Relationship Building on Social Media
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Fun fact: Social media not about making sales, or getting more followers, or driving traffic. It’s about making a real connection with individual people, having conversations and building community.
Yes, it is also a tool that can support your desire for visibility, brand growth, and profitability, however healthy relationships are the foundation of a healthy business.
You might feel a little awkward reaching out to "strangers" to build online relationships, but I've found it to be rather easy.
The first step is to follow people who are passionate about the same things you love. Comment on their posts, and share them with your network, to show support for what they’re doing. Be generous and supportive. If someone is selling something that you find of use, buy it.
Reply to comments that come in from others on social networks. Showing appreciation for the thoughtful comments of others can go a long way!
Share content that you know will be valuable to your network, and tag those who inspired it. For example. if you're reading someone's blog post, find that person on social media and give them a shout out for their well-written article. Everyone deserves to feel seen, heard, loved, valued, respected, and appreciated. Be a good neighbor. Trust me, if you spread love, it will return back to you.
If you are an entrepreneur, share valuable content and resources. Invite people to visit your website to take a free quiz, download a free checklist, download free Canva templates, a free webinar, and so on. Really put your heart and expertise into this free gift so that it is viewed as valuable, relevant and relatable.
Make time every day for sharing content that is educational, entertaining and/or inspirational. It's important that you don't just go on social media sites and throw up any old content . It should fit nicely into your overall marketing strategy.
When I first came online, I did not understand that it was important to set a timer to actually engage in conversations with the people who followed me. Meaning, I saw being online as "play time" and would simply post and go back to work. That is NOT relationship building. That is "talking AT people", NOT "talking WITH people".
The most important thing is just showing up on social media regularly. Make time to talk with your audience. Engagement is the secret door that leads to sales. Why? Because people traditionally only buy from people they know, like, and trust.
Here are 4 ways to increase engagement when posting:
Offer Live question and answer sessions. These Q&A sessions help you to position yourself as a subject matter expert.
Your audience is more engaged when they have a direct line to you. In the Q&A sessions, your customers can ask questions and get answers from you as well as share their experience with others on social media who may be interested in learning about what your company offers.Twitter is a great place to start. You can tweet out questions and answer them in real time or, if you prefer to schedule your tweets in advance, send the question via direct message ahead of time. If you use Twitter to grow your business , the more likely you will be able to gain a new customer simply from having conversations with them within 140 characters.
Encourage conversations. If people comment on your post, reply to their comments and start a conversation with them. Make sure you're not just spamming the same thing over and over again--that's annoying for everyone involved. Instead of saying "Great question!" every time someone asks something, take it one step further and start a conversation with them.
Use images! Images get more engagement than just text on social media, so use it to your advantage by including an image (make sure it is on brand!) in every post you create on Facebook or Twitter. On LinkedIn, use the "Add More" function if there is room for another photo/image on the posting box (it's the little square in the bottom right corner of the box).
Use audio and video! Post an audio or video about a product, service, program, experience or insight you found interesting. The goal is to build relationships with others who are interested in the same things as you are.
Create “fill in the blank” posts. Instead of asking questions, try writing fill in the blank posts! Instead of posting “What are your favorite _________?” -- post “If you could only pick one ___________ to bring with you on a deserted island, what would it be and why?”
Give away something for free. Creating useful tools or free guides that are relevant to your audience are a great way to increase engagement. I recently read an article about how Instagram accounts that hold contests grow their followers 70% faster on average than accounts that don’t.
Create "Caption this" posts. Ask your audience to caption the photo. This ends up being a fun way to get engagement, mainly because everyone loves an opportunity to be creative!
