CHAPTER 13

FACEBOOK, GOOGLE +, AND ONLINE COMMUNITIES

Targeting Your Social Customer Base

Given the amount of media attention that both Twitter and LinkedIn receive, you might think they were the only social networking sites that matter to your business, or to your prospective customers. But when it comes to consumer preferences, you may be surprised to discover which social media entities carry the most weight when it comes to buying behaviors. According to research from Technorati Media, Facebook and blogs are most likely to influence a consumer's purchase, with retail (shopping) sites and brand sites considered to be the most influential.¹ Consumers consider blogs, which are also part of the social networking landscape, to be among the top five most influential and trustworthy of all online resources.

It's not only about trust—size and popularity matter to consumers, too. And that's where Facebook and Google + really shine. Not only are they the largest of the social media sites, but consumers rank them as two of the top three most popular of all platforms to use, with YouTube rounding out the list. As you might expect, being able to find and engage with your prospects on any of these sites can go a long way in helping to keep your sales pipeline fed.

From the sheer number of active users to wielding influence over buyers, there are lots of reasons that make Facebook, Google +, blogs, and other online communities beneficial to your social selling strategy. This chapter takes a closer look at each of these platforms, along with the specific steps you can take to further your prospecting goals.

USING YOUR PERSONAL FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

Given it was one of the very first social networking sites, and is still the largest by far, you may wonder why Facebook is lumped in with other social media instead of getting its own chapter. When it comes to social selling, there are some factors that make it potentially less appealing than sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter. The most notable of these is that selling through Facebook is better achieved with a brand leading the effort, rather than an individual. That's because the social media site is designed to connect you to friends and family—and not to strangers. Brand pages, however, were developed to allow companies to connect with a much wider network of fans, even if there's no other type of personal relationship. This means that you really need to use your company page to be most effective, although as a salesperson or marketer you can still use your personal Facebook profile to assist and further the social goals of the brand.

While much of the activity on Facebook will revolve around your company page, there are some ways in which you can still use your personal page as part of your social selling strategy. These include:

• “Like” other company pages: You may want to Like industry-related pages, competitors’ pages, and customers’ (or prospective customers) pages. This allows updates to potentially show up in your personal newsfeed so you can keep up with the latest information from these organizations, which may be useful to you in the sales process.
• Become a friend or subscriber: When appropriate, you may also want to use your personal Facebook account to become friends with vendors, customers, and others. Or, you may want to subscribe to (or follow) personal pages of industry analysts and journalists. These are other ways to stay connected to important or influential contacts. You can use connections through social networks like Facebook to glean helpful information that may even point to certain triggers in the buying process.
• Comment and get noticed: By actively posting comments or replies to updates from other brands’ pages (including those in your industry or of your customers), and by sharing others’ posts on your own Facebook page, you remain more visible. Keep in mind that Facebook updates and their comment threads can potentially show up in the news streams of many fans or followers, as well as their friends’ newsfeeds, casting a wide net of exposure when you comment and share updates.
• Update your “About” section: Make sure your personal Facebook profile indicates your current professional position and where you work. It doesn't do a lot of good to get exposure in other people's feeds if they aren't able to tell where you work or what you do. When you share or comment on an update in Facebook and it shows up on someone's newsfeed, the reader is able to hover over your name or profile picture to learn more about you. A small pop-up box appears, like the one shown in Figure 13–1. Whatever information is the first to appear in the About section of your personal profile will also show up in this pop-up box. For instance, if you only complete the sections about what college you attended or where you live, then one of those items will appear next to your name, instead of details about where you work.

  FIGURE 13-1

  

  Information from the About section of your Facebook page is visible in newsfeeds.

  In the About section of your profile, the Work and Education information will show up first, so keep this updated with your current position and company name, as well as your company website address. While Facebook is centered on lots of personal information, this is the place where you can tout professional information that will be potentially seen by many others, especially those who may be in need of your product or service.

• Share company updates: One way to help your company get more organic exposure in Facebook is to share and comment on updates made on your company page. For clarification, “share” is an option you have on a Facebook post allowing you to repost it on your own timeline (or Facebook page), a friend's timeline, or in a group, on another Facebook page you manage, or even in a private message sent via Facebook. The more people within an organization who can share updates, the more likely this information is to show up organically in others’ newsfeeds. Even if you are not an admin for your company Facebook page, you can still be very active on the page and help increase its ability to be seen by others. (An “admin” is someone specifically authorized to own a Facebook page and make changes to it; but usually anyone can share or comment or Like a post that appears on the company page.)

