Mastering the art of social selling
Social selling is on the rise, and with more than 50% of revenue in B2B generated by social sales, if you’re not doing it, you are about to be left behind.
Webinar topic detail
We have the privilege of hosting some of the best social sellers out there for this 45 minute panel discussion, during which they will be letting you know how they have mastered the art of social selling. This session will be quick fire, packed with tips and practical take aways that you can implement into your social selling strategy straight away.
Social selling isn’t just about posting regularly, there are complex algorithms that will determine whether your content is seen, or whether you will simply blend into the 2 billion other social posts that are made every day. Whether you are clueless about social selling, have dabbled a little or are an advanced social seller, this session is guaranteed to give you some new ideas to boost your results.
With over 84% of C-level personnel citing that they are influenced by social media when making a purchasing decision, it is impossible to ignore just how integral social selling should be to your game plan.
During this session, you will:
Hear from experienced social sellers
Understand the content that drives engagement
Get insight into the platforms that will drive the greatest cut through
Learn what metrics you should measure (and what you should not)
Discover the tools to help you
Get tangible tips to stand out and get yourself noticed
If you are in sales, marketing or business development, you need to know how to master social selling, so go get a coffee, settle in, and let us show you how.
Welcome to this lead forensics webinar, my name is Joe Ducarreaux.
I'm the brand awareness manager for lead forensics.
This is my second week in the job.
Thank you for joining us for this mastering mastering the art of social selling webinar.
We've got a fantastic panel here today.
We are joined by William Holden, who is the co-founder of vidu.
It was a wave well, we have Tyler Witt, who is the senior sales manager at Lead Forensics, give us a wave, Tylor.
Tom Alaimo is the growth account executive at Gong.
And Chris Van Praag is content creator at Vidyard. And if his LinkedIn is to be believed, he was last seen with Morgan Freeman in Shawshank prison.
Throughout this webinar, we are going to be using the question function to take questions from you, the audience.
However, with as many speakers as there are in today's webinar, I'm not sure we'll have time if we do have time at the end.
We will go for it, so please do put the questions in at the end. So I think let's get started showing.
So I was always told whenever you're discussing any given topic, your first action is always define your terms.So guys, I'm going to ask you generally, could you please define what is social selling to you?
And I think we'll start with Tyler.
I'll keep it short, I mean, it's just the old school networking only on a newer platform.
So for me, it's just about expanding my network as broad as possible, using the different platforms that are out there in order to increase my reach,
not just as in the selling. Strictly speaking selling, but just in my networking, all individuals and groups. All facets of my business life.
Thank you very much for that, Tom. What does it mean to you? Yeah, I mean, I think I think Tyler nailed it, but I think it's just another vehicle in your arsenal
to grow as a salesperson or as a sales leader. So on top of email, phone call in person, networking, so on and so forth, social media is just
another new amazing platform to connect with people, grow your network, do direct sales, prospect all of the things that someone needs to do to be a successful salesperson.
Chris, will any. Disagreements and agreements. The only thing I would add is I said a social part, right, is the big part of this like I think
people can get lost in the selling bit and get to focus on the selling part, the social pieces, the really important parts, the filter that I tend
to look at is use LinkedIn as a platform to social sell on.
Imagine LinkedIn. You can think of LinkedIn as a networking event, or you can think of it as like a networking dinner. So if you're at a dinner, you're not pitching,
you're adding value. You're talking, you're understanding people. If you're a networking event, you're probably pitching more. So the social selling part is, in my view,
is more of that kind of networking dinner. It's more about making connections with real people. And then selling bit that comes after
as opposed to the pitching part and hoping to get sales off the pitch part. So that's my filter when I think about the difference.
And I'd say for me perspective as a founder as well, it's really about building. Brand and personal, well, personal brand.
And then advocacy of who I am, what we do, right? And ideally social as this medium is just another way to amplify the impact of everything else you're doing.
So looking at it through a sales lens, if you're out there calling and sending videos and emails, et cetera, having a presence on social,
that's where your audiences, your customers, your peers, having a presence there. And contributing to that, that brand and building that advocacy can have a really big impact
on everything else you do thereafter. So it's this always one thing that needs to be maintained. And Chris mentioned the community and nurturing and adding value.
It's incredibly key. And ideally, if you're not using it to convert, which we're not all doing that, it's amplifying the impact when you do, you know?
ut just tying to the idea of personal brand, that person, we both mentioned that.
