M & A Rainmaker

You may be thinking that you are talking to that famous pop star that you adore or reading his or her pearls of wisdom but the likelihood is that you are talking to or hearing from a trusted stand-in.

As the use and importance of social media communication grows so will the number of people and businesses that have to make a decision as to whether they spend the time personally communicating or whether they outsource this responsibility to someone that they can trust. ( That’s twice I have said the ” trust ” word in so many sentences ! ).

As this blog post says

http://socialmediatoday.com/alexisbonari/283796/pros-and-cons-using-alias-your-online-persona

people have been using pseudonyms for hundreds of years. Personally I have no problem with people ghosting, aliasing or using pseudonyms and it is naive to think that this does not happen.

People and businesses are rapidly arriving at this decision point for many reasons:

– Social media membership and participation is now regarded as a necessary way of communicating for individuals and businesses wishing to promote themselves and interact with their customers, potential customers ( prospects ) and supporters.

– It is becoming more and more important for individuals and businesses to continuously generate content ( new pages, articles and posts ) for their websites, blogs and social media pages.   Not only is this a task that is time consuming it also requires writing and Search Engine Optimisation ( S,E.O. ) skills. The content has to be relevant to be effective.

– Many individuals and businesses do NOT have the skills or the time to communicate effectively using websites, blogs and social media.

When you make the decision to outsource ( i.e. to employ a ghost writer or alias ) it is very hard to find the right person to represent you or your business.

It is also very hard to be the person that is doing the ghosting or aliasing.

It is especially difficult because to do the job effectively you have to be trusted completely or it will not work.

You have to understand enough about that person or business to represent them effectively and to act and respond, pretty well, as they would.

Website pages are typically written by the internal or external website specialists and usually they are approved by the person or business representatives before posting.

Blog posts may also be treated the same way although excessive approval process’s may affect the spontaneity of these blog posts. Also blog posts may get comments which need to be responded to in a reasonable timeframe and in an appropriate manner.

Social Media posts are potentially much more interactive than website updates or blog posts. I say potentially because a lot of social media posts are not commented on or require a response.  However when you do get a comment or response then they MUST be responded to in a timely and appropriate manner.

With responses to blog comments and social media comments and questions the way that you respond is crucial. These are LEADS for the person or business that is being represented. They may be opportunities to build the follower base or they may be comments about the person or business or they could be actual expressions of interest in the person or businesses products or services.

Every comment needs to be nurtured as far as it can be. By this I mean that opportunities can only be taken so far or there is a danger that you turn a potential supporter or customer into a person that is unhappy with the person or company being represented.

The importance and value of the people who alias or ghost for other people or companies should now be clearer.

It is also a hugely difficult task because many people and business owners do not understand what they have to do and what information they need to provide to allow the ghost or alias to be successful. For example people and businesses ideally need to share business strategy and objectives and also keep their representatives up to date with events, case studies, supplier initiatives and things that interest them.