SAN FRANCISCO–To turn online social media into business tools, independent sales organizations should give their communications a personal spin on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, according to panelists speaking here Sept. 22 at the Eighth Annual Western States Acquirers Association Conference.
That means transforming what begins as a business-to-business conversation into a person-to-person relationship, said Kevin Jones, president of SignaPay Ltd., an Irving, Texas-based ISO and processor.
“Don’t try to sell–connect with people,” Jones advised.
As a key element of that strategy, make the company’s executives, not the company, the brand to present to customers, he suggested.
But establishing those personalities as the company’s identity presents a challenge in the acquiring industry, Jones acknowledged. Anyone who has tried to hold a dinner conversation with a spouse about the latest developments at Visa knows the magnitude of that task, he noted.
Still, ISOs can build those executives into social media icons by applying the four “C’s” of brand-building–connections, content, courtesy and consistency, suggested panelist Peggy Olson, a principal at Strategic Marketing, a Phoenix-based consultancy.
ISOs may form connections through social media by posting company and personal profiles of executives, said Olson. Connections also occur when ISOs link with friends on social media or join acquiring-industry social media groups, she said.
But ISOs should exercise care when posting social-media content, Olson said. Boring tweets and posts will gain few converts, she noted.
Visitors tend to frequent sites and click on links they find interesting. Content benefits from cross-pollination, which ISOs can achieve by combining two or three social media sites in a single well-planned approach to customers, Olson said. That can energize a company’s message by increasing its prominence in searches, she said.
Courtesy is important in every social media endeavor, and ISOs should strive for consistency by creating repeated brand impressions in social media, Olson said. Customers need about seven encounters for a company or its executives to establish credibility, she said.
Executives also can build brand identity by establishing thought leadership through social media, Jones said.
Noting the example of Adam Atlas, a lawyer specializing in payments-industry issues, Jones advised ISOs to “become the expert” as part of becoming the brand and establish person-to-person communication.
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