Great Social Skills + Great Media Skills = Great Social Media Success!

After almost 15 years on Social Media (I got on LinkedIn 60 days after it launched way back in 2003), I'm more convinced than ever that knowing how the bells and whistles of social platforms work holds a far distant second place to having very good interpersonal skills. If someone was Hannibal Lecter before they got on LinkedIn, now they're just Hannibal Lecter on LinkedIn. If someone was a bull in a china shop in regards to getting along with others before they got on Facebook, now they're just a bull in a much, much larger china shop.

And after delivering countless presentations and working with countless private coaching clients, I can assure you that almost every question people have regarding Social Media, Social Selling, Relationship Marketing, Sales, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc are at their core not social media questions. They're interpersonal questions.

A communication tool is only as effective as the communication skills of the person with the tool. You may have an in depth understanding of the electronics in a telephone, but that won't improve your conversation skills one bit. And the effective use of a phone isn't about electronics - it's about conversation skills.

I've never stood on a stage anywhere on earth without holding up my copy of Dale Carnegie's 1936 classic "How to Win Friends and Influence People" in the first few minutes. I can't believe I haven't lost it somewhere along the way. I purchased this copy in October 1992. And it's dogeared, underlined, highlighted, and has lots of writing in the margins. Because I didn't read it. I studied it. And I continue to.

I understood early in my sales career that all things being equal, people do business with and refer business to those people whom they know, like, and trust. So I decided that I'd better get pretty good at the whole know, like, trust thing. Not in a manipulative way, but always in a sincere, authentic, heart-centered way. Only because my wife and kids have some bad habits like wanting to live indoors and eat warm food.

So yes, get a basic understanding of the current features of social platforms. But double down on your people skills. In a world which is becoming increasing faster and impersonal all the time, your ability to sincerely and authentically connect with people will completely differentiate you from just about everyone else. The bar's set so low. You're literally a mosquito in a nudist colony of opportunity. Yup, that's a visual. 

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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