I am a believer in leveraging social media as I am a major participant and have derived direct benefits from doing so; however, it’s not perfect. In fact, it’s kind of comical when you think about what we have created – just another vehicle to flood someone’s life with content and we have so many new ways to flood your “inbox”!

Yeah, it’s not email or voicemail anymore – we are a more sophisticated spammer now…we use LinkedIn, twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs….Is this any better than “the old way”? Pushing content is still pushing content. Most, are not really using social media in an optimal way so I would argue most are not gaining any benefits and the intended audience is still being bombarded albeit in a more acceptable way.

Here is my take, in simple terms, old way or new way of selling:

1. Know your client’s business as well as they do

2. Be present in their world so relationships can form

3. Offer value first always

4. Leverage client relationships to build credibility

5. Be a problem solver

These skills are timeless, nothing new here. Social Media is supposed to make this stuff easier so what gives?