How important is authenticity, because that seems to be the currency on social media that if you aren't being authentic, people do tend to be able to weed all that out of you.
Would you agree with that or. Yeah, entirely. I've experimented with all sorts
of different things on LinkedIn, and I wasn't an avid LinkedIn when I worked at intercom. I can talk about that later today, but I was involved in a number of things,
and to me, in many ways it was kind of a distraction at one point. I think now that I'm doing my own thing, I experimented with not inauthentic, but definitely more kind of cookie
cookie, cookie cutter type content. The big uplift I see is when I'm just human, when I'm raw, when I'm vulnerable, when I'm asking people
for help and advice, when I'm trying to give it to them. Yeah, like you said, that social currency that you build up and it might not pay off immediately in that moment,
but people sure do remember it, you know, so as authentic as you can be, for sure.
Absolutely so when was it that you all realized that social selling was then to become a key part of your strategy? Was there a change a point where you absolutely realized,
OK, this is where we're diverting from traditional sales techniques and adopting social media?
Tom, let's go to you on that one. Yeah, I remember an early sales leader and mentor of mine gave me Jamie shanks book.
I think it's called social selling mastery. If I'm not mistaken and that was probably in 2016 and so is a while ago and LinkedIn was really a different place back then.
But I was sold on the concept of, yeah, social media networks are going to be more and more important going into the future. And so I knew at least having a presence
trying to create a brand like trying to at least learn the technologies was important.
But I think really in the last few years, especially since covid, where you know,
the major events in person were gone, that's a major way to meet new people, prospects, customers, partners, whomever. And that was gone, and I made some amazing connections
on LinkedIn that people that turned out to be friends that turned out to be mentors. It turned out to be customers that I referred them customers just real true
partnerships that some people I've actually met in person recently and some I still haven't. But that really has opened up my eyes in the last few years of like and you
can create some really deep, powerful connections through the internet. And for me, it's mostly on LinkedIn, and it's been an amazing platform for that.
OK, well, I think we're all pretty heavy users of LinkedIn now, right, so well, you mentioned that LinkedIn, it used to be slightly different time.
I think you mentioned something similar.
What is it that's changed about LinkedIn for you?
For me personally, it's just this recognition that actually all of my potential customers,
current customers, peers, anybody and everybody that I would like to engage with at some point in my professional career.
They're all on LinkedIn, and a while ago, I just said, well, yeah, maybe for particular folks or industries, that's true.
But maybe in the last three years to Tom's point, everybody is there now, everyone is there. And I think you're missing an opportunity if you're not cognizant of that,
if you're not, if you're not aware of that right? And it doesn't mean that you go out and you post all about your product and you sell and I use it almost like a diary.
Sometimes, you know, it's just this, this investment that I try to make and every day, every other day. And if I don't post for three days, I start to get a bit antsy.
It's just this thing that I continue to go to and top up now knowing that the people that I care about to whatever degree you could be a prospect, you could be something else.
But like stakeholders connected to me, they're all there. So I think you need to balance your time investment in it, right? But it should absolutely be now a part of your strategy,
whether that is selling, converting, supporting or just building brand awareness and advocacy. The last three years, it just seems to have exploded intensely.
Everyone is on it.
Yeah, so Chris is a video content creator then. Do you find that your use of TikTok has increased at all because it seems like there's been a real
shift in the last couple of years that TikTok was seen as this platform where it was, you know, kids dancing and that sort of thing dance craze is going everywhere,
but now it is sort of a very respected and viable selling tool. Is that what you found or do you disagree?
Yeah, I think that goes to the two previous questions, right?
Like I think LinkedIn now, there's more it's more acceptable to post more diverse content. I think historically years ago, it was very much like job postings and maybe
new rounds of funding. It was all very high level business information. And I think over the years, it's broken down and now people are posting more, more personal stuff
that's more fun content. You're seeing memes and things. And it's definitely kind of party content has warmed a bit. So I think TikTok is a big part of that and people
creating TikTok content and posting it on LinkedIn. I started doing that probably about nine months to a year ago, thinking I'm not sure how this is going to land.
And then over the last nine months to a year, there's more of that happening. Not that I've influenced it, but you just see that more happen.