When using your personal Facebook page as part of your professional initiatives, there are a couple of important points to keep in mind. First, remember that Facebook was the platform designed to highlight and share your life with friends and family, and that your page is likely to be filled with very personal information and photos and typically promotes a much more casual tone and lighthearted exchange of conversation (such as, “Wow! I guess what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas! LOL!”), especially when compared to a site like LinkedIn. Because of the more informal approach of Facebook, it is critical to do the following when using your personal profile in your professional networking efforts:

• Use privacy settings to control what information and pictures are visible to the public.
• Choose to use profile pictures that are somewhat less formal but are not lewd or offensive and that show you clearly (avoid using profile pictures of your family pets, children, or other icons or images that do not include you—this is not the place for the dramatic sunset on the beach).
• Use a more casual tone when interacting, but steer clear of using offensive language or slang.
• Avoid making derogatory or potentially inflammatory comments, especially about your work—or your competitors.
• Share positive, helpful public updates, as they typically receive better feedback and engagement, and are more likely to be shared.

Also, when using Facebook for social selling purposes, it is more difficult for your brand to get high levels of engagement through organic (non-paid) interactions. Paid advertising is often the way you gain your biggest reach on Facebook—and that, too, must be coordinated from your company's page by a page administrator (which you may or may not be for your company).

Though advertising costs are considerably less on this platform than other traditional mediums and can help you target your prospects, it still requires a steady expenditure of your marketing funds. This isn't to say that you cannot achieve low- or no-cost results on Facebook, it's just harder, especially from your viewpoint as an individual salesperson.

USING A COMPANY FACEBOOK PAGE TO TURN FANS INTO CUSTOMERS

Facebook has been one of the first social media sites to aggressively offer businesses the opportunity to monetize the social experience, banking on its ability to provide highly targeted access to its expansive number of monthly active users (over 750 million of them at last count).² That makes it a natural place for you to reach prospects, especially if you are selling into the B2C market, where there seems to have been the most documented success. For example, Aria Resort and Casino of Las Vegas has seen a tremendous response to their social selling efforts on Facebook.³ The company uses a strategy that combines both organic and paid efforts to convert fans into paying customers.

Here's their story. On an ongoing basis, Aria posts frequent updates to their Facebook page in an effort to connect with their fans. But as part of a specific social campaign, they also began posting updates about a special Facebook offer for a $110 credit to their casino and VIP access to a club. Aria then paid to promote, or “boost,” one of the posts that described the offer. Boosting a post in Facebook is as simple as checking a box and setting a budget, as shown in Figure 13–2. A post that you boost ensures you get more exposure in the feeds on your fans’ pages and in the feeds of the friends of your fans.

FIGURE 13–2

Gain more visibility in newsfeeds by promoting a status update on your brand page.

The budget is a matter of how much you want to spend to promote or “boost” a particular post. Facebook will automatically put a default maximum budget amount, but you can change it to reflect the maximum amount you want to spend. When you put in a maximum amount, Facebook will show you an estimate of how many people will see your post for that amount of money. For example, a maximum amount of $30 may mean that between 1,500 and 3,500 people see your post. Facebook will continue to promote your post until all of your budget is used or until you manually stop the effort.

This type of investment for a social campaign is important for a couple of reasons. Facebook uses an algorithm to determine when and how a brand's update should be displayed in a fan's newsfeed—so just because you post an update it doesn't mean every one of your fans will see it. Paying to promote the post is more of a guarantee that your update is seen.

Keep in mind that Facebook says 40 percent of its users’ time is spent within their newsfeeds. And they estimate that a user is 40 to 150 times more likely to engage with content from a brand if it appears in the fan's newsfeed versus seen directly on the brand's page. The moral of this story is that the more of your updates that show up in newsfeeds, the more likely you are to get results. For Aria, their decision to expand their organic efforts and pay for Facebook advertising to increase their ability to appear in fans’ newsfeeds netted them a return on investment of 485 percent and an increase of 25,000 new fans on the brand's page.

When considering your own goals in social selling through Facebook, what results in equal success? For Aria, they obviously had an offer or limited-time deal that they wanted fans to purchase as part of a specific promotional campaign. But you may not always have a product or offer, or that strategy might be better suited for a B2C brand and not a B2B brand. As you think about your objectives, remember that the foundation of successful social selling is based on your ability to build relationships with prospective customers and have positive interactions over time—interactions that build trust and eventually help transition that prospect to a customer. Doing this on Facebook begins by increasing your number of fans.

