The first thing business people need to realize about social media is it requires more socializing in person, with real live people, than previous or traditional methods of marketing.  At the point of the ‘social media spear’ is business networking and tradeshow marketing.  What is required for these efforts to be effective is what so many business people are really not comfortable with doing which is…talking.

I frequently run into young people in business today who have done an outstanding job in their obtaining their formal education and have achieved very high marks in their field of expertise.  However, many of them have no formal presentation skills or in other words…just don’t know how to talk to people in person.

Yes, verbal communication is becoming a lost skill.  Twitter and Facebook posting has, in many of these lost souls minds, taken the place for the need to talk in person.  It seems from the actions of many of the newbies to the business world is they are running from talking to someone in person..especially to a group.

This is not unusual.  Everyone has that fear of looking like a fool.  So, avoiding being placed in that environment is just human nature.  However, in today’s business environment there is a huge need to be able to…talk. 

During my mentoring sessions I usually have to work on my junior execs’ and young business owners’ presentation skills.  The key focus is just to get them to talk openly to people they may not know.  It is not that they do not have anything to talk about or what they have to talk about they only have a few things to say.  Most people in business know a lot about what they are doing or what their business is doing.  They just are not comfortable in talking to live people.  You put a iPhone in front of them or sit them in front of a monitor and they can express themselves very, very well in writing.  they just were never forced into talking to live people.

I work on getting them comfortable.  Once I get them comfortable in their appearance and how they carry themselves I then work on their nerves.  What I have found is the most effective tool for the beginners to use to calm down while standing and talking to even one person is to place something in their hand, that looks natural to have in your hand, when talking to someone in a social environment.

So, as part of my evaluation report I ask my mentee if they have a membership with CostCo or Sam’s Club.  Yes, that does produce an unusual reaction which is in part due to me being an unusual mentor.

Once I get my answer I explain why they will need a membership at CostCo or Sam’s Club in order to improve their social media. It is simple.  I advice them they will be going through cases of 8 or 12 oz bottles of water and the membership to these discount clubs will cut down on the costs of those bottles of water.

I advise them whenever they step out to an event, gathering, TweetUp, MeetUp and tradeshow conference to network to take with them a couple of bottles of water.  They should have one in their hand ..left hand so they can shake hands with the right hand..at all times. 

The bottle of water keeps they guys from shoving their hands in their pockets and for the women, it gives them something to do with their hands.   It also provides for the basic function of keeping them hydrated for all the talking they are going to do.

More importantly, the bottle of water serves as a timer.  I teach them the fine art of ‘conversational timing’ that requires them to listen more than they talk and when they talk to focus the talk into asking questions about whatever it was they heard.  The bottle of water serves as an effective listening tool since the action of taking a drink stops them from talking too much.

Social Media is now becoming very mainstream.  Business people are not going to be able to sit behind this monitor or wadded up in a chair at Starbucks with a smartphone and Tweet themselves to success.  The time has come in the business world to build trust and the first fundamental way to building trust is to let others see that you are a real person followed real quickly with talking to people directly. 

With the amount of talking these business people are going to have to do to quickly to build trust..well, they will need that CostCo or Sam’s Club membership to load up on a lot of bottle water because they have a lot of talking to do. 

Let me know how I can help