What is Twitter?

"What is Twitter" is a question I get from a lot of business owners when I meet with them.  Everybody has heard of Twitter these days, but they do not know how it can help their business.  Twitter is a site for "microblogging", which means that you are giving information on what you are doing or what you are working on in less than 140 characters.  Many businesses have become wildly popular by using Twitter, and those businesses have been very creative as to how they use Twitter.  Some have decided to tell a story 140 characters at a time, and others have used it to get their name out there similar to Facebook.

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Listening Skills vs. Swift Talking in Sales

Most people that think of a salesperson is somebody who can talk people into buying their product even if they don't need it.  I have heard the term "He can sell a ketchup Popsicle to a woman in white gloves."  While the ability to be convincing is important in sales, the ability to listen to your prospect is much more important.  How does a good sales professional know how to gear their presentation?  They spent time listening to the customer's needs and adapt the rest of the sales process around those needs.  After you have listened enough to discover their needs and analyze what type of buyer they are, the "swift talking" skills can be applied more efficiently.

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Blogging Tip: Keywords

Many people know how to blog, but they don't know how to blog efficiently to maximize views.  When blogging or posting on other social media sites, it is very important to look for proper keywords.  You want to use keywords that are not used in other sites, but are being searched for frequently on search engines.  Doing this will put you at the top of the list and will drive people to your sites.  To do this, go to Google Adwords or type in keyword search on Google and you will find this tool pictured below.  Type in the words you want to use for your postings and you can see how much competition there is with those words.  You might see that you want to rephrase what you are saying based on the "Global Monthly Searches" or "Local Monthly Searches" and the amount of competition there is.

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Social Media Definition

This blog has talked a lot about how social medial can help your business and the different types of social media.  I thought it would be good to get more basic and talk about social media in general.   A great social media definition given by davepress is the following:

Digital tools that permit people and organisations to interact freely with low (or no) barriers to entering a conversation. The nature of the relationships between social media users is often as important as the content they share – the ‘social’ aspect is very important.

davepress.net/2010/03/19/a-digital-engagement-glossary/

SPIN Selling: It's not what you think it is.

When I first heard the term "SPIN selling" I thought it was referring to the stereotype of a salesperson who twists the truth to make a sale.  I could not have been more wrong.  This refers to the right types of questions to ask when you are in the second step of the 5 step sales process:  uncovering needs.  Each letter stands for a different type of question you should ask:  situational, problem, implication, and needs-payoff.  If you ask the right types of questions, the customer will come to the conclusion on their own that what you have to offer will do them a lot of good.  Here are the types of questions to ask in order:

How Location Based Social Media Sites Help Your Business

Location Based Social Media sites are new to most people, and are a very good tool to bringing customers in your doors.  Potential Customers can track what businesses are around them using their smartphones, and businesses can add incentives that would be appealing to the public.  This video describes how these sites work and how they can bring you more business.