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Friends with Benefits
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The Author's Story
Life’s too short when you stop and think about how long you’re dead for. Do what you love!
– KYLIE BARTLETT
I still vividly remember my first Facebook status update. It was on December 6 2007, and it took me eight hours to write. “Where do I put the comma”, I started asking myself.
“Have I written too much? And will anyone want to read what I have to say?”
For many years I was convinced that Facebook was a place where teenagers hung out to chat about what they’d gotten up to on the weekend (without their parents finding out). I told myself that I was way too ‘high brow’ and professional – that I’d never stoop so low as to jump on Facebook and start commenting on what people had for lunch. “Get a life”, I would say to my friends who were wasting their time on this childish platform.
Then a business colleague who I respected told me to get over myself. “Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it”, he advised. So I gave in. And here’s what I wrote as my first status update: “Hello, I’m a Facebook virgin, please go easy on me!” I was blown away by what happened next; I started receiving responses from total strangers welcoming me to Facebook, and I began being sent ‘friend requests’ from people I hadn’t had any contact with for over a decade. I couldn’t believe how much conversation was taking place over my trivial little status update.
With my training in human behaviour, I started analysing how this new way of communicating made me feel. Half of me was a bit scared of this newfound beast, while the other half was curious and excited about its potential. Once I got over my fear of technology, I realised it was just another form of communication, like sending smoke signals and carving stories into rocks were many thousands of years ago. Geez, back in my day, my Facebook was called a ‘pen pal’, where I’d hand-write a letter to a girl in Poland and then wait patiently by my letterbox for weeks for her response. It’s funny how having a pen pal 30 years ago was encouraged by our parents and yet today’s equivalent, Facebook, is frowned upon.
Once I came to terms with the fact that Facebook was just an evolution in the way we communicate, I was off and racing. Within 12 months I’d become friends with over 3,000 people on Facebook from around the globe – and get this: I probably only knew 300 of them ‘in real life’.
What I found staggering was when I launched my Facebook business page, (12 months after launching my personal profile), I managed to attract 2,000 fans within 24 hours. I know the only reason why so many people ‘liked’ my new business page was because I’d built a one-on-one relationship with them first on my personal profile, (you’ll come to understand the importance of this as you read further through the book).
Before long, business colleagues were asking me to share my Facebook success secrets with them. Given I’d owned a training company for over 15 years, it seemed like a very natural progression for me to evolve my training courses into offering Facebook Fundamentals for Business. To date, I’ve presented to, trained and coached over 1,000 people globally on social media and Facebook, and I’ve loved every minute of it. Why? Because I know my training is making a huge difference to the bottom line of the small businesses I get to work with.
It really does break my heart to see so many businesses suffering, not because they’re not good at what they do, but because no one knows they exist. Here’s a test for you: go and ‘Google’ your name. What shows up? No matter what you’re doing in ‘the real world’, in many ways you are, who Google says you are.
Let me give you an example. I was in the market for a new dining set earlier this year. I’d heard a number of my friends talk about a great homewares store just up the road from where I lived and I thought I’d check it out. So I did what 80% of consumers today do: I Googled it... and I got tumbleweeds. Nothing showed up; no website, no social media presence whatsoever.
Most consumers would just stop there and instead choose to search for someone else, but I thought I’d give them one last opportunity to sell to me. I jumped in my car and drove to the store itself, but I was out of luck again – they weren’t open on a Sunday. Suffice to say, by this stage I was a tad annoyed and decided to move on. I ended up buying a $5,000 dining set that day from a retailer who had raving online testimonials from happy customers, and who had a
dining range for me to look at on both their website and their Facebook page.
I wonder how many other businesses are losing out because they don’t have a digital footprint? The world has changed and so must you! Here’s another little test for you. How far away is your mobile phone from you right now? I bet it’s within arm’s reach. Our phones have become an extension of us – they are with us 24/7. Knowing this, are you sure you’re doing enough, within your business, to get into your target market’s back pocket or hand-bag?
I hope as you read my book, the penny drops for you as it did for me. I want you to see that Facebook is not as scary (or even as superficial) as you might think, and if used with the right intent and a well mapped out plan of attack, it can be a very beneficial, pleasurable and lucrative communication tool for your business.