Building the fan base of your brand page is easy to measure and a simple way to show your progress in social media. It also helps increase your reach into the social network. Facebook statistics indicate that a brand with 500,000 Likes (or fans) has the potential exposure to an additional 40 million friends of fans. Additionally, Facebook stats show that 51 percent of users are more likely to make a purchase from a brand after Liking their page.

While Aria, with its increased number of fans and offers purchased, is an example of the fantastic results you can achieve with a B2C audience, don't rule out the potential to achieve similar results with B2B customers on Facebook. After all, even though you are selling to businesses, you are ultimately interacting with individual decision makers, many of whom are on this platform!

One of the best examples of a company successfully using Facebook to reach its B2B audience is American Express Open, which targeted their credit cards to small business owners. The company launched a brilliant campaign on Facebook, called Small Business Saturday, that was designed to get consumers to support small businesses by shopping at their local businesses, particularly on one designated Saturday (on the Thanksgiving weekend, following Black Friday). American Express offered downloadable marketing materials to businesses to help them promote the “shop local” campaign in their city and provided similar social sharing icons for consumers to share with their friends on Facebook so they could support the cause and help spread the message.

In its third year of the campaign (in the fall of 2012), American Express reported that consumers spent $5.5 billion with small businesses on Small Business Saturday and that general public awareness of the campaign hit an all-time high of 67 percent.⁴ The American Express Small Business Saturday Facebook page also boasts over 32 million Likes—and continues growing, daily. The annual campaign targets the average consumer (or customer of small businesses)—many of which are on Facebook; and it targets the many small business owners (direct customers of American Express) who are also on Facebook. The social selling campaign works for many reasons:

• It provides a cause that appeals to a wide audience.
• It offers something helpful to its prospects—in this case it is the free marketing materials that small businesses can print out and use to promote the event.
• It provides social sharing buttons, icons, and other virtual promotional material that makes it easy for Facebook users to share with their friends.
• It encourages fan engagement with regular updates or Facebook posts that are helpful, entertaining, and inspiring.
• It integrates online social strategies with offline marketing efforts.

Although you may not reach the levels of American Express, there are a number of basic elements that you can use when developing any social selling campaign. In fact, Facebook encourages you to follow five basic steps to find success for your business:

1. Build your business page: Get the most from your page by completing all areas of the page and the About section, and using your logo and memorable images for the cover photo. (This is, of course, separate from your personal Facebook page.)

   If you are a marketer, your team is likely responsible for creating and maintaining your organization's business page. As a manager or “admin” of the Facebook page, your goals should include keeping the page updated with interesting and helpful information.

   And if you are a salesperson, you're probably not going to have much (or any!) involvement with creating or managing a business page. If you are an independent salesperson, however, or work with a very small organization with limited marketing resources, you may need to spearhead the effort to start and maintain the company's Facebook page.

2. Connect with people: In addition to encouraging existing customers to Like your page, you can use inexpensive Facebook ads to target prospective customers and grow your fan base.
3. Engage your audience: Increase brand awareness and loyalty by interacting with fans on your page and by posting quality content frequently. Use contests, polls, open-ended questions, and video and pictures to encourage positive interactions. As a point of interest, the use of photos in your updates usually get 100 percent more engagement and the use of videos get 120 percent more engagement.
4. Influence friends of fans: To increase your exposure to prospective customers, encourage existing fans to share your content on their personal page by Liking, commenting on, or sharing your page updates. You can also use paid advertising, including:

   •  Placing ads that appear in the sidebar of fans’ personal profiles.

   •  Promoting your posts to increase visibility in newsfeeds.

   • Creating an offer with a promotional code or link that can be redeemed within Facebook or through your website that allows fans to share with their friends when they redeem the offer.

   According to Facebook statistics, 80 percent of people are more likely to “try new things” if friends suggest it on social media.

5. Measure progress: Facebook offers built-in tools for your brand page. Ads Manager lets you measure the results of ad campaigns and expenditures, and Page Insights provides detailed information about the number of your page Likes, the demographics of your fans, and which page updates get the most interaction and engagement from your fans.

Following these five steps is a good guideline for creating your overall Facebook social selling strategy or for developing specific social campaigns using both organic and paid initiatives. And even though these actions are specific to your brand's page, remember that you can use your personal profile to comment on and share updates as a way to help increase the reach or exposure your brand has on Facebook.

