Many small business owners are concerned that by their clients or consumers seeing that they are not “in town” they could lose business. You do have an option to keep it private from certain groups or friends when you comment on your profile page.

Here is a screen shot of what it will look like:

Facebook Comment Privacy Option

As you start to type in your new comment you will see a deadbolt or lock icon to the bottom right of the comment bar. Click on it and then select the option: Customize. You will then see the above screen appear. Type in the friends or lists that you want to “hide” it from.

Next time you are out of town or would like for only certain friends to see your comments use the privacy section located next to your new comment.

For more tips on Facebook and how to use Social Fusion purchase the e-Book today at SOCIAL FUSION

Skinning is the process of overlaying a branded image, logo or advertisement over a social sphere or website. The majority of social spheres: Facebook, Twitter & YouTube allow you to skin their spheres. Posterous, WordPress Websites & the majority of template websites also allow for you to skin the home pages. When you skin a social sphere or website you now create a “landing page” or “portal page”.

A landing page is meant to be a modern day billboard. Rather than sending all the traffic to the free site like twitpic and advertising their website you show off your connection points and have these new consumers land on your other profiles and/or website. A landing page is limited in that it is a billboard style so that the consumer can not go directly to your other pages or spheres without opening a new window.

A portal page however, gives you that advantage. The portal page is simply defined as a skin that sends consumers to the different links and pages you want them to go- with one-click they land on a company’s product page, purchase page or even ancillary products and information. We are starting to see the BIG companies invest 6-7 figures into their social media marketing and skinning approach. Facebook business pages are a great example of skinning the sphere with a portal page. Below is a screen shot of Harley Davidson’s portal page. It can also be found at Harley-Davidson:

Harley Davidson Portal Skin

Each of these icons direct you to a new website or page on Harley Davidson’s site or an affiliate. Imagine the amount of traffic you can begin attracting to your site through a social sphere skin. Your skin must engage the consumer and one of the best ways is through icons/images that are on a portal page. Not all social spheres allow for skinning nor a portal page. GetSkinned is a company that can help you with branding your image online and creating your own landing & portal pages so that you do not lose the necessary web traffic when consumers find you online.

If you watch any TV- especially commercials 2 out of 5 will reference their Facebook Business page which is of course already skinned. I was watching TV the other day and saw a Honda Ad- at the end they referenced NOT Honda.com rather www.Facebook.com/Honda – They get it – they understand where the consumers are already communicating, shopping and dreaming. They along with hundreds of other companies are starting to embrace the modern era of advertising… Don’t be left behind. GetSkinned today…

Honda Facebook Skin

James Nellis speaking with a Top Real Estate Brokerage

Learning how to identify the target market and keep up with the accessibility of today’s consumer takes a new type of savvy business owner. It must be done through a holistic approach as you leverage your dominance in the local marketplace with a genuine “you” online.

It is fun for me as a speaker when the audience really “gets it”. They start embracing the new concepts and ways of doing marketing so they can better serve their clients and make wise decisions with their marketing dollars.

Spoken Word recently launched their in-house studios in order to provide graphic design, copy writing and print pieces for all businesses. Contact Spoken Word Seminars for more details.

Listen to what some of the Top Brokers & Agents that attended this recent event had to say about James Nellis and Social Fusion:

The Modern Day Approach to Selling

You must begin with the consumer in mind. How do you take the focus off of your company? Your Brand? What makes you money? This can be difficult for many companies. You need to start assessing what consumers are saying about your industry and gain the consensus from your target market. Most companies are not big enough to hire an outside marketing firm to do polling and research. The average cost for one project could be $20,000.00 to a research firm.

Where does this leave the small business or a larger company looking to reduce their marketing & research budget? It leaves you with an answer we found in doing our own sales. You have the opportunity to use 3 strategies to understand the mind of your consumer: Songbirds, National Research & Success Stories.

Songbirds: A songbird is a past client that “sings” your praises. They had a great experience with your sales team and are interested in seeing your company succeed. A typical songbird will have referred you other friends and coworkers because they believe in your service, company and product.

You will need to gather 5-7 Songbirds and ask them to commit to meeting 3 or 4 times a year. Your songbirds know what is important to the consumer as they were and are a consumer. They are outside of your profession so they have great outside perspective. They are your informal survey, your opportunity to poll them for your marketing campaigns, branding and your current engagement with consumers.

National Research: Many businesses fall under a larger professional group or national organization. It is crucial to “know your numbers.” By reviewing the research conducted by your national organization you gain an understanding of the trends. It is true that all companies are different and function at different levels but by seeing national trends you gain a national perspective. Many of the reports will show you where the consumers are coming from, their buying choices and buying intervals. This can be used as a basic road map for next year.

