Today I had a conversation with a colleague and friend who was attempting to wrap his arms around Facebook and the social media world.  His question was similar to the opening phrase of a soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s play of Hamlet “To be or not to be.”

 

My colleague had interviewed a couple of so called social media experts and recognized they knew about as much as he did.  So he asked for some of my time because he had witnessed my results over the past five to six years. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Ask for 3 references when interviewing social media coaches and then ask their clients  “What results did you get from this social media marketing activity?”

 

 

The first question I asked him was who was his target audience for his sales leads?  His answer reaffirmed that Facebook is probably not his primary social media platform.  LinkedIn and YouTube would be far better along with Google Plus.

 

However, he did need to link everything together to ensure consistency of his message and his presence on the Internet. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Do a search of your name on Google.  On the first page of Google, there should be a link to each of your social media sites, your website and your blog.  Your name should appear in all ten places linked to significant websites.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Check how many hits your name generates monthly to monitor your Internet presence.

 

 

We then discussed specific search engine optimization strategies (thinking) and tactics (doing) to ensure that his efforts generate the greatest results.  I emphasized the need to continually research keywords as keywords do change over time much like business trends. What was hot today may be cold six months from now. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  The right keywords do generate sales leads.

 

To be or not to be on Facebook should be based upon your marketing plan and sales plan located within your strategic action plan.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  If you don’t have a plan, then you are someone else’s plan.

 

The better question to be asked is “How much time should I devote to Facebook?”   Imagine  you have 45 minutes for your social media efforts. Allocate the following:

 

10 minutes per day to Facebook

5 minutes for Twitter

5 minutes for Google Plus

25 minutes for Linked

 

If you are writing a Blog, then you may need to invest some additional time and that holds true for posting to YouTube.

 

The key is to go to where your target audience is and then interact with them to increase sales leads and to increase sales.  Facebook may have Centers of Influence (wives of those CEOs, CFOs or small business owners).  So to ignore Facebook is foolish.

 

Yes social media is here to stay.  To not be is no longer a viable business strategy or tactic.