Connect and convert

We all want the story that goes viral, the story that gets more clicks, the story that’s shared more times.

Facebook is about connection, or, as they recently declared in their new mission statement, about bringing the world closer together. However, the type of connection that Facebook seems to promote is based on the idea that connection is good.

However, as Nikhil Sonnad rightly pointed out connection can be both good and bad. For Facebook “Jew haters” can be as much as an ad category as “Moms who jog.” It’s not difficult to understand the implications of this approach.

We have a tendency to think that certain concepts are positive, “connection” is one of them, and “stories” in another one. When it comes to stories not every story that connects necessarily converts in a meaningful way.

If we think that connection is just bringing people closer together, then yes, there is an open field for anything you might want to do to attract people. Any campaign, any ad, any email sequence, any video that gets the clicks and grows your list counts as a connection.

And once you have these connections, you just need to work hard again to convert them into customers with more ads, promotions, webinars or discounts.

That’s the way it seems to work for the 2.5 billion people on Facebook.

But in this rush to connect and convert we don’t see the people,’ we don’t see their dreams, what they really want and how they want to be reached out to, how they want to be met or how they want to hear about what you do. We are far too busy focusing on counting and measuring clicks.

Connection is difficult to rate; that’s why we measure conversion. If they buy, we have a story that works.

The question is not whether your story connects and converts, but rather what connects and who converts. How are you seen and perceived by the people clicking to buy? How do they feel connected to your product or service? What is the story that they tell to themselves when they buy from you?

Connecting meaningful work with customers that care and are ready to convert your work into something that matters is another game. And for this game, you will need more than an algorithm or a click to play.

How can you measure connection and story for the people that care as much as you care?

Picture by Claude Robilland

#buyingconvert #connect #customer