It's become more acceptable to do that. So I think for me, I don't use it as a place to sell on because I remain my profile and now
I remain relatively platform agnostic. I just post stuff about funny stuff about sales, but I use the content to post on LinkedIn to build my personal
brand, and I think it ties into that authenticity piece, right? Like, I have never been the kind of. I don't know, like the sort of stuffy kind of business
that you might view from many, many, many years ago. I've always tried to connect people with people on a personal level. So I think when you talk about
authenticity and you're on your earlier question, for me as a salesperson, our biggest battle I've got is before I've met anybody, their impression of me
is like down here because I work in sales. So like, naturally, they're going to be here. So if I can post authentic content that shows that I'm open to a laugh.
And I understand how difficult sales can be and the pressures, and then that kind of gets through. Actually, I feel like I know this guy I can
level with this guy, and that really, really helps in those conversations. So for me, that's a real powerful driver for my social selling is, yeah,
getting my personality out there. And TikTok's a good way to a good way to do that, for sure. Yeah, it's a very effective tool for that, for that sort of thing.
Absolutely. Tyler, I'm going to come to you for the next question. Do you measure your social selling impact and results? And if so,
there are so many things you could measure which ones are the most important to you in knowing you're spending your time correctly and in a worthwhile manner?
Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm one of those where I'm more post just on my own branding, right? So kind of to some of the other panelists here,
I mean, you're absolutely right, like 2014 15 like it was, so you were on there and you could get contact information. And if you knew if your prospect is on LinkedIn,
like they were forward thinking and therefore, you know, especially in the tech space, like they're open to a conversation and it was pitch, pitch,
pitch, that's all it was now like you will ruin your brand by doing that. Your personal brand, your company, whatever it is like you'll, you'll just
run it right through the mud. If all you're doing on the platform is pitching in, not of, you know, giving back the community like, that's what it's about.
You know, I think all social media, regardless of what it is. And what your area of expertise is like, you have to be giving something back, whether
it's cooking or fitness or sales or marketing, or it doesn't matter. And so for me, the only thing I'm measuring is the vanity of it, which is how many
people are following connections like, I do measure that kind of stuff. And how am I growing my network? How many? Month over month, year over year.
Like how many engagements that I get, like likes, shares, comments, that kind of stuff. And more so because I want to make sure that I'm continuing to
provide content that's going to help my network. And if I and if I do that right? Zig ziglar, whatever, like, help enough people get what they want.
You will get what you want. And then from that, yeah, of course I get introductions. I get like amazing people out of me. I get prospects from it.
I get introductions into prospects, those kind of things. But I don't measure that, you know, I mean, a little bit, but not really. My biggest measurability
is just simply, how is my network growing? And as long as that's growing, that means that the content I'm delivering is relevant and means of
my brand is moving up. Or it means that I'm not, you know, pissing off my employer by, you know, running their reputation. So I get to keep a job.
So that to me is really that is what it's all about, like shares, comments. And as long as I am mentioning that, as long as that's going up,
I feel like I'm doing at least an OK job.
Yeah, I think something that we do we have hit on is that, you know, this moment of. It change the date year between 2014 and 2016. What is it in by a behavior that
changed at that juncture, then, I think we'll come to each of you with that? But let's start with Tom.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty well documented that before social media and before the internet, you know, Sellers
had a lot of the power. So to say right, they could do the research and people might not be able to do that, reverse research on you or your company.
And so there's a lot of I think that's where a lot of the negative stipulations and reputation of sales comes from. And that power has flipped.
You know, there's so many resources for a prospect or a customer to go about and do their research before they talk to you. Right and so LinkedIn,
certainly one they're absolutely going to check out your profile. They want to make sure that what you're talking about, that you're trustworthy.
They're going to check out your competition. There's a lot of third party resources with intent data and review sites and things like that they can
check out how you stack up compared to your competitors. And things like that. And so I think because of that, we've been talking a lot about posting
content and creating your brand and things like that, which I think are really important. But even if you're at just the let's say you're not doing
any of that to at least have yourself buttoned up on your own profile because I know if I were to go out and I were to spend thousands or Tens or
hundreds of thousands of dollars on a product or a technology, I'm absolutely going to look up the person that is trying to sell that to me and trying
to form a relationship and see if, if you know me and that person are on the same wavelength, if it's someone I can trust, do they know what they're
talking about or do I not feel comfortable taking a bet with this person? So I think there's a lot more power in the customer's hands. And, you know,
having a dialed in LinkedIn profile, for example, is just one way in a lot of different ways that you can build trust and show that you're someone
that can be a true consultant to their business.
