Narrative: Mark Zucerkebrg

Some of you may know him as the networking king, or boy genius or some of you may know him from the film, The Social Network. Others simply know him as the guy who created Facebook. Zuckerberg has a unique story unlike the founders of Myspace or other social networking sites. He created Facebook from his college Harvard dorm room at the age of 19. He never knew this application would change the way people and businesses interact FOREVER.

Mark Zucerkberg came from a Jewish background in the suburb of White Plains, NY. He was raised in the trendy village of Dobbs Ferry, NY. As a young child he developed a fondness for communications and computers early on. He was only 12 years old when he created his first messaging system. He graduated High school with a focus on literary classics and enrolled in Harvard in 2002.

Harvard is a prestigious school and is known to harvest great talents such as our very own President Obama, Bill Gates and many more. Harvard graduates are known to become leaders and innovators. It was during his sophomore year at Harvard when he created Facebook, the social networking site that connects over 550 million people worldwide.

If you have seen The Social Network, Zucerkerberg was portrayed to be a greedy and a socially awkward guy. In the scene below you will see how socially awkward Mark Zuckerberg is.  In this scene he is at bar with a lady friend. He seems to have trouble holding a conversation and doesn't understand her sense of humor. 

She responds to one of his statements with the following: 

Maybe, but sometimes you say two things
at once and I’m not sure which one I’m
supposed to be aiming at.

There was confusion about the situation until he cleared it up with an interview with New York Times. Mark is said to have a warm presence rather than a cold one. He has a quick smile and doesn't shy away from eye contact. He is a people’s person, hence, the social network he created. He also discussed how he could take Facebook to the heights he had planned for it to be.

Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO and co-founder and presiding visionary was named "Person of the Year" in 2010

Facebook started as a connection for Harvard-students only. It then grew to allow only ivy-league schools. When Facebook received a huge investment of $12.7 million dollars from a capital firm they decided to take the company to the next level. He moved his operation to California, also known as Silicon Valley. Soon after, he decided not to go back to his Ivy League education, and instead devoted his time to creating a social network that is now worth more than $50 billion dollars. Zuckerberg is the world’s youngest billionaire; his personal net worth is approximately $6.9 billion. But, he lives a modest lifestyle by most standards for someone with such a high net worth. He is a workaholic and is currently studying Chinese. He drives a black Acura, which is chump change for a billionaire. For thanksgiving break, he took his family to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Overall, Facebook is the realization of a dream. Fortune 500 companies like Viacom and Yahoo both have offered deals in the billions to acquire his concept. Instead, Zuckerberg sticked to his and is constantly working to improve the site, making it easier for people to share messages, photos, locations, updates, play games and more. But, while this happens Zuckerberg is growing up. He won’t be the same person as the Zucerkberg who founded it. There will be a time that it might get complicated to remain sensitive to the richness of the outside world. But for all its flaws, there was no other way for Facebook to begin. Only someone like Zucerkberg could have built the empire we know as Facebook today.

How to Use Social Media to Increase Sales

Join a community and create a persona:

Companies needs to spend time with the tool they plan to use, whether It's Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. It’s important to build up a personal account, have conversations, and become acquainted with the norms and expectations of the community. Companies needs to keep in mind that their brand image needs to be a likable and trustworthy within social network communities. It’s effective when companies comment a lot to get people to go to their site. Once you have a lot of traffic and a live feed then the network will consider your company to be a trustworthy resource.

Determine the best way to connect with prospects:

• Facebook is the popular place for a business to drive consumer sales.
• Linkedin is a platform for sales of business to business products or services.
• Twitter can be employed for all kinds of sales.
• Blogs ignite all types of live chats and encourages for live comments.

 

Connect:

Friend, follow, or connect with individuals with profiles that match your clients. The company can conduct a search on each social networking website to find people who are talking about their industry or using their products and services. Companies can drive consumers to their site by encouraging consumers to “retweet” a comment.

Build a relationship:

Companies need to develop relationships more than they need to develop leads. Relationships go a long way and will then create leads. After establishing the relationship, you can tell if the prospect might want or need your product or service.

Engage in a conversation:

As recently discussed in my interview post, Interview with David Prince, VP of Marketing at CQ Fluency, you must be sure to engage your readers. Don’t just post a message with a pitch, because that will not interests your potential consumers. If you really listen to what the prospects are saying online, you can open doors to conversation without having to force it. Encourage consumers to contribute to a conversations and share content, it will increase awareness. Their friends will see it and their friend’s friend and their friend’s friend friend will see it.

Social media is about being social but most importantly it’s about building relationships between consumer and companies. People buy from a brand they live and trust. The questions is, how do companies build relationships and eventually increase sales? The preceded were ways to increase sales. The above are simple strategies that companies can implement to help them closer to the goal of increased sales. It’s not difficult, it’s about building rapport and connection with your desired audience.