My Blog is Dead …. Long Live my Blog! #SocialSelling

Published my first blog on the 25th February 2014, following that I’ve publish 65 posts.

My objective was to get read, never thought I would get some many followers, retweets and meet so many interesting people. Back then I didn’t really understand what community meant, I do now.

But the time has come to move on. Wednesday 5th August, will be the day I cut new blog and a new adventure.

I’m hoping you will stick with me.

socialsaleslounge.com Will be the same me, writing about Social Selling and as I’ve always written. No fluffy, meaningless slogans, but real solutions you can implement to over achieve your number, quicker.

In addition, I’m going to invite the people that influence me to guest blog.  (If you are interested in guest blogging then please contact me tim_hughes1@hotmail.com )

There is a new Twitter handle @SocialSalesLnge to support this community, and you can still find me at @Timothy_Hughes

My partner in this new adventure @Mbrit will make his own contributions as well has support the venture from a technical nature.

Do hope we can count on your support.

 

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips to get into Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com or contact me at LinkedIn

 

Social influencer Tim Hughes: Big Ideas for the next Industrial Revolution

The Procurement Social Network Procurious interviewed me about a number of subjects and below is a link to that interview, the questions being:-

Procurious asks: In your Twitter bio you call yourself a pioneer of Social Selling – could you distil it for the uninitiated?

Procurious: Mastering social selling – if you were to promote best practice, what would be your top 5 tips?

Procurious: Innovation in the social space – your thoughts on the likes of Periscope and Meerkat. Will they stick around, what do they offer social storytellers etc.

Procurious: Gamification – is it important/how can it be used to effectively breed user loyalty?

Procurious: Why should we be encouraging procurement professionals to face their fears and get on social networks?

Procurious: Can you recommend some actions to help social-networking newbies spread and grow their online influence?

And finally, look forward to 2030. How will the social landscape have changed, what’s your Big idea for social?

https://www.procurious.com/blog/generation-procurement/social-influencer-tim-hughes-big-ideas-for-the-next-industrial-revolution

 

If during your journey you come up with other ideas, I would love to hear from you. Please leave any suggestions or comments below.

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer, his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips on Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com

 

 

10 Ways You Can Start #Socialselling That Don’t Take a Lot of Time

The number one objection I get from Sales People about Social Selling is “Tim, with all the other pressures I have, I just don’t have time for this.”

While I can give many arguments about changing your priorities, new ways of working, etc etc. Here are some ways you can short cut the time you spend on Social Media. Of course, don’t expect the same results, but it might get you into a Social Selling habit.

A member of my family, who is not a big reader, once asked me, what books should I read to get me into the reading habit. My advice was to start with magazines, start in small chunks then to move onto a Harry Potter or Dan Brown book. George Orwell, (as one person suggested) might not be the best place for her to start.

This blog is about how a new starter can start the Social Selling journey. If you are a purest or a long time Social Seller stop reading now this isn’t for you. In addition, thsi won’t get you thousands of followers but let’s get in to the habit first.

First things first. There are many Social Networks but unless you have a particular reason to get into YouTube, Pinterest then as a B2B sales person I would focus on LinkedIn and Twitter.

How often should I post? At least once a day. You can post the same content on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.  Here are the ten things you can do to Hustle your Social Selling

1. When you get into work in the morning and you get your laptop / Mac out, post something to Twitter and LinkedIn. There must be something you read in the paper on the train on the way in or came in on email overnight.

2. Use automation. If you have read my post “Why don’t we just automate Social Media, we can then go back to doing our day jobs”  you’ll know I’m not a big fan of automation but Buffer and Hootsuite can be used to help you “batch” up a bunch of tweets in advance.  When you get in the office in the morning, why not batch some Tweets or LinkedIn posts?

3. Work as a Team. In all of the presentations I’ve seen on Social Selling, Social Media is positioned as a solo effort. Rather than searching for content, why not retweet others?  Form a team with work colleagues and agree to retweet each other or like posts on LinkedIn.  Don’t expect an explosion of followers, but you will start building a presence and (hopefully) start getting into the habit.

4. Your Marketing department should be providing you with content. Agree, in many cases this can look very “corporate”, but using tools discussed in 2. You can batch this up and schedule a number posts.  Check out the 4.1.1 Rule.

5. Reuse content. Why not use meeting notes to create Points of View (POV) LinkedIn / Blog posts. “These are the top 5 issues we see in Accounting systems in Media today” for example.