There's some great stuff there, Will, same question, what is it, do you think has buyer behavior changed?
No, I think to Tom's point, that is exactly it, it's this democratization of information, but also access to the people
that have that information, you know, you don't sell in a vacuum, right? LinkedIn is this it's this big connected mesh or all these folks that know
each other. You're only one or two degrees of separation away from the last person that will look course whoever sold to. So I think it's not.
It's about information and ease of access, but it's also about it really is about reputation. You know, it's about in every interaction you have,
whether it's through a direct message or more publicly and comments or in a post. It's about just using that credibility, right? Not manufacturing it,
but just trying to be humble, true and honest, because that's increasingly a part of now. Like Tom said, the biased decision making, they're
going to check you out, they're going to look you up. They'll look for cues that indicate that they can trust and you respect their time. But
they're going to go to their peers and they will find the last person that you sold to and they will ask them and they'll do it publicly or privately.
So I think just being aware of that is very, very important. The other thing I would mention on that real quick is that Sellers, I think,
sometimes can, and it's not their fault. They can sometimes get that bit wrong and they can. We've all heard of like the dreaded pitch slap
and people come up to LinkedIn and just self-promoting and trying to sell in a very overt way. And I see more often than not, like a lot of more
junior or less tenured Sellers do that. And I maybe we'll talk about this later, but I really believe that's the role that they're within.Those are
the metrics and the measurements placed upon them. If you have a target to hit that month. It can be very difficult as a rep to step back
and say, I'm going to build my brand for four months. I'm not going to expect an immediate return and I'm going to be very careful and
deliberate with my time and I'm going to invest in that. We'll probably talk later on about it, right? But I've this kind of leads back
to my intercom days. I'm the manager at times. That said, what are you doing on linkedin? I said that, you know, I said that because I think the
structures that we put in place in businesses, in teams, especially in sales, it doesn't really incentivize what we're all talking about here,
which is just like, really credible, authentic on this behavior, on a social platform and that investment in the bigger picture.
So I think something needs to change in terms of how we come from report wraps for this sort of stuff. Maybe instead of just having a quota,
if companies really care about social, we ought to have a parallel quota. That state's well, I'm not going to measure you on ops. I'm going
to measure you on a number of creative posts or authentic posts, and that forms a part of your performance review because it does roll up and it
does impact the brand as a whole. So maybe we'll get into it later. I just think that there are a lot of Sellers out there listening to this
thinking target to me.
Let's go for it right now. Let's go, guys. Your thoughts on Will's idea then being just not an expert on great place,
what do you think to that?
Well, ops plus, right is a subset of target in that form's performance review. It's not how you get paid, but it's
a part of. And this is a company says that we care about social. We're getting into all sorts.
Yeah, the only thing and I think I know where
Will's coming from with that, we're going to definitely see the value and I know I've met people who, you know, have said, I want to create
content like you, but my company won't allow it. I think that when it's done best, it comes from a really genuine, honest place. If you want
to do social selling, you want to use LinkedIn as a platform, you want to build a personal brand for whatever reason. That might be because
you're going to carry your personal brand with you. You're a business to business depending on where you go, right? So I think you need to
be genuine and truthful. My only kind of challenge, I suppose, on a model like that is if you incentivize people to do posts, the quality is
potentially going to go down doesn't necessarily come from a genuine place. I don't think that's where we're coming from, but I think that's the balance.
If the people listen to this go, OK, cool, I'm just going to tell my team they need to post every day, then the quality isn't necessarily going to be there.
So I think it needs to come from really genuine place. And I think what I've definitely noticed I was barely on LinkedIn at the start of 2020. To be totally
honest, I can't speak about this shift in 2014 2015.
Tyler's thoughts?
You know what he was saying about what it was like. And pitching is super, super interesting. The thing that I have noticed, and I think that you will see and
everybody will see this is that it's just personalization is key, right? Everybody is talking about being human and being personal, and it feels like that's
doubled up because everybody's been stuck at home, right? So we're finding ways to be personal. You can do that when you meet people face to face. Naturally,
you're going to pitch, you're just going to exude a personal touch.
And that's, you know, that's what I'm going to pitch. Video
but all about that kind of video outreach as a way to show who you are and deliver your personal touch whilst also delivering a business.
