When it comes to advice about your social media presence it’s hard to know who to trust. We want to earn your trust. Our 15-minute social media consultation is the best place to start.
If you’ve read the testimonials, even if you’ve been referred by someone who trusts Ausoma, and you’d like to take the next step, schedule a free, no-obligation 15-minute social media consultation to see if Ausoma is a good fit for you.
Sue will ask about your existing online presence and social media usage, about your level of tech expertise, your budget and schedule. She’ll determine whether our services are a good fit for your needs, and if so, work with you to create the perfect package of services. Read about our book marketing philosophy.
Schedule your free, no-obligation 15-minute social media consultation today.
Even If You’re Not Looking for a Social Media Consultant . . .
We love connecting with anyone in the publishing industry. Schedule a 15-minute Getting to Know You call and let’s see how Ausoma can support you.
No pitch, no fuss, no hassle. This is not some cleverly disguised sales tactic. We’ve simply discovered that casting our net wide in the publishing industry, connecting with the right people, not only brings business our way, it’s just plain fun.
Transcript
Joel: Hi there. This is Joel.
Sue: And this is Sue.
Joel: And we are Ausoma.
Sue: Author’s social media marketing.
Joel: Today we’re going to talk about Sue’s Getting to Know You calls. We discovered during our year-end business sabbatical in the mountains outside San Diego that the biggest thing that happens to our business, the thing that connects us with people, is these 15 minute phone calls that Sue does with other people in the industry, not even with prospects. Talk about that a little bit; where did the idea for these calls come from?
Sue: Last year when business was kind of slow we were looking for ways to expand our network and reach out to try and get new business. As I was connecting with people on LinkedIn, I met with somebody who was using Calendly, which is what I use to schedule these 15 minutes calls, and she scheduled with me to chat for about 15 minutes, just for us to get to know one another better.
After that I implemented this on a regular basis; I set something up where I reach out to new connections on LinkedIn, people who are in the industry whether they’re publishers, book editors, proofreaders, ghostwriters, anything to do with the publishing industry, and reach out and get to know these people in a free 15 minute call. So once we’ve connected on LinkedIn I invite them to a call, absolutely no obligation.
I am trying to learn more about them to see how what they do may benefit prospects or clients that I have. Then as I get to know them, and find out what they do, obviously they’re going to ask me the same thing, they find out what I do, and over the course of time I’ve been able to connect and add to my list of resources, other copywriters, editors and publishers that I can then refer people who come to me and say ‘hey do you know somebody that’s a good proofreader or a great copywriter,’ ‘I need someone to help me ghostwrite a blog article.’ I’ve got a list of people that I’ve communicated with and gotten to know and trust them. And as a result, since they’ve also gotten to know what I do, we’ve been able to get new business because of that.
Joel: In the long run we know that these calls bring business to us. But for each individual call, and you can be honest because it’s me, what’s your goal when you’re talking to these people, what are you really trying to accomplish?
Sue: I am looking for people to add to my resource list so that I have people that I have communicated with directly that I know; I’ve learned about them, I’ve checked out their website. In a phone call I can determine if they’re the right kind of person that I would want to work with, and if they are then I know that’s somebody that I would recommend to a client or a prospect. So I really want to be that resource for people that I have already made these direct connections.
Obviously I hope that it turns into work for us as well, and often it does. Not directly even; usually that person isn’t a client and often not even a direct referral, but because they know somebody within their circle that knows somebody, and the same with me, we’re able to eventually get work that’s referred to us because of that.
Joel: In my own research I’ve learned that the best connections for problem solving, bringing in new business, when we’re looking to solve a specific problem and business, it turns out that those weak connections, not our hundred and fifty close connections, but their connections, or their connections, and so now we’re talking about tens of thousands of people, the best connections seem to come from the people who are a step or two removed from us. So it makes perfect sense psychologically that when you’re speaking to someone who’s not a prospect, not likely to become a client, but they’re connected with a whole set of people that we’re not, that’s a good place to be connected to; that second or third step away from us.
So when you’re talking to these people what you’re looking for is if we have a client who might have a need, if you can help your client with something that we don’t offer, that’s a good reason to talk to these people. Or if someone comes along who will never be a client because they need something we don’t offer, at least we can say ‘but how about these three people, let me connect you with them,’ and instead of sending them away empty handed and saying ‘sorry not us,’ we can still provide benefit even to people who are never going to be clients.
Sue: Right.
Joel: You mentioned people in the publishing industry; have you also connected with people in marketing and PR, things like that?
Sue: Yes; specifically I have a couple publicists now that I refer clients to, and several of my clients have worked with one or more of these publicists. They also refer people to me who need social media marketing for their nonfiction books. I’ve also connected with people who many would consider my direct competition, other social media marketers, and some of them are just general social media marketers, so they aren’t direct competition because they might be working with just a small business or an independent consultant who doesn’t even have a book, whereas my primary market is nonfiction authors.
But I have worked with some direct competitors as well, or gotten to know them and have them on my list, because we are all different; we offer different services or because personalities, a client might want to go with, you know, somebody different from myself and vice versa. So I do not have any trouble at all connecting with people who might be considered my direct competition.
Joel: So what if someone is a great prospect for us; they are nonfiction author, so they’re not in the publishing industry, they’re not in the marketing industry, can they still get a free 15 minutes of your time?
Sue: Sure. Anybody can get a free 15 minutes of my time, they just have to go to my calendar and book it.
Joel: I think I’m gonna do that.
Sue: And yes, so sometimes these calls are with direct prospects; that person becomes a client, and that’s just as great as well. Other times somebody talks to me for 15 minutes, they get a question answered that they had about social media marketing or want just a little bit of guidance; I’ll spend 15 minutes on the phone with them and give them that, and if I never see or hear from them again that’s okay too.
Joel: So let’s clarify that. This is not necessarily a 15 minute sales pitch; people don’t need to call you, prospects, authors, don’t need to call you when they’re ready to say ‘let’s do business tell me how.’ They may just have a question about how social media works, how Ausoma works, or want to get to know you. And they may get their question answered, they may discover that there’s not a connection here. You’ll still spend 15 minutes with them, give them free advice and free consultation. That works just fine too?
Sue: Absolutely. I believe in generosity and business and it always comes back. But that’s part of what we do, is to just give information, share something of value with whoever needs it, and I think that that builds good relationships with people.
Joel: Well good. I like good relationships. I enjoy my good relationship with you.
Sue: As do I.
Joel: That’s great. This has been our 15-minute Getting to Know You calls for people in the publishing industry, in marketing of any kind, or authors, especially nonfiction authors, who’d like to find out more or get a question answered about social media. If you want to spend 15 minutes on the phone with Sue, go to Ausoma.com/call/
Sue: It has to have the ending slash as well.
Joel: Okay. Call/ and schedule your call; Sue will talk to you and everyone will end up happier. This is Joel.
Sue: And Sue.
Joel: And we are Ausoma.
Sue: Author’s social media marketing.
Joel: See you next time.