6. Take corporate videos, events, areas that interest you and write a LinkedIn post. 5 lines of introduction and context and then post the video / link to the event. Not the most elegant way of working but it gets you started.

7. What is your passion? Ask anybody about their passion and their eyes light up and immediately they become positively animated. Why start blogging about serious subjects, why not start with your passion? Sailing, Photography, etc

8. Download a content curation tool like Flipboard or Klout and find content, there must be time waiting in reception at a customer or on the train where you could find something relevant to Tweet?

 

9. Create a list on Twitter of Influencers or subscribe to one of my lists and as mentioned in 3. retweet that content.

10. Stop being a corporate suit and be human. OK, so it’s a terrible clique but why not post a photo of your lunch / dog walk / airport lounge you are sitting in? In her book “Social Executive Dionne Lew says ….. “Why not take a photo and post it, show your human side.”

Finally I often get asked how much time should I spend on Social Media?  In my view, the world has changed and this requires us to change with it.  On that basis, 30 mins a day would be a good target. Yes this is a lot of time, but what worked 20 years ago might not work now.  Many Sales people I talk to work out what old ways they need to drop and find time for the working practices of the 21st century.

If during your journey you come up with other ideas that can help Social Sellers out there, I would love to hear from you. Please leave any suggestions or comments below.

Tim Hughes is a Social Selling Innovator and Pioneer his blog has become a reference point for Sales People throughout the world to get hints and tips to get into Social Selling; Newbies and Influencers alike. Tim’s 27 years as a quota carrying salesperson, means he cuts the fluff and speaks in a no nonsense style. The blog is not about slogans but about how you can use Social to allow you to over achieve your quota, quicker.

Tim Hughes is a Speaker and Blogger on Social Selling and be can be contacted @Timothy_Hughes or Tim_Hughes1@hotmail.com

Me being interviewed on #SocialHangout about #Socialselling

Was recently interviewed on Social Selling by the guys from the weekly #SocialHangout webcast.  Their 9th (and first non US) guest, you can access the interview video here or a Soundcloud version here

Twitter – The Power of 3 Technique #SocialMedia #SocialSelling

I’ve been on Twitter since April 2009 and in that time I’ve been able to create a community an with an amazing bunch of followers.

This is one of many articles about how I use Twitter, my intention is to help you and maybe help you, get more, from what is a great modern medium.

 

The Power of 3

I’ve written many times about the power of Twitter for engagement, the expansion of ideas, debate and learning from meeting strangers and making friends alike.

Twitter should be a two way dialogue. Tweet something and people will make a comment or better still, start a conversation.

During my Twitter travels I often come across somebodies Twitter profile. It is always interesting to read a person’s Advatar and see their last few Tweets.

But People Let Themselves Down

Too often when I look at a person’s profile, last few Tweets are full of automated messages, Corporate “let’s throw something at the wall and hope it sticks” Tweets or conversations where I don’t understand the context.  I’m sure that is meaningful to them, but not meaningful to me.

Your Twitter Profile reflects You

Sorry but I treat a person’s profile, like I treat mine. It is an extension of myself.  When I visit your profile, I get a feel for the type of person you are.

Sorry But I Never say Thank You, I Retweet (RT)

Many people say Thank You on Twitter and there is nothing wrong in doing that.  I never do, or rarely do, sorry but after hitting 30,000 followers something had to give. I try and answer all conversations and comment personally and that takes a lot of time.
My way of saying Thank You is to Retweet somebody. For me, that is the biggest (flattering) thing you can do on Twitter.

So What is the Power of 3?

Whenever I sit down and work through the interactions on my Twitter accounts, I will always try and finishing by leaving 3 Tweets / 3 Pieces of Content at the top of my Twitter stream.  It does not matter how many conversations I’ve had, if you come and look at my profile, there should be content.  A reflection of me.  Better still, content you will feel to interact or even Re-tweet.

Turning round what i said above. If anybody visits my Twitter profile, it should have something interesting for that viewer. No conversations and any follower will know I don’t do “Corporate Boring stuff” and no boring automated Tweets asking you to like my Facebook page.  Stuff you it will hopefully want to interact with or even RT.

Remember Your Twitter Profile Reflects Me and You

Twitter is the ultimate in democracy, tomorrow everybody can unfollow me. By following me everyday people “vote for me”.  When people, prospective followers and myself visit your Twitter profile, what is it do you want to be famous for?