So I think I think absolutely businesses should encourage people to use LinkedIn. But I think that it's important that it's people are keen
to do it. It needs to be self-driven and they need to have a passion to be able to create the content that they want to create and find a way
to dovetail that with what they're also trying to achieve in their role. Yes I don't know. I'm sorry, you know, I mean, I'd add
in there, I agree with Chris. I think I love Will's thought on it and I but I do. I think of a lot of junior people in the businesses and
they get excited. And I just think of some of the maybe not so business related stuff they may want to post about here and there that
could get us in trouble. But I think there's a comment in there Chris made it about. Some companies almost prohibit some posting and
they really handcuff their employees like that. That practice has to end like I do think there should be. This should be something
where you promote that behavior within your to be part of your company culture, and you could even go so far as to maybe having some courses.
Maybe you have them. Join some awesome online panelists webinar like this when they learn how to social sell, but like they learn that
behavior. And I think that is important for a company because that message a it teaches them a skill set they're going to need. It's part
of your job as an employer is to give people a skill set, not just as successful your company, but they're successful in life. Like,
you know, ultimately, like, that's what I want my employees is. I hope they stay here forever, not going to. And I want them to be successful
regardless of what they're doing. And if I do that and externally, people, prospects, other companies, candidates that are coming in.
See, I have the culture of that, where people are posting. People are enjoying like, that's going to help me recruit the best customers
and the best talent to work for me. And I think it actually does kind of feed into each other to ultimately get what I want, if successful,
happy business and customer base. And we go back, like you said earlier, it's not selling anymore. It's social, right? You have focus
on the network in this manner. And then that selling will start to, well, not the selling aspect, but, you know, lead generation aspect
of it should start kind of taking care of itself to some degree. But yeah, to I 100% agree with well, in the sense of like let your employees
let the people of the business do it, teach them how to do it. And then Chris's point, there's got to be some sort of training accountability
around it. Otherwise you could get a little wild, you know, at certain, especially during certain topics. So we do want to have some constraints
on there because some people aren't as conscious of their brand as maybe they should be or the business is brand, and that still does have to
be into consideration as opposed to some extra context behind the statement, if I can. Oftentimes, when I'm speaking with people,
it's really binary, right? They don't do anything or it's like, we need to manufacture this, OK, everyone needs to do it. And then they get hung
up by, you know, three months later, the ops aren't coming from it. And you know, it's the way they measure and attribute success to reps.
And I agree we don't want to just blindly encourage people to post, but I can guarantee there are one or two people within your team right
now that are good at this that want to do this, but in some way feel inhibited because they can do it. And at the end of that performance
review period, if they've not beaten their competition, they've not done better than their rep, right? Well, I don't care that you're on
LinkedIn, you know, you didn't hit your number. And I think that's maybe we're all saying the same thing here. I think that's what needs to
change. It's not that it becomes a formal expectation. We don't mandate that people do that, but we find ways to like, really lift up and
reward people that do it in an appropriate way. You know, like I see some of the best stars and salespeople out there. They do this, they
do it really well, but they didn't. There were so many stories I hear where the rep has really had to fight, you know, and there's been
friction and they've moved on to a pip or they've been in a period of underperformance. And then the social selling really starts to pay
dividends, right? brand really comes alive. So it's more this idea that businesses talk a lot about. We need to be on social and everybody
needs to be on social. I think we need to find better ways to encourage the right types of reps to do it. That's what I mean. Oh, yeah,
I think you're absolutely right, because then the content that is created will naturally. So, you know, the quality would be there for
that, absolutely, Yeah. But it is a skill, it's a skill and it's a learned skill, and not everyone's going to be able to do it. And I think
the best that can do it ought to be rewarded for it in a meaningful way, not just well, if it pays off and you start smashing your numbers
because of this great. There are a lot of additional benefits to being represented on social as an individual, and this is more my
comment about me being a manager in intercom. I didn't recognize that, you know, and I to this day, I feel we missed an opportunity there,
and I think I was an inhibitor in a way. You know what I mean? Yeah, but an important lesson, though.
Sure so you've got a tricky question. I think, Chris, you touched on this with how you use your tick-tock. Is it best to focus on one platform or across multiple?
I mean, this is a sticking point for quite a lot of people. So we go for Tom. What are your thoughts on that? What would you recommend?
