Something we’re lacking in this day and age is the art of the handshake.
The whole world has gone digital.
People have their heads stuck in their phone’s when their out in public, or they’re lost on the computer when their at home.
The digital age has torn us away from being personal with people.
We are spoiled.
We can go to a drive through and get a full meal in less than 5 minutes, we can microwave a pizza in 3 minutes, send text messages across the country in seconds. We have forgotten what it’s like to wait on things. We want stuff when we want it, and we want it now!
This has affected our marketing techniques on Google Plus and any other social platform, for that matter.
Being personal takes time, and since we’re impatient, it’s not something that’s on the top of our to-do list.
Even influential people have been known to be guilty of this from time to time. Take a look at this update from Jan 8th where I politely called out Jay Baer on an update that he wrote. Take note of the dialog that followed:
Even the best of us can be subject to time.
There’s just not enough of it, however, in order to create a personality that people will trust online, you have to learn how to make time to be personal.
It all falls down to the Golden Rule of Google Plus.
What are you doing to personalize your social media?
How You Can Make It Personal
All people are thinking about is the digital side of the marketing.
While understanding your stats and different measures is still an important feature, I think that most of us have gotten caught up in the numbers and not the people that are actually creating those numbers for us!
I’ll admit, I’ve never been one for researching numbers. Dustin Stout would disown me if he heard me say that probably, but I’ve always been about the people that make the success happen.
Your authority means nothing without the people that give it to you.
You do not claim the authority for yourself, it is given. Sure you do the work, but there is a strategy to getting this title from people which I will discuss in a bit.
Be Visible to People
You’re not being personal if you’re not engaging.
You know, we hear that word a lot.
Engaging.
However, do you know what it actually means?
Simply put, it means to be charming and attractive. There are actually three things that you need to be to create a more personal communication with people and they are:
- Engaging– to be charming and attractive
- Interactive– (of two people or things) influencing or having an effect on each other.
- Connect– bring together or into contact so that a real or notional link is established.
Each of these brings a personal value to the table that will make people closer to you. I want to try to talk about each one of these and how you can use them to build your authority on social media.
Engaging:
While manners on social media are a key element, you not only need those, but also need to appeal to people. This makes for a responsive following and that is what you’re trying to achieve.
As in my State of the Google Plus Address, a responsive following will hand you your authority faster than anything. So in order to create this, appeal needs to be made within your group of followers.
Engaging is the first step in creating a personal appearance on social media.
Be charming. This goes without saying. Everyone knows how to do this.
For some people it’s easier to do than others, however, we all need to take the time to charm the pants off people.
Be attractive: Understanding how to make yourself attractive falls into a couple of categories. You can do this through your social media profile by telling everything you can about yourself and what you do. The people that you want to target will come to you when you make yourself visible in the charming aspect of this arena.
Be Interactive:
Interaction takes two.
Don’t get me wrong when I say to interact with people and think that it means to respond to someone’s post in the comments with “Great post!”.
That’s not interaction, that’s just you telling people, “Hey! Look at me!”. You get what this is already, but I’ll narrow it down for you. When you truly interact with someone, you’re encouraging, you’re giving your opinion, you help out other people, and basically, like the definition says, you’re affecting others and influencing them on a personal level.
Interaction doesn’t have to solely be on someone else’s post. It can be done on your own personal update. After Jay was “called out” by me, he went and re-wrote the post per my suggestion. Looks a lot more interactive doesn’t it?
Interaction is influencing people to take action for themselves in some area of their life, strategy, or otherwise. Always be interactive with people because that sticks in people’s brains. They remember those that have helped them in the past and are more decisive to hand over that authority trophy quicker when they do remember.
Connect with others
I’m big on this one. With my Relationship Marketing Hangout I always am trying to help people learn how to connect with others on a more personal level rather than some underlying means to make them rich.
Sure, connections bring opportunities, and perhaps money down the line, but I’m talking about true connections that become friendships.
The description says to bring together two people so that a real link is established.
When I think of that, I think of when I used to repair those big miner’s in the coal mine. These machine’s ran on a chain and when one link broke, that massive 20 ton animal wouldn’t operate correctly. However, take a 1/2 pound link and put it back in that chain and it runs smoothly.
If your business isn’t operating correctly, then I suggest you get off and check the connectivity of that animal.
What can help you operate better online? Have you found that one link that can create opportunities where you influence each other to take action yet?
The final element in being personal in this digital age that we’re living in. Your personality shows online. Even when you choose not to respond to someone’s comment. It shows that you don’t care what people say and that you have better things to do. Be personal for crying out loud! That other stuff can wait.
Wade Harman
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