September 30th, 2010 by Conrad Saam, Marketing

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UPDATE:  I just reread this post.  I wrote it while in a very cranky mood and the post is obnoxious and arrogant.  The irony is that I’m writing about having good manners, which of course, would include don’t be a jerk.  I totally missed on this point.  -Conrad

Most of this post is very obvious and therefore very boring; but the example I’m recounting is so bad (and true) its border-line humorous. I’m constantly surprised by the need for social media consultants, helping people “understand” things like Twitter and Facebook, but apparently there is a very real need to scratch this itch. The following exchange may point those of you still flummoxed by social media in the right direction:

It’s called Social Media for a reason – it’s social. And social norms that apply in real life also apply online. To wit . . . a recent painful twitter exchange I endured.  (I have replaced his real twitter address with @guy)

@ConradSaam Who do I talk to to team up to do a webinar?

At this point I have no idea who this guy is, let alone what he wants to talk about on one of our webinars.   I check LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter – no connections.  I go to direct message to privately clarify, assuming he’s a connection who has slipped my mind:

DM @guy sorry – i can’t remember who you are or what you do. What is your interest in webinars?

DM @ConradSaam I work for XXXXX, a cloud content management for legal. We have over 12 years exp in legal SaaS. Is their opps for this?

So I don’t know you at all and I’ve never heard of your company, but you want me to put our company’s reputation on the line so you can pimp your product to our audience?

DM @guy  i don’t mean to be a XXXX, but suggest you work on building a relationship with us BEFORE you ask to do a webiner. $.02

DM @conradsaam  Well that is my question, what is the process to build a relationship so that we can partner to do webinars?

Oh, I get it . . . let me pull out the Avvo Business Development Relationship Building Process Manual. . . let’s see I think its on page 27.  I’m really a nice approachable guy, I’m open to networking and learning about new products, but this just isn’t working.

(Incidentally Page 27 of the Avvo Business Development Relationship Building Process Manual is a very short chapter.  It reads:  Put some social in your Social Media.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 30th, 2010 at 3:23 pm by Conrad Saam, Marketing and is filed under Conrad Saam Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.