ENGAGE – BE CONSISTENT – CREATE URGENCY
Ways
to Join the Social Media Conversation to see benefits for your business
Love all of those sales people….”You are not posting
at all, because you are not showing in the search engines, buy my service and I
guarantee you that you will be on the top of all of the Search Engines.” OR “You are posting more than 1 time per day…too
much!” OR “You should be on this [name the social media site}.” OR “We can
connect you to ALL social media sites with $90/ month plus click fees.” Dang, what is a business owner to think or
do regarding social media?
No matter which of over the 325 social media sites
you are on, the first most important thing to understand is, it’s most
important to develop a reputation with your fan base before you can really
start selling your product or service. It’s important to engage with your customers/potential
customers and build relationships. So
the basic concepts for Social Media, no matter what site is, to: ENGAGE
– BE CONSISTENT – CREATE URGENCY.
ENGAGEMENT
Start conversations:
People respond most to things that are visual or
involve THEM. People love to talk about themselves, and they’ll be interested
in sharing their own stories, thoughts, and interests! Get them going!
·
Post Progression photos of work you are doing (For
those who know me…I really, really like the word progression :).
·
Post work from your past, childhood, present. Show
where you’ve come from, what you’re working on; product /service you
want to offer. We do business with people who we know and trust, so it is ok to make it personable.
· Ask a question: ask them questions about themselves,
ask about your work, ask about current topics. Use topics that relate to your
work or your personal audience. Everyone is different.
· Start a topic: talk about your process, what you’re
working on, what you did today, etc. ----Think about your brand/image here!
Create a Fun, Inspiring environment:
· Create contests: photo contests, commenting
contests, liking contests. You want to create things that inspire them to share
or participate in. With the Timeline, other people are going to see their
friends’ likes, shares and comments. Offer an incentive: Winner gets product or
service of the month (or choice), someone gets discount in your shop, one of 10
commenters will get a free product/service, etc.
·
Encourage fans to share pictures of their stuff,
favorite product. Whatever it is, that could be related to your product/service,
your brand or your web presence.
Determine who is your audience:
Research your audience: Use analytical reports like
Facebook Insights to understand the type of people that are “liking” and
engaging on your page, and from there you can learn and develop your audience.
CONSISTENCY
Create a schedule/system for your postings:
·
Decide what time of day, how many times a day, how
many times per week you will post. And what ‘type’ of content you will post.
·
Create a day/time for what content is shared: New product
on Fridays? Discount Sales on Sundays? Product of the day Tuesdays? Fan chat
Thursdays?
How do you plan to sell your product or service?
When
I talk to a potential client, I ask if they have a marketing plan or a business
plan. How do you know where you are
going if you don’t have a plan?
·
Create sales goals and develop a system that will
help you reach those goals.
·
Determine what you are willing to sell your product/service
for (pricing). What is your minimum?
·
Do you want to offer your product/service directly
on Facebook or promote your other sites where the product/service is available?
URGENCY
It’s important to create the sense of urgency and uniqueness
for your product/service on a social network because everything is posted in
real time, exposure on Social Media sites is short term and not every follower
will see your posts. Simply posting payment information for or link to product
/service, there really is less of a chance at making a sale.
·
Use sayings like “The first (number) of people to
comment-” or “The first one to say “SOLD!” can purchase-” to create the urgency
to reply.
·
Create rarity with limited times or limited offers:
Certain specials will be available from this day to that day, or for 24 hours,
or until the Friday of that week. Something of that nature, where the special
will not be available anywhere else and is not done on a REGULAR basis.
·
Creating urgency not only helps keep your fans’
attention but help increase engagement which in turn will help increase the
exposure of that particular post across other timelines. More likes, comments
or shares equal more exposure for that post.
This is important for all business people, because
Email will go away and Social Media will be the communication vehicle of the
future. Join the conversation and make it meaningful, not just the Hard Sell!
website: http://catsllc.net
twitter: http://twitter.com/catsllc
facebook: http://facebook.com/catsllc
Computer And Technology Services, LLC
(CATSLLC for short!)