networking site, you can share about yourself, your company and your products to varying degrees – but only AFTER you’ve established a relationship with your audience. Who is your audience? Anyone that’s following your page, signing up for your updates or trying to become your ‘friend’. The term is different for each service, but the idea is the same: people want to get to know who you are before they want to learn about what you have to offer. Just like in the offline world, you need to show people you can provide value to them before you start talking about your company. Social networks essentially force you to share a bit of yourself with your audience before they’re going to respond to any offers you try to make. If you don’t, you’ll come off as pushy and people will stop following you – or worse yet, block you all together.

2. Brand YOURSELF First. It bears repeating, so I’ll say it again. YOU are the most important product your company has to offer. Successful consultants make a name for themselves even while they’re promoting their company’s products and services. It is up to YOU to promote yourself. No direct selling company is going to do that for you. People have to know, like and trust you before they’re going to do business with you. It is your responsibility to provide the information your audience needs in order to build a lasting relationship with you. Let your company handle the marketing and promotions for your products and services. You need to worry about making a name for yourself. Your company can’t stop you from creating your own website that is about your interests and your life. They CAN (and usually will) prevent you from using their product names, descriptions, images and trademarks. They have every right to do so. It dillutes their brand. It’s also a sign of a weak marketer to tie your marketing back to your company. Some companies will let you use their content – but what happens if you leave that company? You have to start all over again. If instead, you promote yourself, then no matter what company you’re with, you’ve got a consistent social networking strategy that’s built around your reputation, rather than your company.

3. Don’t Do It All In One Day. Social networking sites are designed to be “sticky”. That means once you visit, they entice you with lots of content to suck up your time and get you to stick around for a while. You need to view social networking as a piece of your marketing puzzle – not the whole enchilada. Start with ONE site that appeals to you. Strictly limit your time, and be sure you’re using it for networking activities, not for mindlessly playing games or adding “apps” to enhance your page. Your time is best spent building and creating relationships with others on the site – not playing games with the computer! Once you’ve “gotten the hang of it”, then consider other social networks, but realize that each site requires a bit of time to navigate and participate. Don’t commit to more groups than yuo can handle. Only YOU know your time availability and building marketing relationships takes time.

4. Social Networking Is Like Offline Networking. Just like offline networking groups, they are NOT the backbone of your direct sales business. Booking, selling and recruitng are the staples of a successful home party business, and nothing will ever replace that. Social Networking is a marketing tool that you can use to move beyond yuor family and friends and reach out to a global audience. The global audience can help establish yourself as an expert, but it doesn’t always help you get a show on your calendar for next week. Like all networking functions, building relationships takes time. Social Networking should be considered as a way to enhance your traditional book, sell, recruit activities – not as a replacement for them. Just like you wouldn’t rely only on live networking events to build your business, neither should you rely completely on online social media to build your business. The Internet can speed the relationship building process along, but it still takes time.

5. Don’t Expect Miracles. You get what you give in social media. The more you interact, the more people will interact with you. The better content you provide, the more people will want to hear from you. Unless you’re already a celebrity, don’t expect that you’ll have overnight success with any social networking site. Miracles do happen, but to expect them would be social networking suicide. Often times, you can connect with other direct sellers, coaches, and trainers, and find yourself hob-knobbing with the rich and famous – people you might not otherwise have ever met – through social media. But this should not be your expectation or purpose for social networking. Connect and share with “regular Joes” like you and watch your network grow. Twitter is a great place to start. With only 140 characters, there are no lengthy pages to read, and it’s easy to start. Plus it can work with some other social media sites as well. If you sign up, follow me and I’ll follow you!

6. Stories Sell. The best way to connect and build an online network is to share yourself – via stories and videos – and let your audience know more about you. A word of caution, though: don’t share anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable having the whole world know. This is the internet, after all, and anyone could see those pictures, that video or hear those stories. Transparency is one of the great qualities of the internet – it’s also one of the curses. It only takes a second for everyone in your social network (friends, family and business associates) to see those compromising details. Be sure you’re sharing quality information that builds your reputation. It can be challenging for direct sellers that aren’t very tech savvy to get connected to social networks. Take your time, start slowly, and do what you can. Don’t get sucked into the time vacuum, and get distracted from your core business building activities. Great business relationships can be cultivated online, but you need to enter the fray in a controlled and meaningful way. Otherwise, you’re just spinning in circles.

Thank you to: Lisa Robbin Young, who  teaches direct sellers how to be a superstar in the eyes of their customers. As Founder of HomePartySolution.com, Ms. Young has garnered the attention of thousands of direct sales consultants around the world looking for ways to integrate online marketing with their offline businesses to achieve greater success while working from home. Sign up for her free ezine at HomePartySolution.com

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