Almost All Social Media Fails Are People Skills Fails

It takes so little to be above average. And it also takes so little to lose massive opportunities. A message I've been preaching since dinosaurs roamed the earth is the concept of slowing down to speed up. This isn't about manipulation, it's just uncommon sense. I rarely use the words "common sense" because there's not a lot common about sense. Look around.

I always personalize every invitation request I accept regardless of the Social Media platform. We're all in the conversation and relationship business whether we realize it or not. And I can assure you that most people don't realize this. That's why they struggle to bring on clients and receive referrals.

 Here's a Twitter private message thread from a few days ago. My message to this guy is the way that I talk whether I'm talking to a Fortune 500 CEO or the person handing me my change at the 7-11. So don't worry about the "bird with a french fry" thing or anything else. The key principle I wanna point out here is that my message is personalized. And definitely not a sales pitch.

I completely understand that certain personality styles are brusk and kinda bottom line. And some are far more warm and fuzzy. But to reply to my nice, non-salesy, warm, personalized message with a sales pitch/request for referrals? Are you kidding me? No use of my name. No thanks for the nice message. Nothing. Just a request for something from me. It would have only taken him five seconds to personalize his response. 

 I know lots of people who could probably use his services. But he'll never meet them because I would never do business with nor refer business to this guy. For the simple reason being that all things being equal, people do business with and refer business to those people whom they know, like, and trust. 

 The bar's set so low. So unbelievably low. Take a few seconds to personalize everything you communicate, whether online or offline. It'll only take a few few seconds to do this, but boy will you be thankful down the road that you've developed this habit. Huge doors of opportunity swing on little tiny hinges. And those hinges are almost always people skills.

This brief post was taken from Kevin Knebl's weekly newsletter. To subscribe to Kevin's newsletter, please feel free to do so at www.kevinknebl.com and thanks for your interest.

Kevin Knebl, CMEC is an International Speaker, Author, Trainer and Joie de Vivre Coach? whose clients include individuals and small, medium and Fortune 500 companies. He's an in-demand, leading authority on Social Selling, Relationship Marketing, LinkedIn and Twitter with a healthy dose of Inspiration, Transformational Insight, and Humor blended in for good measure for conferences, conventions, company trainings, and many other events.

Kevin is the coauthor of "The Social Media Sales Revolution: The New Rules for Finding Customers, Building Relationships, and Closing More Sales Through Online Networking" (McGraw-Hill). Kevin is also a contributing author of "Learn Marketing with Social Media in Seven Days" (Wiley).

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