(Blog-Off II Entry) On Social Media, Prostitution and Bartending

The world's oldest and friendliest professions.

A picture's worth a thousand words. That's why prostitutes wear short skirts, bartenders display their bottles and social media uses graphics and video.

Ever hear someone say prostitution is the world's oldest profession? How do you suppose they plied their trade 4,000 years ago if they didn't engage in a little social media?

And where were their customers gathering if it wasn't at the bars and taverns?

One of the things that seems to keep business owners from adopting social media is the glitz and glam. There are so many bells and whistles that they don't know which one to pull or blow on first.

Social media is word of mouth advertising - nothing more, and certainly nothing less.

You go to your favourite bar because the bartender knows how to treat you. If you like to chat, then he chats. If you like to drink in peace, she leaves you alone. The barkeep knows your regular order, and keeps it coming at the pace you like - not when it's convenient for him.

He's giving the customer - you - what you want. As a result, you tell your friends about the bar.

When you join LibaryThing, HelpfulVideo, Facebook or another site, I trust you're doing it because you want to serve your customers. (Oh yes, there is far more to social media than the Golden Trio.)

Let's repeat that: You Want To Serve Your Customers.

Yes, social media puts word of mouth advertising on steroids, cocaine and a rocket sled - all at the same time. But if your business is in Ruraltown, Anystate, where nobody has a cell phone and only the library has internet access - then social media isn't much use, is it?

Your customers aren't using it, so they don't need/want you to use it.

And when your customers are using social media...When they do want you to use it...Your primary objective is Customer Evangelism.

Customer Evangelism is the new buzzword for Word Of Mouth.

Your outbound marketing (you talking to your audience) on social media should be alluring and attention getting. If it's all rah-rah-rah, buy my widget, then you're just a $2 whore. What you're aiming for is to be a $200 an hour escort. Be discreet, attractive, classy and helpful.

Trust me, everyone knows you're a business owner. They know you have something to sell. What they're looking for is to see how much you care about what they want.

Your inbound marketing (your audience talking to you) is going to run the gamut from praise, to questions to complaints. And like any good bartender, you're going to listen to everyone.

Your going to give good advice, empathise with the complaints and answer questions. People are going to like you because your helpful and friendly.

In time, you're going to build to customer evangelism (your audience talking to your audience). People are going to tell their friends about the great answers you share. They're going to forward your information, visit your website, and come into your store.

For some business, customer evangelism is going to mean having customers from other states - maybe other countries - ask for your services or products. That's cool - extremely gratifying. It's also the result of being honestly interested in giving customers what they want.

So whether you're competing in Blog Off 2, or taking your first steps in social media, your objective is to serve your customers. Word of mouth advertising requires you to make customers (readers) so happy that they tell others about you.

Social media, prostitution and bartending. Strange bedfellows, or comrades in arms?

About the Author

Conrad Hall is the author of Friends, Followers & Customer Evangelism - The 2010 Business Owners Guide to Social Media. He writes for Technorati and Blog Critics and maintains his own blog at The Marketing Spotlight.

He is a passionate writer who helps clients create outstanding information products and promote them using traditional and online media. You can contact Conrad through Conrad Hall Copywriting.

Comments

[Darlene Sabella]

You are so Right, an excellent post, and you just gave me a great idea...I am going to hurry and try something new. I have been on facebook for a few years, and everyone seems to just want to play mindless games. When you start to do something serious and creative or even trying to make a living. The friend base seems, "nowhere to be found"...they say heck with you, you don't want to play games with us so we will not play with you. LOL, but again, I have accomplished some great groups to help our planet through social media. I only pray that people stop playing silly games and do something important with their lives. I am on my way to spread some "word of month".

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Conrad:

A dynamite post! Thanks for showing us how it's done. I love the innuendo, the graphic comparisons. This is how you make social media fun!

[Conrad Hall]

Hi Laurie,

Good show for you. I'm sure you'll do a great job with your next post.

Here's a note for everyone:
Write to me - a specific person. Write as though you're sitting in the backyard on a Saturday afternoon having a chat with a friend. It's called Barstool Copy.

10 more days...Let's see how high we can reach!

[Conrad Hall]

Hi Mike,

Yep, I really do mean Mike this time.

One of the kids probably has a felt hat, and I think we have some crutches in the basement. ;-)

"Pimp Daddy." Sounds kinda cool...should I get me a big shiny ring, too?

Thanks Mike.

Sincerely,
Conrad Hall

[Conrad Hall]

Hi Tim,

Okay. The one thing I really need to work on is getting names straight. It has always been a rather humiliating problem for me.

Tim, I apologise for calling you Mike. The comment addressed to Mike is actually a reply to you.

Thank you Tim, and Mike, for being patient.

Sincerely,
Conrad Hall

[Conrad Hall]

Hi Sam,

Whenever I see the word "spam" I invariably think of a triangular shaped can of meat with a metal key for opening it.

Does that make me old? EEK!!

Unfortunately, I must disagree with the idea of social media being related to spam. Spam is all about marketing being a numbers game.

Social media is about understanding that you cannot be all things to all people. No one is going to connect with all 350 million users on Facebook, or even the 50 million users on LinkedIn.

Who they will connect with are the smaller, niche-focussed groups on each of these sites. You might also find some of the niche focussed sites like LibraryThing.com that are home to your market. You're looking for the people you can serve.

Spam is about canned, processed, rehashed junk pushed by the caseload. Social media is about communicating with people in an open, unique and transparent way.

Sincerely,
Conrad Hall

[Conrad Hall]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your support and comment.

You raise an interesting point about photos. This coincides with Sean's comments in his LinkedIn post.

Terry Dean once ran a split test where all he changed was the photo. One landing page showed him in a business suit. The other landing page showed him dressed casually with his dog.

The dog out-pulled the suit by 50%.

Obviously I don't recommend anime for your photo or favicon (the tiny little photo you see in the address bar). What I do recommend is using a photo that shows your personality.

Look at Andrew Ballenthin's photo on LinkedIn (http://ca.linkedin.com/in/andrewballenthin). He is wearing a jacket, dress shirt with no tie, and a smile. Pay attention to the smile - frowns are completely out.

His photo matches his persona.

As for the idea of whoring ourselves out...I'm quite happy to be a well-priced service provider with varied availability. ;-)

Sincerely,
Conrad Hall

[Mike Browne]

Conrad,

You are the "Pimp Daddy" of social marketing. I hope you have a large felt hat and a cane. Like they say, "Pimp'in ain't easy!"

[laurie]

Bravo!
I really mean it.
Your post drives home the sage comments you made in my earlier 'sex, statistics and social media' post and shows me how to pull of what I tried to do in an earlier post with more aplomb.

I'm also seeing the easy use of italics for emphasis, lighter linking, salient point repetition and the very nice sign off which is key in multi-author environment [I've been a single author or hidden facebook admin].

Laurie.

[Sam Diener]

And SPAM..... Spam is just like social media.. AWESOME TITLE.

Sam Diener

[Tim]

Conrad,

I love the fact that you can incorporate whores with social networking, the way I think about it is, we do whore ourselves out when doing social networking. What I mean by that is think of the friend requests we have to send out and how we have to use graphics or videos to catch attention in order to be added to their network. My friend once did a study, he used his picture as his profile picture and received 27% acceptance on friend requests on myspace, he then made a new profile using a gif animated picture of a sexy lady and he received 84% acceptance. I gather by just that small study you have to really target who you request.

You are 100% correct by saying it is all word of mouth. I love reading your posts you keep me interested while learning great writing skills.

Thank you for your post!