Are you ready? Let’s start on the road to seducing some ‘friends with benefits’!
Welcome to the new economy
If you don’t change direction, you might end up where you are heading.
– LAO TZU
We’re living in a very different world today than we did as little as a decade ago. Back then, to start a business you’d have needed a sizeable amount of cash in the bank or an expensive over-draft. You’d have to take out a long-term lease on a bricks and mortar premises (potentially paying exorbitant rent), $10,000 for one Yellow Pages advertisement and make enough profit to pay your ongoing overheads such as IT, bookkeeping, administration, stock, staff, rent, utilities – the list goes on.
You’d have to spend a fortune on sales, marketing and business development and hope like crazy that word-of- mouth spread fast enough for you to keep your head above water, while you also competed with big businesses who’d be constantly trying to undercut you on price and monopolise the market. I remember witnessing many boutique strip shops closing down left, right and centre in my local town because they couldn’t compete (either on price or on stock) with the big franchised brands such as Woolworths, Bunnings, Harvey Norman and Myer. If you were very lucky, you may have got some traditional media attention, but more often than not you’d have to hire a PR agent to scout for media opportunities for you. In 2008 I paid my PR agent $60,000 for 12 months for this kind of service.
Today’s landscape looks very different. There are over two billion connected computers and over six billion connected mobile phones operating around the world. Every 60 seconds
13,000 mobile apps are downloaded, 695,000 searches are made on Google and 510,000 comments are made on Facebook. Think about this. You could pick up your smart phone right now, shoot a video, upload it to YouTube in less than 60 seconds and potentially reach 85% of the global population. Don’t believe me? Singer Psy from Korea created his Gangnam Style song, launched it on YouTube and it has now been seen by over one billion people!
Distribution and influence have been democratised. This is exciting news for people like you and me who have an expertise or talent that can help others. Now, anyone can broadcast a message; you no longer need to get through the media gatekeepers. Your smart phone or tablet is like having your own personal video recording studio, and your blog can now be more valuable than getting an article written up in your local newspaper. Combine this with the ability to produce and distribute products, services and messages easily and quickly via open source technology and social media, and there really is no barrier to entry.
Thanks to technology and social media networks like Facebook, there has never been a better time in history to position yourself as the trusted expert and authority in your industry. The little guy now has the ability to connect and interact with communities and influencers from around the globe, without having to pay a cent in advertising or leave the comfort of their own office or home. Small is now, big business. The top-end-of-town corporates, who in the past monopolised the market and dominated the media, are being outmanoeuvred and out-innovated by small, bespoke outfits that are nimble and forward thinking. Those boutique strip shops that once were run out of town by the big franchises, are opening up again, as trendy ‘pop up’ businesses.
Consumer buying habits have changed too. People now want to buy from businesses that stand for something more than just making money. They are attracted to brands that are making a positive impact on the world – businesses that have a social conscience and that operate with integrity. Customers want to interact with original, bespoke brands they feel they have a personal relationship with. They want uniqueness and authenticity rather than mass-production and assembly lines.
If you’re a service professional, educator, teacher, trainer, speaker, coach or consultant, the news gets even better.
The corporate training and e-learning industry generates $33 billion per year, while the e-book and publishing industry is worth $27billion, the personal development market nets $10 billion and the coaching market $1.2 billion. Meanwhile, sales of digital information products have more than doubled in the past five years. There is just so much opportunity - right at this very moment in time – to teach, share and sell your expertise and know-how, and to profit from your passion.
I know that this book has the potential to completely revolutionise the way you market and grow your business. I’m proof this is possible. I didn’t even know what the internet or the new economy was six short years ago, and yet today 100% of my income is derived via the exact same business model I’m about to share with you – one based around connectivity, social media and the power of the individual.
THE ‘FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS’ PHILOSOPHY
Businesses don’t do business with businesses. Businesses do business with people! I want you to stop thinking that you’re in either a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) niche. You’re actually in a connection-to-connection (C2C) niche. People do business with people they know, like and trust, and that relationship is taken to an entirely new level when you can refer to each other as ‘mates’ and ‘friends’.
