So one round of social connection failed! Find others.
To the harbingers of doom and the sighers over all the lost in-person, experiential opportunities, I say: shush!!!
Figure out how to show up better in two dimension, yo. Connection and intimacy is possible when you think about it like you would actual human social interaction.
To my mind, all this cancelling of large events will do one very key thing for us all watching in the digital world.
It will teach us how to translate connections online better.
Understand user behaviour and what people need to hear, know and be directed to.
And it will force us to collectively raise the bar on how well we interact with one another from behind a screen.
To my mind, it feels like there’s a viral (inappropriate pun intended) need to ‘move things online’. And while people like me are very ok with that, even prefer it, i realize not everyone is.
So if you’re a small business who is heavily funneled in by meeting people at events.Or even an agile department that relies on sales outreaches… but are SO not an online person (or so you think) here are some things you can do.
- Really turn your attention to LinkedIn
It’s true. If you learn one thing, learn how to build relationships on LinkedIn. Here’s the tl;dr – the percentage of active users on LinkedIn who post is probably way lower than we think. AND a majority of those people are ‘broadcast only’. They only post and rarely engage with other people’s things. More on that in #2, but first a stat: LinkedIn has a 100% domain rate. Which is geek speak for ‘google loves it’ so while your website may never get found unless you pile on the ad dollars into god google’s mouth, your LinkedIn content shows up on google. Which leads me to…. - Behave like a human, not a robot.
Communicate online like you would to a human in a 3-D world. You’re unlikely to walk into a room, blast off at 6:45am and 4:30pm and then lament that the room is useless. Instead you strike up a chat when you walk in the hallway. Maybe someone invites you to the conference room for a something they brought in and you go, eat, and chat for a minute. Do that sort of basic human thing on digital platforms. Especially LinkedIn. It’s a bit ‘stiff upper lip’ and business-like but more and more people are showing up with some personality. And you get noticed. Just to add to that stat up top, here’s another. 50% of internet users look for video before we buy anything. Juxtapose that onto the Google/LinkedIn sich. The more you show up on LinkedIn and act like a person. (Think well-tagged video) The more you build your interwebs creds and that’s a good thing for people if you’re looking for ways to translate the opportunities lost by not being able to be at in person events. Proactively seek out conversations on LinkedIn like you would at an event. Hint: don’t lead with here’s my solution to life’s problems for 99.99 and most convos go well. - Respond! (yes, before you run off to tell everyone about it)
Whether you’re a big shot corporate rep or a tiny, tiny business. Respond to those who engage. Quit pretending that LinkedIn is not on your phone and that you don’t jump to it every time it bleats. You probably saw that comment. And if your life is indeed meeting swamped or Ninja scheduled, then put in 2 10-minute slots to go back and actively pursue the conversation that someone continued with you. And no, ‘thank you’ is not enough. Get creative. - Repeat
And you show up and do this everyday. That’s it. And you really won’t feel that impacted by all the conferences you’re missing and sales ops that are going down the toilet.
Peace
Statistics from: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/giant-infographic-100-marketing-stats/