The Power of 3, may take some organisation and a little effort, but the benefits in terms of growing your own platform and community, should pay off.

Hope you enjoyed, would welcome your comments on the Blog below.

 

Tim Hughes is a leading person in Social Media, based in the UK. He has been described as a Social Selling innovator and Blogs on Social Selling and how Social Media will impact companies now and in the future.

Tim can be contacted at @timothy_hughes and @OracleTim

State of #socialselling 2015 – Industry Leaders Review @ArtesianS

Was recently approached (as were a number of other Social Selling Thought Leaders) by Artesian to submit my thoughts on the current state of Social Selling.  My input, plus that of the other Social Sellers can be found at this link.

http://www.artesiansolutions.com/resource/social-seller-leaders/#.VJg2MSpSzoA.twitter

My #SocialMedia Contact Points, Please Connect with me #Socialselling

Thanks for reading this, if you want to connect with me or follow me elsewhere in Social Media here are my contact points.  Clicking on the link below, should, take you direct to me, in case of an error, I have provided the name I am registered under.

My Blog on WordPress

Personal Twitter @Timothy_hughes

Work Twitter @OracleTim

Please click on the links below to make contact

LinkedIn – Registered as TimothyHughes1

Facebook – Registered as Timothy Hughes (Tim)

Google+ – Find me at google.com/+TimothyHughes1

Pinterest – Registered as timothyhughes

Quora – Registered as Timothy-Hughes-4

Storify – Registered as Timothy_Hughes

Conferize – Registered as timothyhughes

Instagram – Registered as Tim_Hughes1

Strava – Registered as TimothyHughes

 Foursquare – Registered as Timothy_Hughes

I’m a member of Procurious – the world’s first online business network dedicated to Procurement and Supply Chain Professionals, to connect with me click on the link

My 17 Predictions for Technology in 2015 #Cloud #Wearables #BigData #IOT #3DPrinting #Selfie

It’s that time of the year where people make predictions for the coming year and I’m not going to be any different, here we go:-

Smartphones – Yet another Apple iPhone, the iPhone 7 will be released.

iWatch – Will be launched and people will go wild over it.

Cloud – Will be come the “standard” platform for Business Application purchases.  Spending on Cloud will increase, more companies will have “Cloud First” policies.  Innovation in Public Cloud will continue.

PaaS – Platform as a Service (PaaS) will become to be seen as the way to deliver application extensions or bespoke developments.

Wearables – We will start to see “Wearables” clothes in High Street shops, as they make the leap from Geek to mainstream.  Google Glass was never going to make the mainstream.  In my experience, Google was never really behind the project, plus they made you look a little silly.  Maybe with the skill of Intel behind the next version, it will give it that much needed push.  That said, I’m more tempted with an iWatch or Wearable in terms of Clothes.  I attended the Google Glass UK launch and wasn’t very impressed and the fact there was zero follow up made me think are these guys really into taking this mainstream.

Internet of Things – The public will see Internet of Things (IoT) functionality in everyday household items – Starting a revolution in replacement of everyday household items.  It is expected that in the level of maturity we will see a move from “dumb” to “smart” household items.  Many manufactures will jump on the band wagon and push for massive appliance replacement, what they will call “new and improved” will actually be just a chip being stuck in today’s products.

Crowdfunding – Will become mainstream and there will be more bizarre items, services seeking funding as people push the boundaries of any new way of working.  Next year there will be more calls to regulate Crowdfunding.

Amazonation – Of Retail will continue both inside of Amazon and across retail.  Apple and Amazon will continue their “arms race” to get access to the consumer transactions.

3D Printing – Will become more mainstream (rather than experimental) with more everyday items being printed.  Don’t expect to own a 3D Printer until 2017.

Marketing ROI – Marketers will be under more pressure to prove ROI and will become under increased pressure to get closer and work with Sales.

Big Data – The privacy debate will continue.  People will realise that maybe people don’t actually tell the truth when they fill in questionnaires, which will place a question mark over Big Data results.  One area of Big Data that will expand is the use of Big Data for Healthcare.

Technology Shift – There will be a continued shift from PC to Tablet, from Smartphone to Phablets and from On Premises to Public Cloud.

Hashtags – Hashtag Tedium will take over as a hashtags become another “tick box” “must have” for a brand to look cool.

