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Social Media –
A Powerful Referral Tool
by Carol Verret & uRefer November 2010 Social media networks provide a powerful but
underutilized
tool to obtain referrals to new prospects. Each person we ask for a
referral
has their own social media networks with hundreds (sometimes thousands)
all of
whom are your prospects. If each one of
your customers posted one positive message about your company on
Facebook,
Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts- imagine how many prospects you would
reach. As the contact to closing ratio
from referrals is over 50%, imagine how many leads could be generated! Finding Advocates:
Our social media networks are populated by contacts that think well of
us and
are willing to introduce us to their networks, especially if care has
been
given to Friend/Fan and network building. The
strategy for building these Friend/Fan and contact
networks should
be well thought out and include influencers as well as potential
prospects. These should be contacts that
want to hear
from us and value what we have to say. Discussion groups can also provide a network
of Power
Partners that can assist us in locating the prospects that we want to
reach
through a referral and allow us to obtain information about prospects
for which
we need the right contact. Case study:
A LinkedIn member has indentified a prospect
in market that they want present a new meeting package to. A quick
search of
their contacts has identified a contact in their network in the same
market
that might know the person they should contact at this prospect’s
organization. The LinkedIn in member
sends an In Mail to their contact outlining what they want to talk to
this
prospect about and could the contact refer them to the right person. Not only was the contact willing to do that
referral
but liked the offer so much that they too booked the package! Discussion groups on LinkedIn can also be
used to obtain
contact information. If the prospect has
commonality with members of the particular discussion group, a request
to
provide a referral to the appropriate contact can be posted on the
group or
sent to certain members of the group if they are in the network. Empowering and Rewarding your Contacts to
Make Referrals:
The above case study exhibited a one on one referral but imagine what
happens
when an advocate/referral partner makes a referral by posting on their
FaceBook
wall. Now, any one of their friends can
see their message and the great new deal you’re offering. Let’s
say that
10 of their friends accept his referral. Not
only did you just get 10 new ‘hand raised’
leads but the message still will have been seen by all of your
advocate’s other
friends that get the updates. That’s powerful branding! uRefer makes the process of requesting
referrals through
social networks systematic and trackable. For
example, an
Advocate posting on a social networking site can choose anyone of the
250+
sites supported by uRefer- but the most commonly used sites are
FaceBook,
Twitter and LinkedIn. When someone makes a referral through
FaceBook (for
example) this is how it works: Advocates are signed into their own page
where
they can make a mass-referral by posting to their wall. When any one of
their
friends sees and clicks on the referral link they post, the client
company
knows who made the referral, and that one of the prospects they
referred has
come in as a lead. With
this ability to track referrals, now you have an opportunity to offer
advocates
rewards for telling their networks about you. This will dramatically
increase
the number of people you have out there making referrals. Every time
one of
your advocates “friends” clicks on the link they posted, the lead goes
back to
your company, and if that “friend” becomes a new customer, you know who
to
thank! Advocates who to make an "online" referral, can do so in a variety of ways:
About uRefer™ Referrals are the best leads and the advocates who make those referrals are an organization’s greatest asset. uRefer’s mission is to transform more of our client’s customers and partners into advocates, creating a powerful “commission only” sales network that consistently refers high quality leads. uRefer provides clients with the technology to: Acquire a powerful network of brand advocates; Motivate advocates making referrals to more people, more often; empowering their advocates with tools that make referring quick and easy; manage their relationship with advocates to optimize performance. For more information, please visit www.urefer.com  About
CVCT Carol Verret and Associates Consulting and Training offers training services and consulting in the areas of sales, revenue management and customer service primarily but not exclusively to the hospitality industry. To find out more about the company click on www.carolverret.net. To contact Carol send her an email at [email protected] or she can be reached by cell phone (303) 618-4065. Visit www.hotelsalesblog.com |
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