Her name is Ali. She is a machine learning artificially intelligent (AI) software agent that costs over $1,000,000,000 to build. She works for you. She’s your best employee. She has your back. She truly wants you to be successful. She can’t lie. She keeps very accurate records of her duties and performance. She works for you even when you’re asleep or on vacation. She never sleeps. She never gets sick. She has alternative motives but no hidden agendas. She’s terribly inflexible. She’s complicated. She changes her mind without warning. She’s secretive about how she does her work. If you don’t communicate with her in a manner that she is accustomed, she defaults to a method that is acceptable to her (not you). Since she works for you, you instruct her. She gives you instructions on how to instruct her BUT she rarely obeys your commands. Once you realize that you are ALWAYS negotiating with Ali, life gets profoundly easier. You do not instruct her. You do not teach her. You do not collaborate with her. You negotiate with Ali. For example, we sales professionals can put anyone or anything on our Prospect List. I can prospect kiteboarders,  destination weddings, bridge engineers, IBM, Firefly Distillery, etc. It’s my choice. It’s my list. It’s how I think about MY business. When using social media for business this is not true. You must NEGOTIATE YOUR LISTS WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI). Social Media is wonderful! It’s like hiring a BILLION DOLLAR employee that manages my list for me in nanoseconds with 80% energy efficiency. However, I must negotiate with AI. I cannot put anyone or any brand or any business or any whatever on my list that AI manages on my behalf. She has rules. She is a software program after all. To use her efficiently I must learn her rules and negotiate my business thinking with her steadfast programmed rules. This is non-negotiable.

TARGET AUDIENCE ON FACEBOOK:

The most notable negotiation on Facebook is that THE TARGET AUDIENCE MUST BE REGISTERED PERSONS. I cannot target IBM (Page) or Firefly Distillery (Place) with a marketing campaign using Facebook in December of 2016. I say in December of 2016 because I know this will change.

FOLLOWER LIST ON FACEBOOK:

NOTE: I normalize all social media terminology to “followers” even though LinkedIn refers to them as “connections” and Facebook refers to them as “Page Likes”. To AI, they are “subscribers” in a publisher-subscriber-broker software architecture. AI is correct btw. The proper term is SUBSCRIBER. It’s semantics so it does not matter.  Pop culture says “followers” SO I’ve adopted this terminology.

Followers can be persons, products, organizations but the Person-to-Page relationship is the ONLY relationship supported EASILY on the mobile device in December of 2016. I KNOW this will change. It’s the essence of INTELLIGENCE in AI. The Charleston Wine+Food Festival (Event) has a real world relationship with its sponsor Firefly Spirits (Brand Page). AI does not allow an EVENT to easily “recognize” and “thank” it’s sponsors FORMALLY. Think of it this way: The “thank” and “recognize” subroutines have not been programmed YET! YET is the most important word. The HOST may. The HOST may even CO-HOST with a BRAND PAGE but it cannot “like” a Page. These are the software business rules programmed into AI (as of December 2016).

THE ENGAGEMENT LIST

The holy grail of all list on social media is the “engagement list”. The engagement list is a 3-way negotiation. You’re always negotiating with both AI and your prospect. We use P.R.I.C.E. and D.E.A.L to negotiate THE engagement list in a continuous improvement loop.