Yeah, I mean,
I think it depends on what your goal is, right? If you are a salesperson that is using this as a way to build out your network, and let's
just assume that your customers are on LinkedIn in this scenario, because some industries they're not. Maybe there's a better place for
you to be spending your time. I personally find that you want to spend as much time on that platform as possible, if that's what your aim
is. If if your aim is to grow your reach more and to create a bunch of different types of content and grow your audience and things like
that, then maybe it's right to go and experiment and TikTok in Twitter in other places, you know? But I think I think it all depends on what
the end goal is. I think if I were to go on TikTok tok, for example, and stick there, I don't think that the VP of sales that who I'm trying
to sell to is probably spending a lot of time there. If I create videos and then I post them to LinkedIn and you know, you make it kind of
accessible. I think that that's wise.
It's a way that you can break out and stand out. But I think it's all about trying to keep with the end consumer in mind and what the end
goal is there. So for a salesperson like me selling to sales leaders. LinkedIn is really probably one of the best ways I can be spending my
time, you know, on top of emails and cold calls and things of that sort. I think if nothing else, we can surely send this webinar to LinkedIn
as an advert for failing great. We really like
Tyler, anything to add on that multiple platforms versus one.
I mean, you know, it's kind of to what the other points were is like, you never want to force yourself to kind of do anything like if you're I primarily do stick into LinkedIn
just because that's for me. I do, you know, from a business standpoint for prospects, for candidates, for growing my office, growing my team,
that's kind of where that universe is. I do a little bit like through Instagram, Twitter, I don't use like me personally,
I just don't use Facebook other than to support other people. I do go on there. But like, I think if you're good at tok, like in, you're comfortable there. Yes, use it right.
If you if you really like Twitter and you like you like the way that platform set up views it absolutely like, I think it's like anything in
life that don't force yourself to do something if you're not comfortable, if you don't want to do it. But yeah, I mean, understand that the more limited platforms use,
the more limited your reach is going to be and then understanding the difference of how each platform works, right, like Facebook, Instagram, tiktok, LinkedIn, they're all
use differently. And so how you kind of approach the content? And so starting out, I'd say probably go where it's comfortable because it can be tricky between different
platforms to create the different content that still doesn't dilute the message or whatever it is. So, yeah, me personally, I do stick on one more so for my sales and
in my personal life and other thing kind of go into other platforms. And that's typically my approach in my advice on it. I think you've got to be really careful because
ultimately social networks are designed to keep you on them, right? They're designed to keep you scrolling. So if you're trying to manage and say, well, I'm going to
I'm a social sell on Twitter and TikTok and LinkedIn, you're going to lose your day to that. So I think they're all perfectly
viable channels to sell on. I know some people that are really successful on tiktok, more in the B2C space to be, to be totally
honest with you. But I know that it works in a B2B and I know that there are some amazing sales tools that integrate natively into
Twitter. But I think you have to be really strategic if you're going to use multiple channels. And I would say multiple channels
probably work best if you're looking to speak to a specific person, like if you know Tom, to your point, you're looking to speak to a VP of sales. And one of your
target accounts, you want to find them everywhere. And ultimately, you know, there just becomes more channels. You want to tap them off on Twitter and then eventually
they're going to like, who is this guy that just like, they can't say, no, but I don't think you can kind of say, I'm going to social sell everywhere because you are
just going to be you're just going to be battling against too much other noise and you're going to lose, you know, it's not going to be a great use of your time.
So absolutely use all the channels when you know what you're doing and who you're targeting. Ultimately stick to stick to the one that works best.
OK, so, guys, just to wrap up, then there's one key takeaway that you would like everybody to remember from this webinar from your perspective on social selling at all.
What would it be? Let's go with, well, first, please.
So I don't I don't piggyback off of what we were just talking about, right? Don't spread yourself thin.
Ultimately, whatever network you choose to go deep on, you go deep on it, especially if it's your first time doing this.
Don't spread yourself, then don't dilute your focus. Don't get distracted. And well, where do I start? Start where your audiences,
where your buyers are, where your stakeholders are? Just go there. Video we're a two person company. It's me and my co-founder.
I don't have time to be everywhere all at once. I can make a decision to be on LinkedIn, right? Shut down our Slack community.
The other day because I just don't have time to invest in it, and I want to do it in a meaningful way when we've got a community manager.
You know, so I think there's nothing wrong with you saying no to things. And really going deep on a platform like LinkedIn
or whatever it's going to be. And then taking 12 months to figure it out. So yeah, time is not against you. Take it.