Did you know that 95% of all Facebook business pages have less than 20 fans? ‘Build it and they will come’ only happens in the movies. The reason why most businesses are failing on Facebook is because they’re coming across like an 18-year old dude at a nightclub. They’re trawling the news feed; looking for a gullible stranger they can have their way with. Your business will only benefit on Facebook when it stops selling and starts serving first.
Disclaimer: the method I’m going to share with you is unconventional and may even be viewed by my more sophisticated peers as unprofessional. However I get a sneaking suspicion that you’re happy to take a walk on the wild side (or you wouldn’t have purchased a book with such a provocative title in the first place).
So here goes... I recommend you use both your personal profile and your business page on Facebook to market your business, and here’s why. If Richard Branson sent you a friend request inviting you to connect with him personally on Facebook, and at the same time Virgin Airlines sent you a generic message to ‘like’ their business page, which one would grab your attention? Yep, just as I thought, Richard Branson! It’s called ‘social media’ for a reason. People on Facebook want to interact, connect, communicate and contribute. They want conversations, not catalogues.
I know if you’re willing to keep an open mind and read the remainder of this book, your Facebook success will go through the roof. And don’t panic if you’re a newbie - you’re in an even better position because you have no bad habits to undo and as a result, you can launch into Facebook with a clean, blank canvas and an arsenal of great tools.
Facebook friends, fans and followers are your new marketers; empower them! Earlier in the year, I ran out of business cards, so I popped a post on my Facebook personal profile asking my friends where I should go to get my new cards printed. 24 hours later I had received 64 responses to my post, all recommending printers. Guess how many were from printing suppliers? A big fat zero! 64 of my friends wanted to help solve my problem, with no hidden agenda other than to help me as a person and fellow business owner.
How excited (and rich!) would you be if your friends on Facebook were constantly recommending your products and services to their friends on your behalf? What do you need to do to make this happen for you? Be beneficial to them!
Social media and Facebook have become such a crowded marketplace because of their low barrier to entry. Most marketers will tell you that in order to stand out and gain cut- through, you need a ‘unique selling proposition’ – you need to be different and you need to be the best in the business. I disagree. I believe in order to succeed with Facebook, you need to be beneficial and solve problems that aren’t always associated with what you do in your business.
Ok, so I can hear you saying “Kylie, I hardly have time to solve my own problems, let alone other people’s – and for free too!” But before you go and throw my book in the bin, please allow me to explain. When those 64 Facebook friends went out of their way to recommend a business card supplier to me, a chain reaction occurred. I naturally felt compelled to return the favour when any one of those 64 friends wrote an ‘I require assistance’ post on Facebook. The print supplier who was given the job felt the same way about the person who recommended his/her services - and so the chain reaction continues. Your goal is to have as many of your friends as possible recommending your products and services to solve their friends’ problems.
It’s called reciprocity, or in layman’s terms, ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine’. I guarantee that if you spend as much time and energy being beneficial, serving and solving problems as you do in flogging your business on Facebook, your sales will skyrocket. It may not happen overnight, but it will happen. You’ve got to stop looking for instant gratification (sales) and start looking to build long- term, mutually beneficial relationships. Customer (friend) evangelists who rave about your business on your behalf are the new currency in the new economy.
MEET YOUR COMPETITION – FOOD, PHOTOS AND FRIENDS
Can you take some tough love? People don’t care about your business! I know that sounds harsh, but it’s a reality. People don’t lay awake in bed at night worrying about whether you’ve made enough sales or whether you’re going to survive. All people are interested in is reducing their pain and increasing their pleasure.
Here’s a question for you. What do you think were the highest-selling commodities in the great depression? Lipstick and tickets to the circus! Here’s why. When women put on their lippy, they automatically feel sexier - their entire mood changes. When people go to the circus and watch clowns making fools of themselves and animals jumping through hoops, it puts a smile on their face and allows them to leave their own worries outside the big tent for a while.
Facebook has become today’s lipstick and circuses. People turn to it to escape their day-to-day worries; they turn to it to be flattered, to be entertained and they turn to it as white noise. They don’t turn to it to be sold to.