GOOGLE +: TURNING CIRCLES INTO OPPORTUNITIES

While Facebook is recognized as an established, viable social networking site, that's not necessarily the case with its fast-rising competitor. In fact, all bets are still on the table when it comes to the role Google + has in social selling, as well as in social media in general. Even considering that it is still not clear how much you get from Facebook without paying to play, there is equal if not greater uncertainty about whether there is any type of value gained through Google+. Some skeptics already view the search engine giant's attempt to create a viable social networking hub as a failed experiment. Others simply think it's just a social networking shell made up of numerous but inactive users spawned by some level of early adopter excitement that never caught on. Now for the good news: For as many naysayers that exist, there are easily twice as many proponents (myself included) who see Google + as having significant potential for connecting with prospects and customers, particularly for companies providing technology-related solutions in the B2B market.

One reason for the support of Google+ is the sheer number of users. As of early 2013, Google+ had amassed 359 million active users, according to GlobalWebIndex, an Internet analytics company.⁵ While that number is just more than half of Facebook's claim of over 750 million active monthly users, it still lets Google+ glide past Twitter and lay claim to the title of the number two social networking site.

Another benefit to Google+, especially when compared to Facebook and LinkedIn, is the ability for you to connect to people you don't already know and to interact with them simply based on common interests. Instead of friends or fans, Google+ is based on “circles” that allow you to connect with lots of other users and then classify them in these virtual networking circles structured around how you know them (coworkers, friends, customers, prospects, influencers, and so on). As you might expect, the ability to openly connect with potentially millions of contacts and then segment those connections for further, targeted engagement are real benefits in the world of social selling.

A third, somewhat controversial but extremely advantageous benefit of the social networking site is its influence in Google's search engine results. Some think because Google wants you to adopt and use its social network (over others), it is rewarding you by integrating more of your social activity on Google+ into general search results. In other words, the more you participate on Google+, the more likely it is that you or your brand is going to show up in response to search queries on Google. Given that Google currently dominates the search engine market, if your social media activity ranks higher in search results and makes it easier for prospective customers to find you, that benefit alone, many industry experts say, could make it worth the investment of your time.

So, is Google+ right for you? As part of creating your social selling strategy, and as discussed in Chapter 10, it's implausible to think you can successfully participate in all of the top social networking sites. Instead, you are better off targeting a few sites—those places where you know your prospects are spending their time and where you are most likely to see results. Google+ is one of the social media platforms where your target audience may not be all that engaged, yet. So, you may not end up spending a lot of time there. But Google+ is still a good place for you to establish a presence, both personally and for your brand, for all the reasons I mentioned.

The easiest way to get started is by setting up a profile. Similar to other social networking profiles, a Google+ profile, like the example shown in Figure 13–3, lets you use images and text to provide details about you and your business. Having a profile in Google+ for you or your business ensures that no one else can use your name (or your company's name) within the social networking site. For instance, I have a profile for “Shannon Belew” and one for the “Art of Social Selling.” That means no one else can use either of those names.

FIGURE 13–3

Use images and text to make the cover of your Google+ profile more inviting.

Another advantage of having a Google+ profile is that you can connect your Google+ profile to your website and other social media profiles, increasing your exposure to prospective customers and helping your content be seen by a wider audience. One way of increasing exposure is through the use of the “g + share” button and the “ + 1” designation (the Google equivalent of a Like). For any content that you post, someone else can validate it as useful or liked simply by clicking the button to share it on their Google+ profile. When others see the content, they can click the “+1” icon to like and share the content from within Google+. As you might expect, the + 1 is an increasingly important designation since it increases the visibility and reach of a piece of content. Of course, the use of Google+ may potentially help you show up in Google search engine results for related keyword searches. If you are a local business (as opposed to a national brand), getting the improved search result rankings may also make it easier for local prospective customers to find you or your business.

