From a young age I was taught the importance of a meaningful introduction and what this meant…
Introduce yourself, say your name, give a firm handshake, and look the person in the eyes… This process seemed very simple and straight forward at the time, and has become a given formality whenever I meet someone today. I make sure that whether I am meeting a grade 1 basketball player at a camp, or a business CEO, I treat introductions with the same respect and genuine excitement!
The power of a meaningful first introductions really hit home in my first undergraduate University class.
It was Economics 101 –
As my first class began, I quickly realized that my professor was not the most engaging… He would lecture for 2 hours straight, and although he was brilliant he did not involve the class very much, not that any first year students were really paying attention…
At the end of that first class, I decided to suck it up, and go introduce myself and let him know I would be missing some classes due to being on the basketball team. As all the students rushed out of the room (to go study I’m sure), I walked to the front of the class where my professor was back to reading his newspaper and introduced myself, holding out my hand to shake his… He seemed in shock at first, and then after a second accepted my handshake and chatted with me for a few minutes… Nothing special, but I felt good making the connection and being sincere…
At the beginning of the next class, our professor made a very interesting observation to begin… He seemed more excited and intrigued than before… “I have been teaching economics 101 here for 10 years, and last class was the first time that someone, from this class, has come up and personally introduced themselves and shook my hand, I really appreciated that.”
Wow! I was actually taken back by the impact of his statement, what seemed like a regular introduction to me, had a significant impact on my professor. The light when on, and I realized that from our first interactions with people, we have the opportunity to stand out, be different, and most importantly be remembered with a positive connotation.
So…
The buzz today seems to be that social media is the key to strong and meaningful customer engagement- ‘if you get a bunch of twitter followers and facebook fans you will get more business ‘. While this may be true, if you achieve this goal without building meaningful and personal relationships, you have missed the boat.
In all honesty, this post has been sparked by the mass number of New Follower auto direct messages (DM) I receive on Twitter on a daily basis… Many being from businesses who have targeted me as a potential consumer. Instead of taking 30 seconds to find a little bit more about me (visit website, read bio, even see where I’m from- all which you can do right from Twitter) to strike up a meaningful conversation through a personal introduction, these businesses decide to send a generic welcome that tells me to go like their facebook page.
So, lets think about how this would look like if we were meeting in person… Instead of the strong, genuine handshake that I talked about earlier, an automated DM (or other automated tools in social media) is more like: accepting my handshake, but instead of even asking for my name or introducing yourself you start telling me why I should buy your product and be a fan of your company… Oh yea, did I mention that you don’t even look me in the eye because you are on your smart phone checking how many new twitter followers you have?
No thank you.. This is not an engaging strategy, and if anything I am building a negative connotation towards your brand because you are abusing the opportunity that I am giving you as a consumer (by following you).
Think about how many real personal introductions you receive on facebook, twitter, or linkedIn? I’m talking about businesses that take the time to learn something about you and start a real conversation and relationship… If you are like me, you cannot think of many, if even one. And all this means that there is a huge opportunity for your business or personal brand to stand out, just like I did with my University professor.
As your business navigates the social media world, focus on strategies that create real engagement and relationships with your market- don’t abuse the new power to connect with mass following and automated DM’s…
Quality over Quantity
A few meaningful relationships will gain exponentially greater ROI (return on investment) and positive brand word of mouth than many followers who are unengaged and unimpressed!
Have you experienced any examples of businesses doing a good job of social media and making personal introductions? If so, please let us know, along with any other feedback in the comments section!
