Every time you post a piece of content that no one engages with (e.g. product content usually gets very low engagement), the social media platform’s algorithm learns that users don’t like your content.

As a result, the algorithm will show your next post to less people, so your opportunities for engagement have now decreased.
Thus, your 2nd post will most likely get less engagement than your 1st post.

The algorithm will now show your 3rd post to even LESS people, which will further decrease your opportunities for engagement.
And this keeps going and going in vicious downward spiral, so that posts that used to get 1,000s of views, now get 100s of views (or less)!

Unfortunately, I’ve seen many companies go down this path by consistently posting product-based content. You can see their engagement dramatically decrease quickly and then you just don’t see their posts at all anymore because the algorithm has learned not to show it to you.


So, how do you avoid this? Post content that will add value to your target audience!


Solve their pain points, give free tips and content and information they can’t get elsewhere. When you do talk about your company, talk about DEI initiatives or things you are doing to help local communities.

The focus your content should be about THEM, your target audience, and what will add value to their lives.

If you do that, you will get more views and engagement, and generate more awareness and more business opportunities as a result.

I understand what your company does but it is in no way relevant to my company.

You didn’t do any pre-work to find out about my company, what we do, our pain points, and if you could really help.

So, frankly, you were lucky to get a response in the first place. (After all, we both know you don’t get a response to 95% of this type of cold outreach!)

Want to NOT get blocked?

Do some research.

Find out about my company, what we do, why we do it, what our potential gaps are.

Find connections we have in common on LinkedIn – mention them by name, not “I noticed we have connections in common” (that’s like saying “I noticed we both breathe air”)

Get a warm introduction from a common connection.

I’ll most likely not only responding, but also take a meeting if you do that.

Someone did this two weeks ago. I took the meeting and we are now working together.

Put in the effort. It makes a huge difference in your results.

But you didn’t do that because you’re not interested in networking and using LinkedIn the right way, you just want to spray and pray. No thanks.”

I could have sent this note to 20 people in the past week.

Is anyone else getting an inordinate amount of sales pitches using incorrect data via invitations to connect? I have been inundated with them lately.

So, whoever is the “social media guru” that is teaching folks to run a search and then spam the heck out of people, or who has designed tech to do it for them like this, please stop.

Thanks,
Robert Knop
Assist You Today

I’d like to think when this is all over, companies will realize they don’t need have their sales teams “on the road” 24/7…..unfortunately, I think most companies will only cut down on travel in the short-term. I think the moment something goes wrong (e.g. lose a big deal), virtual selling will be blamed. Sales leaders will then revert back to “what works,” and sales teams will be back on the road 24/7.

You’re always to lose a big deal or two. That’s sales.

I ask sales leaders to keep the big picture in mind. Even if you lose one big deal, your team will probably close more deals overall because of the time saved not in the car or on a plane. It equals a huge boost in overall productivity.

Also, look at the bottom-line instead of top-line numbers. With the decrease in travel expenditures, the bottom-line numbers will look vastly different than before.

My company, for example, has seen expenses cut by over 50% in the past two months because I’m not travelling – huge difference!

Not saying face-to-face interaction should go away – it’s still the fastest way to develop a rapport.

However, if companies invest in coaching their teams to effectively sell virtually, the boost in productivity and bottom-line impact could be immense.

Some quick profile tips to help you get a larger viewership on LinkedIn

The first thing people check is your LinkedIn profile when you reach out, so it has to sing. In your profile, show you are smart, trustworthy, and an industry expert, and entice them to learn more (but don’t pitch).

Your target audience = potential clients + centers of influence. Ensure your profile is written with them in mind.

Use keywords that are searched for often in your field. Use Google Trends to compare search terms (e.g. “sales professional” vs. “sales representative”).

Section-by-section tips:

– Headline: Describe what you do + value you provide (instead of just your title)

– Contact info: Use your work email and phone number

– About: Describe who you are, what you do, and what value you provide in detail

– Experience: Be factual and write from the perspective of a potential client (without being sales-y). Include major accomplishments with data

– Volunteering, Organizations, Publications: Include all of these – they are great conversation starters and show your human side

#SocialMedia #Sales #Marketing

This is social media, not ANTI-SOCIAL media. To be successful with social media, you have to engage with others. If you only post content, it’s like you’re on the sidewalk shouting things through a megaphone. Eventually people will tune you out, and stop engaging with your content.

Social media is about reciprocity. Engage with the content of others 5-10x as much as you post content. This will ensure you stay top-of-mind, and your biggest advocates continue to engage with your content.

After all, why did someone post content on LinkedIn? They want engagement. They want to be validated! Give it to them – especially if that content would add value to your target audience as well.

This isn’t Instagram. You don’t get 30 likes and 5 comments every time you post a selfie.

Most content on LinkedIn gets 5 likes or less and 1 comment or less. If you consistently engage with someone’s content, they will remember you! In turn, they will engage with your content, and they will be more likely to accept your invitation to connect (and a meeting request) as well.

So don’t turn LinkedIn into anti-social media, engage with others – learn, network and grow. It’s the whole reason the platform exists!

1. You meet them in-person.

Don’t give a key contact a chance to forget you.

For example, if you are at a conference, regardless of how late you get back each night from dinner or drinks at the hotel bar, open up LinkedIn, grab the stack of business cards you got that day, and send each one an invitation to connect. At the conference where I was a speaker 2 weeks ago, I used this strategy and got 16 acceptances to 16 invites.

