How to Sell with Social Media at the ISMM Selling Expo 2011
Hundreds of the UK’s top sales professionals gathered at the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management recently for the country’s only specialist event focused on selling; Morgan PR was invited to deliver a talk on ‘How to Sell with Social Media’
We heard at the very start that sales folk are no longer those with the proverbial gift of the gab, capable of charming the birds from trees are being replaced by sales people who have a genuine skill set that really can make the difference when it comes to helping people to buy.
It was adding to that skillset that saw close to 100 people attend a breakout seminar on ‘How to Sell with Social Media’ delivered by leading public relations and social media consultancy Morgan PR in the afternoon.
We were honoured to be invited to contribute after speaking earlier this year at an ISMM event in the Thames Valley are were among a powerhouse array of speakers, ranging from Michael Portillo and Alice Beer, through to Guy Browning and Andy Hanselman.
Michael Portillo is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an accomplished speaker and his anecdote about meerkats deserves to be shared. It turns out that out life in the Kalahari for a troop of the fluffy insurance icons is tough. A dominant female will chase off other females, eat their pups and see her own testosterone soar while the male meerkats around her will see theirs diminish, which gave Portillo a much better understanding of his life in the Thatcher Government!
The calibre of delegates was high with plenty of major organisations being represented and plenty of decision makers too, which hopefully made for a successful day for the exhibitors who attended the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
‘How to Sell with Social Media’ was a fast paced strategic look at how businesses should be using social media and explained how important it is to base your use of social media around a blog and then use the different channels to drive traffic back to the blog, your website and meet your business objectives – we stressed the absolute importance of have a social media strategy.
There was a respectable take up of social media in the room and while few were blogging it looked like everyone was on LinkedIn – although only two had updated LinkedIn to say they were at the ISMM event! Over half were using Twitter and most of those for business and more than that were on Facebook, but less were using it for business. Two people were on Google Plus!
We also explored some of the good practice and indeed bad practice on social media, looking at how far Dell had come since the Jeff Jarvis blog in 2005 through to their dominance today, the Nestlé farce when they tried to have a Greenpeace video removed from YouTube and then deleted negative comments on Facebook. The Habitat hashtag shambles also got a mention.
There was a great atmosphere, plenty of people taking notes and most businesses entered a prize draw where we offered half a day of PR and Social Media Consultancy and the winner has been notified and no doubt will feature in a blog post here very soon.
All those who gave their details have been sent a comprehensive email bursting with social media goodness, linking to a download of the presentation and Morgan PR’s ever popular Free Daily Social Media Checklist.
We’ve already had enquiries from some of the businesses who saw the talk and had invitations to become LinkedIn and also a request to deliver webinars for one of the exhibitors who saw the seminar.
It was great and fitting to have feedback on the social media seminar via Twitter so kudos to those who tweeted their appreciation @PaulSloane – a motivational speaker from Surrey well versed in Twitter who actually tweeted while I was wrapping up! He also tweeted that @Nigel_Morgan was one of the best speakers of the day!
Also thanks to @EmmaHicks from REED Learning who tweeted, as did @HarryTaylor – that Harry Howard from Imparta Capability Building, then there is @WarwickConf – better known as Warwick Conferences , @LongestArms and @EPP_Ltd from packaging specialists Eastern Polythene & Paper also tweeted their appreciation. As did @IqbalKanji and my thanks to you all.
Twitter Lists are a great way to manage keeping track of key accounts (and competitors) on Twitter and I’ve brought those I know are using the tool from the ISMM together on this ISMM Twitter List. If you are on Twitter and click this you can see all the tweets from people on this list and exclude any others. Clever eh?
And also of course to fellow social media evangelist @SeanMcPheat who was one of the keynote speakers and still found time to tweet me during the event and since.
It was also great to see that Neil Wallis over at Modern Selling has already blogged his thoughts about Successful Selling and given us and plenty of others a nice mention in despatches. Already attracting comments it is the perfect illustration of the power of social media to promote your business.
If you need help with social media or understanding what a crucial part of the PR mix tools like blogging, Twitter, Facebook and of course LinkedIn truly are then do ask for help. Also if you would like Nigel Morgan to speak at your organisation or at an event please contact Morgan PR on 0845 0033 666 or via our contact Morgan PR page on this website.