Go really deep. Just pick a lane and just start posting and start interacting. You can really do no wrong, provided you don't
say anything you shouldn't like, Tyler said.
Chris, your thoughts? One final?
Yeah yeah, very much to Will's point.
Focus on what you want a person, be honest and genuine about. I think posting is a really good place to start, right?
Because I think social selling, we've covered it all the time, you know, get your profile in order. All that stuff.
But do you create content? And I get asked all the time. I create a lot of video content. Some of it's quite heavily edited,
so I learn how to do that over a long period of time. And people will reach out to me and say, I want to make that video that you did.
I've got no experience making video whatsoever, but I want to make it. I'm like, I can teach you, but you'll spend.
An unreasonable amount of time learning how to do it is not going to be a benefit. So you know what? What do you want
to do if you've got great ideas or even haven't got great ideas like post about that, like be engaging if you want to
start posting right about what should you start posting about, engage with people, look at what people are talking about,
types of creating content. So, you know, put yourself out there, you know, be transparent, expose yourself a bit if you
don't know what to post about, but just be visible, like be there again. Going back to that kind of networking dinner,
you could be the person at the side with the free drink watching people networking because you never network before,
or you could be the person just in the middle of the room. Go, this is weird. I've never done this before. How does this work?
And talking to people and people will engage you.
It's just a great place to start. So just get out there and do it.
Thank you very much, Chris. Tom, final takeaway.
Yeah,I'd say to play the long game, right? You know, we've all got probably a lot of years left in our career and like,
like I was saying earlier, you know, LinkedIn or social media is just another thing on top. When you think about a
personal brand, it's really just your reputation in the digital world. And so, you know, I think we'll mention it earlier.
If someone is considering buying from you, if they're considering hiring you, if they're considering partnering with you,
they're going to do their due diligence right? And they're going to ask around for mutual connections and people
that have bought from me or hired me in the past and say, you know, what's Tom all about? And so everything that you're
doing digitally adds up to what your reputation is. So what you're posting, are you pitch slapping people?
Are you connecting and pitching them? Or are you being thoughtful? You ask them questions, are you trying to treat it
like the dinner that Chris mentioned, which I think is a great analogy. And so I think you just want to represent yourself.
Well, it's not about trying to close someone the first day you connect with them. But if you treat it as a 30 year
process versus a 30 minute process, I think that's when a lot of benefits start coming to you.
Absolutely, Tyler, last final thought.
Yeah, I really appreciate everybody coming on here, I took I definitely Stole some ideas from you guys, but I appreciate that
I love what Tom is saying there and kind of, you know, Chris as well, like about just busting it up and will like
how people are going to search for you, right? Get your customers to engage, you know, make it look good, put some stuff,
put some collateral in there about your business. They kind of know what your product does. Add that in there.
Engage with other people. But like for me, you know, the biggest challenge is, OK, where do I start? And somebody kind of
said it earlier. I do remember if there's a will or Chris, but like I think it's dead on. It's almost like a journaling like.
So an easy way to start with, I think, especially LinkedIn, is for post is use it as like a gratitude journal or
a debrief end of the day journal. Just put some simple stuff down and you'd be surprised. I think for most people,
you'd be surprised how universal your, your accomplishments and your challenges really are. And people, people relate
to that almost immediately. So, you know, hey, you want a deal today post about it, like, hey, I got this big deal
today, and here's why it meant something to me. Lost the deal. Hey, I lost this deal today. Here's why. Right?
whatever it is and two things one, yep, you get your post and going. But number two is it's something everybody
should be doing anyway, kind of journaling. And over time, you find your voice over time. You, obviously,
as everybody is saying, is you get better at that practice. But to me, yeah, I mean, just get in there,
clean it up. And if all else, you know, can't think of anything, just kind of do a quick one or two sentence
journal type posting. And that's a pretty good place to start. And everybody, I think, would be surprised
how universal the human condition really is.
And then once you've done one or two ideas like that, I
imagine it's surprising how free flowing the ideas will then come for later content. Yeah, Yeah. Well,
this has been absolutely fantastic. So, Tyler, Tom, Will, Chris appreciate you taking some time out your day
to join us for this webinar. If you'd like to join us for another webinar, we do have another one on Thursday,
which is titled digital frustration the thorn in the B2B buyer's side. I've been Joe Ducarreaux, the host of this webinar.
It's been a real pleasure. And we'll see you all again soon.