It’s a Vine, Vine Life

I have a lot of meetings with clients. That’s my job; to ensure my clients are receiving the best possible social media management. It’s amazing how each meeting varies. I may spend a Monday morning explaining what a hashtag is, and Monday afternoon going through some pretty full on analytical data with a client.

Another big aspect of my role is keeping a close eye on the social media world as a whole. This isn’t so much a part of my job role, rather something that I enjoy doing; something which our MD is incredibly keen to promote and indeed practice. I often find myself having fairly casual chats with clients about the latest social developments and they’re always keen to get my opinion on certain platforms or updates.

Rarely does a client want to fully embrace a new platform, which is understandable. It’s my job to track the growth of a new channel and communicate this back. We’d then make a calculated decision as to whether or not we would be embracing these emerging platforms.

Yesterday’s meeting

Yesterday afternoon I had a great meeting with one of my clients. The sort of meeting that makes you appreciate the company you work for, and the talent embedded within. This is a multiple service client with SEO, PPC and social media included in their campaign. All three campaign delivery managers updated the client on progress, achievements and plans; each of which complemented the last. The full package!

“Let me tell you about Vine”

I spoke to this client about Vine. Vine is by no means a ‘new’ platform, having been released at the beginning of 2013, but it is, in my opinion, under-utilised.

It starts with a simple question to the client:

“Have you heard of Vine?”

“No”.

My favourite response.

Time to get excited

It’s then my job to convey my excitement for such a platform; giving them relevant examples of how their company can use Vine. This is the key: excitement and relevancy. The moment the client realises that I’m passionate about something, that feeling is shared. The same rule applies in a restaurant for example: a waitress last weekend was telling me about a new desert their chef had just made: ‘Banoffee Cheesecake’. She talked with such passion and enthusiasm, I had to order it. I don’t even like Bananas!

I’ll admit it: my own research into Vine produced little ‘excitement’ per se. However, I listened to Tony Wang (GM – Twitter UK) talk about Vine at an event last month. He talked with such desire and delight about it that I felt compelled to go and investigate further. This wasn’t a sales tool. It’s genuine emotion.

So, last night I began drawing up some solid ideas for using Vine for this particular client. If I’d sat in yesterday’s meeting just explaining the very basics of Vine, showing some irrelevant examples, no one round that table would have been convinced, least of all the client.

There’s a simple lesson here

Get excited by what you do. No one will ever listen to you or trust someone that talks so unconvincingly about their supposed area of expertise. I’ll keep you updated on the Vine strategy for this client; it’s a good’un.