By now, most of us have figured out that social media is not just a fad. It is here to stay! 
Buying mailing lists to target potential prospects will soon be a thing of the past. Social media is the method that people and businesses are now using to connect with new customers.
Your social media contacts and their connections have become your interactive database. Interactive because you can now engage in two-way communication with the people to which you are connected.
Instead of looking at social media as one more marketing tool that you have to use, think of it as a fun mental shift in how we communicate.
Instead of looking at social media as one more marketing tool that you have to use, think of it as a fun mental shift in how we communicate.
Keep in mind, though, people don’t use social media because they want to be sold something. Hector Cisneros discusses in his blog Six Cardinal Rules for Success in Social Media Marketing that there are 4 reasons why people use social media:
- To get useful information
- To find out interesting facts
- To be entertained AND
- To make connections with others
In building any relationship, you need to understand the other person’s needs and wants. Continuing to ask friends for favors and giving nothing in return is a quick way to lose friends, including social media friends. The BNI motto of "givers gain" really holds true when using social media.
If you are trying to build your business using social media, there are 4 basic rules to follow to successfully communicate with your new interactive database.
- Be Human - As Jeffery Gitomer says, people buy from people they like. Don’t join a LinkedIn group discussion and start spamming the discussion about your next seminar. That's like walking up to a group of people already in conversation and selling them on your business. That’s plain rude.
- Add Value - Sales is about building relationships. What can you do to provide value to your social media contacts and their connections? Provide interesting facts or useful information that would benefit your connections.
- Interact - Create a dialog to build trust and a relationship with your contacts. Your conversations can potentially 'go viral', reaching out to your contacts' connections to which you are not currently connected.
- Promote - Don’t hard sell. Use soft promotion to communicate how you can help your contacts get what they need or want. Promote your business in a way that provides value to your contacts.
Most importantly, remember tip #1 Be Human. It's essential that you communicate like a live human being, not a computer or a smart phone.
Use these simple strategies, and you will be sure to build successful business relationships using social media.
The most important thing to remember when providing social media content is that it's not about you. It's about your audience. Tell them, don't sell them and you will grow and engage your audience.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with most people is that they think of the social networks as just another place to run ads. This is not what will make your audience retweet your posts.
ReplyDelete