Although Google+ has grown tremendously since it first launched in 2011, both Google and the site's registered users are still deciding all the best possible ways to maximize the social experience. As the site continues to evolve, there are still very specific ways you can incorporate Google+ into your social selling strategy, including the following:

• Expand your circles: Find people you know on Google+ and invite them to connect. This includes everyone from coworkers and friends to prospects and strategic partners. Google+ has a feature that makes it easy to find contacts from your email database who already have Google+ profiles.
• Find influencers: Because it is easy to connect with strangers, use this opportunity to find and follow industry analysts, journalists, and other influential people in your industry.
• Engage: Post updates to your profile and comment “+ 1,” and share updates from others in your circles.
• Give + 1: Outside of Google+ you can still give (or get) + 1 on content found on blogs and other websites; this is another way to create positive interactions with others, get noticed, and help build your social reputation in and outside of Google+.
• Participate in communities: A relatively new feature in Google+, communities are like forums or LinkedIn groups, which are formed around certain topics or interests. Joining a community that is focused on some type of event or topic specific to your industry is an easy way to identify and meet other Google+ members, as well as potential prospects. If you have the time to stay active enough, you can even start your own community!
• Participate in “Hangouts”: Google+ created the ability to hold or join a virtual discussion or a video broadcast in a format referred to as a Google+ Hangout. You can use it as you would a webinar, or you can have a small online meeting via video for up to ten people. And when you stream a live Hangout event, you have the added advantage of having it appear on Google+, your website, and YouTube. Plus, a recorded version automatically posts to YouTube at the end. Hosting or participating in a Hangout is a great way to connect with prospects or influencers and progress into a higher level of engagement within the sales cycle.
• Take advantage of “Google Authorship”: When you have a Google+ profile, you can establish what's referred to as “Google Authorship.” Basically, this is a feature of Google that allows you to enter information about blogs and websites where you post articles, and then Google attaches your author bio and photo to the articles you publish. The benefit of this is that it is another way to help you show up in Google search results. In addition, your photo is included, which makes the link to your content even more visible. It's another way to establish yourself as a credible resource in your field of expertise and make it easier to find you and your published articles.

SPREADING YOUR MESSAGE ON BLOGS AND ONLINE COMMUNITIES

The ability to connect with a highly targeted audience based on similar interests is not unique to Google+. There are actually lots of other community gathering spots where you can find and reach out to your existing and prospective customers. You may not think of blogs, forums, and other community-centric sites as social media sites, but they often prove to be important components of any social selling strategy. Blogs and communities are important because:

• Active, engaged users congregate there.
• It's easy to identify your specific customer base and prospects.
• Users are openly looking for solutions to problems and for product recommendations.
• Loyal customers can be found participating and providing unsolicited testimonials.
• They are often less crowded, so it's easier for your voice to be heard (or comments to be seen).
• Participating means goodwill for your brand (when addressing support issues/concerns).
• Contributing helps establish you as an expert or helpful resource.

What's the difference between each of these online entities? Blogs are basically websites that contain frequent posts (articles, photos, short quips) by one or more contributors or authors, and the information is often based on a particular topic or theme. They can be incredibly helpful to any social prospecting strategy, as blogs are considered the third most influential online resource for consumers looking to make a purchase, according to Technorati Media.⁶ It's highly likely that your company already maintains a blog as part of its corporate website. You may even have a blog that you use for either personal or professional reasons. Whether you are contributing content to one of your blogs or you are interacting with and commenting on other blogs, these activities really pay off—especially when you make a habit of consistent and frequent participation. Here are some specific actions you can take to include blogs in your social selling activities:

• Identify public blogs where your customers and target prospects congregate.
• Follow the blogs or add them to your RSS feed so that you are notified when new content is published.
• Comment on articles and respond to other contributors’ comments when appropriate.
• When commenting, try to avoid making a sales pitch and instead offer to provide advice, but be upfront that you are a salesperson or represent a particular company.
• Provide links to additional resources when responding to comments or questions, if the blog permits it.
• Contribute articles or guest posts for other blogs, when possible.
• If your company has a blog on its website, offer to contribute articles at least once a month.
• Always include a byline (recognition that you are the author of the article) with contact information.
• When possible, include an About the Author section at the end of the article with a couple of sentences about you (tie this in to your Google+ Authorship, as discussed earlier).
• Use your social media profiles, like your Twitter handle, and ask readers to follow you (readers may not want or be ready to contact you but they are often willing to follow you on social media).

To make the most of the above activities and stay on track, it's helpful to make them part of your daily routine. Participating for thirty minutes every day is often plenty of time to dedicate to blogging, especially if you schedule it during your less busy times—early in the morning, during lunch, or between sales calls. Contributing articles can take a little extra time. As a salesperson, if you are not comfortable writing an article for a blog, you can sometimes partner with someone in marketing and ask them to ghost-write the post for you, which means they write the article but let you take credit publicly as the author. This is standard practice, so don't hesitate to ask about it!

