So you aren’t Justin Bieber or that other Justin guy with a Gazillion swooning followers, and maybe you are still trying to figure this entire “social networking” scene out…but you are smart enough to realize that you can’t ignore it
So you start yourself a Facebook page and open a Twitter account and you become a lurker…watching what other people are posting – nonsense and all!
As 90%+ of what you are going to see if useless spam, you may immediately get the wrong idea about what the most effective methods of social networking really are…you may even wade into the dark waters of blasting out notices urging people to buy your shit (I only use this term because this is what your stuff is to someone who doesn’t like or respect you – no matter how good your real stuff is)
Hmmm…after a couple of weeks of lurking and hitting people over the head with a bunch of promotional posts you find yourself with a couple hundred followers, none of which really engage with you or click through to buy your stuff.
Well that sucks…this social thing DOESN’T WORK does it?
GETTING SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
The power of social networking is all about word-of-mouth enhanced by global technology.
Word-of-mouth has always been a huge part of marketing…that’s how good movies end up getting great attendance as each person tells 5 friends who tell 5 friends etc…
But realistically that had a limit – you could only tell as many people as you could engage with on a daily basis, so the impact though significant remained somewhat muted.
Enter stage left…Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, YouTube and Pintrest (so far) — and now you have a platform over which you can network globally with like-minded people and influence those people as you would your “real-life” buddies today.
But that’s not the way most people approach these platforms is it?
Instead, they look at it as nothing more than a way to blast our their message, to stand on the street corner and scream out their business offer…
No wonder most users are so ineffective.
The question remains though, how DO you network, engage and interact inside of these platforms, build credibility, brand yourself and your company and sell things?
1. TOUCH RAW NERVES
To attract people that are like-minded, loyal and engaged you first need to stand-out from the crowd and the best way to do that is to share updates, opinions, resources and content that touch emotions…that make people laugh, cry, angry or peaceful…the better you get at touching the raw nerves of your interest groups the more people will jump in and engage with you attracting others to do the same
2. ASK QUESTIONS
Have you ever had a friend (or stranger) that did nothing but talk and never listed to you? Never asked you what you thought or let you share your point of view? If you had the choice, did you walk away?
Why is it any different online where it’s even easier to walk away?
To engage, tap into the fundamental human need to be heard, understood and loved…that will get you more engagement than anything else
3. CURRENT EVENTS
Be aware of and ready to discuss (in a relevant way to your peer group) current events. A huge amount of “bonding” in the “real world” of communication happens because we share certain fundamental views on things…one of the fastest ways we learn this is through talking about the events of the day. Same thing goes for social networking, you can bond with your peers by sharing opinions and views on current events
4. CROSS-PROMOTE
Way too many people are NOT taking advantage of cross-promoting. What I mean by that is using multiple platforms and media to expand your social circle.
For example, let’s say you have a valuable tip to share with your market so you jump on YouTube to record a 5-minute lesson with that tip. You then post a link to your video on Twitter asking people to watch and give their opinion. Next, you head up and place a copy of the video on Facebook and then share a picture of it on Pintrest…including your own blog in the mix. If you have a mailing list, send them to your blog and have them follow up on Twitter or Facebook with their opinions. You want to make it easy for people to see and engage with you where they are when they are there.
5. SHARE AND BE SHARED
This point is especially important when you are first getting started in social networking…the more you are willing to share other people’s content (Retweets and Reply’s on Twitter, Comments on their blogs or videos, Like’s and comments on Facebook and so on…) the more they will come back and take you seriously sharing your links with their followers. Of course, you want to share quality, relevant stuff and quickly get a read on who the main influencers are in your marketplace.
Social networking is where the future is in terms of finding information, deciding which products to buy and reaching wider and wider targeted audiences. You can learn to leverage social networking to build your business in amazing ways, but you want to get used to Engagement rather than Advertisement…now you know how.
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
How about you…leave us a comment about how you are using social networking or with your opinion on what role social will play online in the next few years.