2. They’ve engaged with your content.

They have shown an interest in what you have to say, but if they liked your content, they probably liked other content as well, so proximity again here is key. Within 3 days of their like/comment/share, send them an invitation to connect thanking them for their like/comment/share, tell them you would love to connect to share ideas/referrals/something back and forth.

Remember, it’s all about them, so make sure mention the value to them to connecting (without selling).

3. A mutual connection has given you a warm introduction. If this happens, send an invite within 2-3 days. Anything longer, and the person might forget who you are or why you reached out.

Most simple domain names were either not taken, or had some random content (e.g. Tigers.com was a bunch of pictures of tigers, not the Detroit Tigers MLB team).

Seeing that gave me an idea: buy a whole heap of these simple-word domains. Eventually, individuals and companies will want them, and I’d be able to sell them for a profit.

The problem was I was in college. And broke. And domain names cost $100 each. Eek.

I was eating Rice-A-Roni for dinner every day – how could I follow my ambitious plan to buy 100 domain names, and hold them until this internet thing really took off?

I knew banks wouldn’t give me a loan since I had no collateral, I felt my parents would have said “no,” and my friends were all broke too.

Thus, my only option was my grandfather, who had worked his fingers to the bone as a farmer his entire life, but for the last 10 years of his life, he made some great business moves, and so I knew he could potentially loan me the money.   

Could I really ask my grandfather for $10,000? What it if didn’t work out? My grandfather was one of my best friends. When I went to community college for two years to save money to go to Michigan, I stopped by his house every day to bring in his mail and talk for a while. I didn’t want to lose that.

If it didn’t work out, I would feel horrible around him for the rest of my life. My family would chastise me for taking advantage of him. I couldn’t have any of that. So, I did nothing.

Well, the rest is history. I know people who bought domains for $100 and sold them for hundreds of thousands of dollars. At one point, I worked for a company, who had a client that was trying to get investors to help them buy a domain for $6 million. SIX. MILLION. DOLLARS. And that domain was one of the names on my original list.

I still kick myself for not following-through on my idea.   

My point is this – never be afraid to:

1) Start with what you’ve got – I didn’t need $10k. $1k would have started me off just fine. So would have $500. Work up to your bigger vision.

2) Ask for help – My grandfather probably wouldn’t have given me $10k, but he probably would have given me $500. And if I never paid him back, he was such a great guy, he wouldn’t have cared.

3) Follow your dreams – if you have a great idea, CHASE IT. Don’t let fear stand in your way.

Recently, LinkedIn asked me (since “you’ve been posting some great stuff on LinkedIn” – wow, pretty cool!) what trends I see for 2019.

My answer: MORE

Strategy-level:

MORE mobile, digital, social and more data-driven and customer-centric decision-making and experimentation with innovations like AI and AR.

Tactics:

MORE social selling. I get so many spam calls, I don’t budge when my phone rings now, and I get so much spam email that I only view my Focused folder in Outlook. Social media will go from a “nice to have” to a “must have” for sales + business development.

MORE creativity with advertising. TV and traditional display ads get less eyeballs by the second. Companies will get more and more creative with advertising. For example:

• “In-game” TV ads – so you can’t DVR past them – that appear during sporting events today. These will become more prevalent,
• Ads on voice technology like Alexa – or even sponsored results, which gets dicey because you wouldn’t know if it’s the “best” answer or a sponsored answer
• “Anti-beacons” like Burger King’s new Whopper campaign. I’ve never understood why mall stores don’t have anti-beacons set up for their competitors’ stores. If I’m running Gap, I’m sending someone an offer every time they walk into H&M.
• Ads inside of video games – Roblox already does this. I saw an Aquaman movie ad on the wall of a building inside my son’s Xbox game recently. Integrated video game advertising!
• As automatic cars start to take off, how long will it be before we start seeing ads on our windshields?

MORE automation, and not always in a good way. Everyone wants to automate everything in marketing and sales, but many companies lack processes to support the automation, so they end up spamming the heck out of people, or they never follow-up outside of their automated sends, and thus, miss opportunities.

MORE video. As video comprises more and more of the internet’s content, everyone will be doing video in 2019. Facebook and LinkedIn already favor video over all other content. Those that are reluctant to do video in 2018, will be forced to do it in 2019 to sustain their current reach.

This will be an exciting year with a lot of big leaps forward in marketing in sales. It will be fun to watch it all unfold!

1.  To spend more time with my family
2.  To work with a variety of exciting clients
3.  To HELP people, especially non-profits.

So, I looked back over the past year. This year we were able to:

• Work with 23 clients including 3 Fortune 500s
• Help 4 non-profits make a real difference in their communities
• Set 5 start-ups companies up for success in both the short-term and the long-term
• Give away a lot knowledge that will help a lot of people via content and speaking events

And at the same time, I was able to:

• Pick my kids up from school almost every day
• Coach my sons’ soccer team (not once, but twice – including an all-star game)
• Take family vacations (plural – you can’t do that in corporateland!)

THOSE are the things that matter to me. Thus, I’m calling this year a landslide success.

Maybe you should too.

I’m not saying rest on your laurels, but I am saying to appreciate the good times – they don’t always last for long.

And most importantly, there are more important things than revenue.