Compare your sales and consumers with the national research. Do you see the same trends? Are your consumers different? Is there a new segment of consumers you can now go after for sales?

Success Stories: The need to reinvent the wheel. When I was young in the sales arena I had the need to impress others. I wanted to show that I could create all my own systems. I could develop the best scripts. I could make the most sales doing it my way. Why? What a waste of time!!

Thankfully I finally learned it is much more simple to win in sales. The simplicity is to find the “winners” in your industry. Who is a success story? What do they do that works? What makes them different than their competition?

Now not all of your local success stories will be willing to share because you are their competition. Your best resource will be success stories in other parts of the Country that have a similar buying cycle, similar demographics and a similar niche consumer.

Find 3 top companies, 3 success stories this week. Make it your goal to get in contact with the owners and set up a phone conference call. You may not have direct access to the company owner or president so start with whoever you can talk with and begin asking questions.

Many of the successful companies will have been called/asked by others before. Some may give you the opportunity to “shadow” them for a day or come to their office and watch their sales machine in action. I have seen these companies do it for free and others that charge 5,000.00 or more a day. If your current resources do not allow for that type of expense find the 4^th success story. One principle I have learned over the years is that many of the successful people at the top love to share and give to others. No one was a complete success on their own. We as people always enjoy the ability to help others. Put yourself and your company in the position to be helped by these successful companies.

*** Stay tuned for more details on the E-BOOK entitled “Social Fusion: The Modern Day Approach to Selling”by James Nellis

The Modern Day Approach to Selling

The Modern Day Approach to Selling

INTRODUCTION:

I was raised in a family of sales. From an early age I had the opportunity to watch and see the natural sales cycle. My formal education in psychology gave me the insight to look past the basic interactions with a consumer. It instilled within me the desire to seek to understand their behavioral environment, the art of listening and to focus on how to connect with each consumer. This real connection within sales is missing from many companies.

After 15 years of dedicated sales I have learned the advantage of a holistic approach to selling. The answer is to not focus on just one segment or marketing approach but to combine it with the primary goal. I have watched the web and online tools transform the sales industry over the last 10 years and I was forced into adapting a new way of interacting with leads and the consumer. This new philosophy is Social Fusion. It is my hope that by you implementing Social Fusion in your business you will find success beyond your wildest dreams.

This book is dedicated to my family:

My Mother & Father whom continue to be true mentors and examples of selling with a foundation of faith in God. My sister & brother-in-law are inspirations of keeping the client first before the sale.  I am thankful most of all to God who has provided me this opportunity to share from a platform and honor Him. Below is a passage that has shaped my life and perspective on sales:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Every consumer that enters my office is viewed in respect to this passage. I will not sell anything to a consumer that I would not purchase if I was in their same situation. I have lost some sales as a result of this mission but it has preserved my company’s integrity and our foundation for doing business.

Chapter 1- Social Confusion:

Many companies focus only on one or two forms of media and miss the opportunity to engage with today’s consumer. In recent times we have seen the major companies begin hiring “Social Media Directors” and Brand Managers in hopes of capturing the new business. Small Business owners have also gotten involved themselves trying to utilize the online tools and networks. The issue for small business owners is time and money. Even though some of the larger organizations have the financial resources to hire positions they are still missing out on the true opportunity to engage. We have also seen many National Speakers and Trainers speak on social media and online selling. Unfortunately, the majority of them are missing the mark.

It is not the lack of resources that prevent companies from making money online it is their approach. They must begin today with a holistic philosophy for their company defined as Social Fusion.

Social Fusion is the layering of multiple forms of media to integrate with the accessibility of today’s consumer. Social Fusion begins with an emphasis on the “whole” or your overall goal as a company. How does your company mission statement correspond with your online brand? Are you marketing your company in a way to attract today’s consumer?

Each business owner or marketing department must understand how to interact with the consumer of today. Many companies are still frozen in the “Grand Marketing Era”… You remember- when big companies got bigger by throwing money at it and heavily marketing how good they were and how elite their product was that you as the consumer were lucky to purchase. During this Grand Marketing Era (GME) the focus was on the brand and on the company not the consumer. It did work, but it will no longer breed success in today’s business market. Perhaps a great example of the GME is Ford, a company that waited too long to adapt to the new consumer. Not only must you have a quality product for the consumer but you must anticipate the next generation buyer’s needs.

The consumer today has more choices. The consumer is more informed. The consumer demands more than ever before. So, what do you do? How do you become profitable and successful in today’s marketplace?

Each company must focus on the 3 basics of Social Fusion: Consumer, Brand & Marketing. All 3 are needed to interact with each other in a layered approach to selling. You must begin with the consumer in mind. Establish a Brand that communicates with the consumer. And market in a way to interact and engage the consumer.

Begin today. Implement Social Fusion & engage today’s consumer.