Mobile – Delivery of services to mobile (in many cases via an App) will become a business imperative.  The move to mobile and “Mobile First” started in 2014.  Customer Experience has to be delivered via mobile in 2015.

Security – Hacking of sites will continue.  There is a “Keyboard War” of Hackers Vs the Rest of the World.  Users must be ever vigilant, not click on URLs, install a virus checker, etc.  IT Departments must “assume you have been hacked” and work back from there.

Selfies – The selfie trend will continue having crossed over into polite society in 2014.  2015 will be a year of Selfie Tedium as big brands see a “Selfie on Instagram campaign” as a “must have”. Yawn.

Instagram – Will continue the almost unnoticed march to become the Social platform of choice for teenagers and the mainstream.

Tim Hughes is a blogger and speaker and can be contacted at @timothy_hughes on Twitter.

 

 

15 Reasons you are not a Social Seller #socialselling

 

In my work, I come across a number of people who have jumped on the Social Selling Bandwagon.

Here are the ways I can see if you are really, truly are, a Social Seller.

 

 

 

1. You are still using Power Point
2. You haven’t yet worked out that Inmail can be spam too
3. There is no measurement on what you do
4. You send LinkedIn connection requests without adding any context
5. You don’t listen to your customers on Social Media
6. You don’t follow your customers on Social Media
7. You don’t actively participate (I’m not saying just be a member of that group) in LinkedIn groups
8. You think that connecting with people on LinkedIn is easy as “everyone” accepts a request – Where’s the currency in that?
9. You are looking at ways to automate Social Media, so you can go back to your day job
10. You think this new fandangal Social Media stuff will go away soon
11. You think Social Media is for kids
12. You think Social media is actually a new way to Market
13. You don’t talk about how Social Selling will enable Salespeople to overachieve their quotas quicker
14. You use statistics with no reference to the original research
15. You think Social selling is all about LinkedIn – You mean it isn’t? Gulp!

#16 – you spell Linkedin with a lowercase it’s LinkedIn with a capital I — confusing b/c images all have lowercase i (via @jill_Rowley)

 

If you can think of any more, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list.  Will attribute comments to you, should you wish me to.

Tim Hughes rolled out Social Selling across 600 salespeople in Western Europe.  He writes and speaks on Social Selling.  He can be contacted at @timothy_hughes

Using Your Competitor’s Marketing Budget to Create Leads #Socialselling

How I am using my Competitors Marketing Budget to Create Leads?

Times are still hard and , if like me, you are being asked to do more for less, then this blog is designed to help you.

For 18 months now, I have been using my competitors marketing money to create leads. In fact my competitors are one of the most lucrative demand generation channels.

In May 2013 I ran I pilot for the IKO Social Media listening tool and it very quickly paid for itself.

In summary, you define your customers, competitors and partners. It then looks for connections on LinkedIn, Xing and other B2B Social connection sites.

Now if you and I link on LinkedIn it is unlikely there is any business there. But when my competitors link to prospects or customers, there probably is.

There is Gold in Them there Hills

Implementation of IKO was pretty quick, setting up my customers, prospects and partners took me about 2 hours then overnight IKO tracked the connections.

I’m pleased that my competitor Marketing departments are working very hard to create leads for their sales people.  The sales people go on those meetings and make connections on Linkedin. I then pick up on the connections.

The systems sends you an email each day telling you the customers and prospects your competitors have linked to.

It also makes suggestions of “leads” which are companies my competitors have linked to, but I might not have markers as customers or prospects of mine.

…. And There is More

IKO also allows you to track individuals (they cannot see you are doing this as they can on Linkedin).  This has enabled me to track, competitor sales people, watch competitor activity and track customers in “must win” accounts.

Not Just Lead Generation

We use IKO to track and de-risk the pipeline and forecast, tracking the Stakeholders involved in a sale.

We also track competitor movements during a sale which enables us to get wider and deeper in the account as well as understand who is “for” and “against” you. Thus increasing win rates.

Using Social to Help you Over achieve your Quota Quicker

Social Selling is not just about Salespeople using Twitter and having a buyer centric profile on LinkedIn. Social Selling is how we can use modern technology to enable us to increase win rates and enable us to over achieve our quotas, quicker.

 

Tim Hughes was part of a team that rolled out Social Selling across 600 sales people in Western Europe.  He writes and speaks on Social Selling and has been mentioned in Forbes as one of the top Social Sellers globally.

Tim has no connection with IKO Systems and has not been paid to write this article.  The opinions are mine.