How to win friends and influence people in Social Media Recruitment.
Dale Carnegie’s seminal self help book “How to win friends and influence people” was written 76 years ago and it continues to be as popular and practiced now as it ever has been.
Top salespeople, CEOs and Politicians continue to refer to this book. Why?
Quite simply the book’s teachings are incredibly easy to understand/adopt and are universal. They can be applied to every human interactive situation. Nearly everyone who reads it can, and most likely will, be able to apply the teachings to their personal /work life.
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In a field as notoriously misunderstood as Social Media it’s time we went back to the basics of human interaction. Let us adopt basic principles of how to treat people in order to benefit ourselves. This makes far more sense than treating Social Media as something unique or removed from reality.
In keeping with the theme of simplicity let’s briefly look at one area of the book and see how we can apply this to Social Media.
Ways to Make People Like You
One of the main objectives of social media from a business point of view is to encourage stakeholders to have a favourable impression of you.
So how do you get people, customers, and clients to like you and/or your company? Let’s look at Carnegie’s principles and apply them to social media. We’ll refer to your stakeholders as XYZ
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
This applies in the course of human interaction in a social or business perspective and the same is true in Social Media. Carnegie notes how people like to feel they’re an expert and generally like to help. If you can facilitate this feeling in them then, in turn, they will feel favourably towards you
Twitter: Follow XYZ. Respond to XZY’s tweets with interest or retweet their tweets.
Facebook: There is a ‘like’ function –so ‘like’ XYZ. Send messages and questions to XYZ, seek their ‘expert’ advice.
Linked in: Ask XYZ intelligent, relevant questions, either privately or on public discussion boards and blogs.
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”-Dale Carnegie
2. Remember that a man's name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Carnegie notes the benefits of calling XZY by name, such as reassurance and ego boosting.
Twitter: There is a mentions section on Twitter. You can not only Increase your followers by mentioning XYZ but by naming them you’re indirectly complimenting them.
e.g. “XYZ PLC have shown very positive 1st ¼ results resulting in 2p Share rise… @XYZ”
Blog: Why not mention, with permission, XYZ in a favourable light in your blogs.
3. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Social Media is not about shouting about how great you are but it is your incredible opportunity to listen to what XYZ has to say about you or your company and respond.
Twitter: Ask your followers and XYZ how they feel on certain issues. Retweet their responses and show that you have actively listened by posting you answers - even if they are difficult questions. This will gain you respect and can help create a favourable impression of you in their eyes.
Blog: Address issues that you have encountered either though meeting XYZ or though social media contact on your blogs(where appropriate). Let XYZ know you’ll be discussing them and/or their concerns etc. in your blog.
I’d advise you to read the book if you haven’t already and see what else you can apply. Adopt these points to your personal situation and as ever use common sense. For example retweeting everything that XYZ tweets is going to have the same effect as if you keep quoting someone time and time again in person. Annoying!
Good luck with using Dale Carnegie’s principles for your social media recruitment strategy.
Tom
