If Dave Kerpen is one thing, it's “likeable.” After all, how can you not like a guy who convinced the the Brooklyn Cyclones, (the New York Mets's single A affiliate baseball team) to host his wedding?
Another reason Dave is likeable is that he took time from an increasingly busy schedule to talk with me and my listeners about being likeable, which happens to be the title of his new book Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (And Other Social Networks)
To listen to my 30-minute interview with Dave, and to put his insights to work in your business now, scroll to the bottom of this page and click the play arrow. If you don't feel like listening right now, here is a high level summary of what Dave and I discussed, with time stamps in case you want to scroll forward.
- How to get more LIKEs (4:03). The first place (and the best place) to go to generate LIKEs at your FaceBook Page is your current customers, vendors, staff members and friends. As they LIKE you, because of the way FaceBook works, their friends will see that they've LIKEd you, and this opens the door organically to more LIKEs. As you engage people, others see that engagement, and if the topic interests them, they are more likely to reward you with a LIKE, and join the fun.
- How to go from LIKE to sale (5:07). Since you can't pay your bills with LIKEs, you have to go from LIKE to sale with some portion of your LIKErs, or else, the whole FaceBook Page thing becomes a waste of time. Dave says the first step is to realize that going from LIKE to sale on FaceBook is a longer sales funnel than we experience in a traditional marketing setting. The flow is as follows
Start with a LIKE
Then move to an engaged LIKE
Then an educated and Engaged LIKE
Then a saleIf you have engaged people, over time, when they need what you have to offer, they will think of you. Because you've opened the door with active and consistent engagement, you will have the opportunity to generate that sale.
- Plan and invest your time wisely (6:50). Dave suggests investing a minimum of 30 minutes a day on your social media marketing, and also using services like HootSuite to plan and schedule some of it in advance. This helps you avoid being chained to your computer so you can run your business. Of course, Dave acknowledges that this takes quite a bit of time, so listen to the podcast for more specific tips.
As you listen, be sure to catch the part at 22:00 where Dave shares examples of how his company uses FaceBook ads to generate engagement and sales leads, including a suggestion for handmade soap companies. And don't miss the part starting at 22:56 when Dave shares other super ideas to help handmade businesses attract new customers!
About Dave Kerpen
Dave is the co-founder and CEO of Likeable Media, an award-winning social media and word-of-mouth marketing firm with triple digit revenue growth for 4 consecutive years. He has been featured on CNBC’s “On the Money”, ABC World News Tonight, the CBS Early Show, the New York Times, and countless blogs. Follow Dave on Twitter here, and check out his website here.
How to Listen to the Show
This post contains my paraphrases of the information Dave shared. To hear it from the horse's mouth yourself, listen to the entire 30-minute show using one of these options:
- Download it on iTunes. (It usually takes a day or two for iTunes to feed the show there.)
- Click on the arrow at the bottom of this post to listen now!
- Because I have not had a chance to load all of my shows to this blog, you can listen to hundreds of interviews from 2005 to 2010, each one as relevant today as it was when I recorded it, at my Indie Business Radio site.
Question: What do you think of Dave's tips? Do you feel more likeable already?