On Facebook, you’re not competing with your competitors, you’re competing with food, photos and friends (remember the circus). While your competitors are trying to flog their wares on Facebook, you have the perfect opportunity to start ‘clowning around’. For those of you already on Facebook, go check out what’s filling up your news feed right now. I bet its mostly made up of photos of kids, cute pets and scrumptious food.
INTRODUCING THE 5-STEP FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS FORMULA
Whether you’re launching into Facebook for the first time or you’ve been on the platform for a while, this 5-Step process will quickly help improve your reputation, your positioning in the marketplace – and yes, it will also improve your bottom line. I want to assure you that no matter what stage your Facebook journey is at, the cheeky but clever tactics and techniques I reveal from here on in, will help transform the way you use Facebook in your business, forever!
How can I make such a bold statement? Because I’m living proof that this process works. Six years ago, I went from being a complete Facebook virgin to now being recognised as one of Australia’s leading authorities on how to leverage Facebook in your business, using the same techniques I’m about to share with you.
Put simply, the 5-Step process teaches you how to become ‘beneficial’ to your Facebook community, at no cost to them. Instead of teaching you how to overtly promote and sell your
wares, you’ll instead learn how to serve others and solve problems, which in turn drives engagement. Engagement drives advocacy, and advocacy correlates directly with increased sales.
Warning: this process is not for those of you looking for a ‘quickie’ in return for your kind gestures. This is about building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with your Facebook community. Solve enough problems over a long enough period of time, and I guarantee you, your cash register will start ringing. At the end of the day, people are ultimately time poor (and/or lazy). The more you give people things for free (advice, tips, secrets), the more they want you to do it for them.
The personal training industry is a perfect example of this. We all know how to go for a walk or jog around the block, so why do we then pay a personal trainer to come with us? Because we want accountability and we want to outsource the responsibility to someone other than ourselves. The ultimate outcome you want to achieve from networking on Facebook is that people think of you as their Facebook ‘friend with benefits’. You want to be known as the go-to person that the community turns to when they need advice. When you go out of your way to help a ‘friend’ in need, it leaves an indelible imprint on their mind. As a result, when they or one of their friends requires whatever you sell, they’ll automatically think of you.
Now you might be thinking, “How am I ever going to make a sale if all my time is spent running around solving people’s problems that have nothing to do with my business’s products or services?” But look at it this way: hunting for prospects, leads and sales is also a time-consuming process, and there is no guarantee that people will choose you over your competitor, regardless of how much time, effort and money you sink into it.
For as long as I can remember, we’ve been bombarded with ‘buy my stuff’ advertising and marketing; so much so that we’ve learned to tune it out. You know this yourself – you put the kettle on when an ad comes on TV; you put a bar on receiving ‘cold calls’ on your phone; you put up a ‘no junk mail’ sticker on your letterbox. If you know this to be true, then don’t do this in your business. Choose a different way of standing out – become helpful and beneficial instead! Before we dive deep into the 5-Step process, here’s a sneak peak of what’s involved to get you all juiced up:
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Plan: start with the end in mind. What are you ultimately hoping to achieve from your Facebook efforts? What is your Facebook vision, what are your goals and targets and what’s your plan of attack for achieving your ideal results?
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Profile: who is your ideal date and who is currently seducing them? Who is your target market, what problems do they have and how can you solve them? It’s important to also know who else on Facebook is currently grabbing your target market’s attention.
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Presentation: pimping out your profiles. People are attracted to bright shiny objects and we need to make sure yours is the shiniest of them all. Once we have your profile and business page looking sexy, we then need to work out what you’re going to say. What is your communication strategy, your brand story and your personality style?
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Publish: give and you shall receive. Here’s a hint with this step: content + community = currency. Publishing great content is going to be at the core of your Facebook strategy. Content comes in many forms: how-to articles, blogs, audio interviews, video tips, book reviews, case studies and so on. You’ll learn how to share valuable and beneficial content with your community to create currency.
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Promote: making sure you score. We can’t have you putting in all this extra effort, sharing your love around and not actually scoring at the end of the day. You’ll learn how to incorporate what I call ‘my weapons of mass seduction’ – ads, offers and competitions - into your marketing mix. Everybody loves to get something for free; I’m going to share with you what really hits the sweet spot when it comes to giveaways.
Ok, now that I’ve got you primed, it’s time to get into the good stuff!