Like blogs, online communities and forums provide a home base for people who share a specific cause or interest. Communities provide a mix of information—such as articles specific to the community topic or helpful resources for problem solving around the community topic—or you can solicit advice from other community members. Inbound.org is an example of an online community specifically for inbound marketers. It is filled with articles, tools, and helpful advice about inbound marketing. The site also highlights its most influential members, which is a trait common to other online communities, as well. And even though it's a niche topic, this particular community averages about 45,000 visits per month!

Though you might think bigger is better when it comes to online communities, it's not always the largest or most popular sites that are necessarily the most effective. According to the 2013 Digital Influencer Report, 54 percent of consumers thought that “the smaller the community, the greater the influence.”⁷ Perhaps this viewpoint relates back to the issue of trust. Often, smaller online communities allow for more interaction among their members. There is also more opportunity for top influencers to build their credibility and become well known among community members; this intimacy breeds trust and authority.

As a salesperson who is active in a forum, group, or other community, you have the ability to be seen as a go-to resource for information and to become a trusted influencer, provided you contribute and engage frequently. Online community members are typically very active, and they are protective of the community. Active members don't always appreciate the occasional drop-in commenter, especially one who is obviously there to try and sell something. However, they are typically very supportive of and willing to listen to other community members who are:

• Frequent participants.
• Providers of interesting and helpful information or comments.
• Respectful of other members and their comments.
• Sincere and willing to help.

You often find that an online community has its own distinct “personality.” Once you understand this personality, it becomes easier to contribute and engage. In my industry, there are lots of technology-based online communities that are centered on a specific type of technology or user profile (IT professional or small business executive, for instance). One example of a community that I've found particularly exciting in the B2B technology space is Spiceworks. The growing online community is made up of primarily IT professionals and is divided into smaller sets of niche technology topics, which makes it easy to engage with members who share a very specific interest. (In my case, that happens to be an interest in Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies, Unified Communications solutions, and the Asterisk Open Source telephony platform. By the way, those are all industry terms and products related to a more generic term—business phone systems!) While the community has specific guidelines on how you, as a salesperson or a company, can promote your products, it's a great site for interacting with both existing customers and prospects. It's also a great way for both salesperson and marketers to discover firsthand what types of problems members are trying to solve and how they have used various (and sometimes competing) technologies within their organizations.

But to be successful in Spiceworks and communities like it, you have to participate on a regular basis and build the trust of other members that you have interesting and helpful information to contribute. Because Spiceworks is made up of IT professionals, the community does have a very specific personality based on its savvy, technical users. As a contributor, you often have to be sure that the information you contribute is high level and technically specific when discussing a particular product or solution.

Whether you are selling into a B2B technology market or a C2C clothing market, there's an online community filled with your target customers who are receptive to you interacting with them—on their terms.

Many of the activities that are recommended for you to do for blogs also apply to online communities. However, here are some additional actions you can take to make the most of participating in online communities:

• Create a profile (or register) on each online community and, when possible, tie your profile back to one or more of your other social media profiles (such as Google+).
• Respond to comments and questions quickly (unlike blogs, the conversation in communities often flows at a very rapid pace and the sooner you engage, the better).
• Use the on-site search function to find specific conversations about your products, services, or industry-specific terms.
• Contribute often with meaningful comments. (Many online communities reward or highlight the most active or helpful members; this is a good way to be seen by prospective customers and establish your credibility.)
• Thank other members for their comments or questions. (This simple form of recognition goes a long way in tight-knit communities.)
• Start a conversation thread by posting interesting questions or useful polls; these are likely to elicit responses—and lead to your ultimate goal: positive interactions.
• Share current industry news and other interesting updates as a way to get other members engaged in a conversation.
• Respond to customer concerns and negative comments (You may run across complaints from existing customers or negative comments from competitors. Don't ignore these comments; address them and try to move the conversation offline to email or customer support, when feasible.)
• Consider sponsoring an online community. (Some communities allow brands to sponsor certain sections or topics within the community, which is a good way to make your brand more visible to community members; sponsorship can sometimes provide additional community privileges specific to the lead gen or sales process.)
• Participate in off-site community events. (Online communities typically offer small, offline networking events in various cities. This is a fantastic way to extend the online relationships you've already made and meet potential new prospects.)

The truth of the matter is there are hundreds of thousands of online communities, blogs, and forums where you can participate—and there are lots of options for how you participate. But you might also want to make time for a few other social networks. In the next chapter, you will learn how to take advantage of some visually based social media sites, including YouTube and Pinterest—both of which continue to grow at phenomenal rates.