If you’re going to be successful with social marketing, it’s very important to pay attention to the relationships you build and tend to.
There’s nothing worse than the people who come onto Twitter or Facebook or any social site and then continuously plug whatever it is they’re selling. They don’t even bother to add value—it’s plug, after plug, after plug.
There are others who aren’t quite that bad, but just about. They play at talking to people and connecting, but really they see it as something they half-heartedly attempt. They sort of know they have to do it but are so laser focused on getting their promotion in front of people that everyone can see right through them.
The above examples are what not to do. It might be really tempting to do that… but don’t.
Even though it’s so tempting to plug your stuff all the time on social media, spend that effort instead on building relationships. Those relationships will become extremely important to you and your business.
You can build relationships with people in your audience. They will start to listen to what you have to say. They’ll start to seek you out and become excited about you.
You can build relationships with other authorities in your niche. This is extremely important. Don’t think of these people as being competition, necessarily, think of them as being potential assets for your business. You might find that they become affiliates or Joint Venture partners of yours.
What does it Mean to Build Relationships Using Social Media?
Let’s talk about what it means to build relationships using social media. It’s important to think about what other people want and are going through. Put yourself in their shoes.
When you’re working to build relationships with people in your audience, consider what they really need help with. If you could give them fantastic information that will really help them, what would that be? Give them that information!
There’s give and take in a relationship. On your part, give more than you take. Your social media activities should be about giving.
Give information, ideas, and inspiration.
Answer questions people ask you. You might spend a lot of time answering people’s questions.
It’s a good thing to open up to people and let people into your world a little bit. Let them know who you are as a person. Share some of your ups and downs. Let them know what you’re working on.
It’s important to be a real person to the members of your audience. If you pretend to be this all-knowing, all-seeing marketer, you’re not going to have a real relationship with them.
When you have a relationship with your audience, they feel like they’re an important part of your life.
When it comes to other experts in your niche, you approach things in a different way. This is more of a business relationship, although you will find real friends in this crowd, too.
You know that each other is there for a reason. You know that you want to leverage their assets and they know that they want to leverage your assets.
I suggest you friend and follow these people. Comment on their social media posts and blog posts. Compliment them on their new releases and ideas. Jump in (when appropriate) and offer your opinion when someone in their audience needs help or has questions.
Build relationships with other marketers in your niche. Just be friendly and present. Be a real person—not someone who thinks they’re above networking with others.
Remember that there has to be give and take in a relationship—more give than take.
How Do You Profit From the Relationships You Build?
With all this relationship building, you might be wondering how you cash in.
I will say that it’s sometimes appropriate to give a link to something that’s selling and to talk about the projects you’re working on. Those things are part of you and your business, after all.
But mostly, you’ll be having real conversations and conducting yourself as you would in a real social situation. This is social media.
An amazing thing starts to happen when you build relationships via social media. People start to seek you out because they want to, not because you’re forcing a link in front of their face all the time. They’ll seek you out, find what you have to offer, join your list, and buy from you. They’ll become extremely loyal to you over other marketers because they feel they have a real relationship with you.
You can link to freebie offers you’re giving away via a squeeze page and people will likely jump all over that offer.
That’s part of this, too. You don’t want to only connect with people in one spot, you want to connect with them on all your social media accounts, your blogs, and your list.
You profit from this because it will be easier to build your list and therefore to make sales. You’ll promote your stuff when it matters and when it’s appropriate and you’ll actually get results.
You’ll get results you absolutely wouldn’t get if you just spammed your link every day. Do you see where I’m going with this?
You’ll profit when you build relationships with others in your niche because they’ll be much more willing to work with you.
When you have an idea for a joint ventureship or would like someone to promote a product for you, they’ll be so much more open to it if they already consider you to be a friend or at least know what you’re all about.
It’s hard to get someone to work with you if they have no idea who you are or where your expertise lies. It’s hard to get someone to work with you if they have no idea what you bring to the table.
If you get to know other heavy hitters in your niche, the opportunities for joint ventureship and other opportunities are fantastic.
Build Relationships in Everything You Do
Relationships matter so much and you really can’t go wrong when you put people first in your business.
Think about how you conduct yourself on social media right now. Are you doing the things we’ve talked about? If you’re just starting out using social media for business, consider these recommendations as well. It’s never too late to focus on relationships, though, no matter how long you have or haven’t been using social media for business.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download