The Pitch For Social Networking

No matter where you travel online these days, experts encourage you to promote yourself and your business at social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Each of these sites has its own "rules of the road," especially at LinkedIn, where individual categorized groups offer open discussion on a variety of topics relating to the group's specialty, for example, Public Relations and Communications Professionals.

As a communications specialist, I monitor discussions among various groups and comment on subjects of interest, so this topic line caught my eye: Cover Letters Are Worthless And Outdated.

OK, I took the bait and clicked the link because from everything I know and read, cover letters remain key in formal job applications even if there is no guarantee they're ever read by recruiters or employers.

It took 12 to 15 paragraphs of babble about the blogger's 30 years in executive recruiting to finally get to the point where he pitches his service to job seekers.

In my former industry, newspapers, we would have said he buried the lead and forced readers to labor over the point of the piece. An editor or senior reporter would have whipped it into shape before publication.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with pitching your business to a targeted audience whose members include the unemployed, under-employed and disaffected.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you see my professional background and business pitch in the right sidebar every time you visit We Mean Business. There's no fluff: It is what it is (an old newspaper saying for boilerplate material).

What I find troublesome is the recruiter's sloppy, meandering approach on a social networking site to offer a "deeply discounted" webinar for job seekers. His service may be legitimate and worthwhile, but his effort was poorly crafted with a big buildup to a lame sales pitch.

The online reader bait he used -- challenging the value of cover letters -- was an effective hook to draw attention, but it got wasted. The letdown came after you clicked and read the first few paragraphs of his post. It left you scratching your head as to why you were learning his life's story.

The point is social networking can be a great way to market a business or pitch a service. It also can be your undoing if handled poorly. If your message matters, take the time to package it properly.

I recall a big sign in one of my old newsrooms: Who is going to read this story and why?

If you're using a social networking site to find and connect with customers or clients, consider this Q&A before you post online. Question: Who is going to read this pitch and why? Answer: Somebody who wants you to get to the point of what you're selling.

As for me, I practice what I preach in this blog and at writenowworks.com.