In yesterday's post I previewed the discussion I'm keynoting with a group of real estate professionals this week; tomorrow, as a matter of fact. The idea being the need to be deliberate about structuring an approach to social media engagement that isn't the proverbial "shotgun" marketing strategy. Or, what we used to call in my old Navy-air (P3 / ASW) days as the "Sherwin Williams tactic." (Y'know, "cover the earth"?)
It all begins, of course, with a definition of purpose. We discuss this in Chapter 2 of our book and, of course, also in the vBook. Call it a personal mission statement, vision statement, purpose statement or what have you. Folks who are new to the idea of engaging social media channels for business should take some time first to understand what it is they hope to accomplish. And, no fair saying, "to make money." Because if it were me, I'd be asking: Well what kind of money? From what demographic? Offering what services? For whom? Is it really just for dollars or is there a trust factor you're striving for?
You get the picture. Keep asking "why", "for whom" and "how" at each level and eventually you get to a point of granular reasoning that hits closest to your purpose for your social media activities. And, no matter what other things you end up discovering about your purpose, bundled in there somewhere will be the need to earn an element of trust and credibility with the folks you come in contact with.
So it is that the "hub" in the "Hub and Spokes" framework is a key part of your engagement strategy. I extracted a video element from Chapter 3 of my vBook on the MindBridj site that touches a little more on the concept of the hub. Now, keep in mind, this one suggests a blog being at the core of that "hub". But, it doesn't have to be. (Though in most cases, it probably will be.)
The summary below should especially be helpful to those of you I get to meet at tomorrow's workshop. I know many of you will find me here on this blog afterwards, as well as on MindBridj. It is for you that I'm mostly making this blog entry. Hopefully the video below will be a good recap for you. If you have more questions, feel free to leave a comment or send me a note. You can also check out, too, the chapters I'll have promised you that I would open up for you on the MindBridj site, as well.
