Social media marketing is surrounded by many different wrong approaches which have created many failures for most businesses in the ever changing world of online marketing. It is clear that everyone wants more money in their pocket but how many people use the right methods to achieve their financial goals, how do they get Facebook fans or Twitter followers then turn them into their potential customers?
Social media is not another platform to flood fans and subscribers with endless product promotions that make them regret why they started following you in the first place. On the contrary, it is a lucrative opportunity to build lasting relationships and absolute trust between you and your customers.
This is the right approach, and the benefits to those who follow this approach are staggering. Imagine having a steady stream of regular customers who will go out of their way to buy from you, or who visit your website and social media pages regularly because they believe there is always some helpful information waiting to be assimilated, not annoying ads.
If you’re ready to take advantage of social media the right way, then continue reading and find out how you can start building rapport and trust using this medium.
1. Have a posting schedule: Starting with the most obvious ones that are definitely not the most important but still important, posting consistently is essential for building relationships – and having a posting schedule will increase your consistency. It is very easy to attract followers on Twitter, fans on Facebook, etc. but maintaining it is impossible by idleness or inactivity.
Apart from the fact that active engagement shows you are serious about winning over your fans and subscribers, it also keeps them coming back for more. When you tweet or update your fan page regularly, your followers learn about your brand faster, and if you do the right things, trust develops faster as a consequence.
2. Be unique and honest: Starting with uniqueness, customers and fun will start to trust your brand when your message and methods are different, rather than similar to the hundreds they’ve seen. Your fun should always remember you, so you need to be unique to give them something to remember about your brand.
With regards to honesty, don’t rush to delete every negative comment you get on social networks or even on your website. Take them to the light instead and settle it openly. You never know how beneficial building trust can be! Ask your followers for recommendations on how you can improve your products and services and implement the practical feedback you receive.
3. Answer the question promptly: Questions are unavoidable and answers to questions are what many customers are looking for. But some customers hesitate to ask questions because they know they will have to wait before they get an answer. However, some customers instinctively prefer to ask questions on social media platforms because they are sure they will get a faster response.
If you answer questions quickly and you don’t ignore them, customers will be assured that they will always find a solution to any problem they encounter, and quickly too, and consequently increase trust in your brand.
4. Provide useful content and limit promotions: There is nothing worse than disappointment and a bunch of disgruntled customers can damage your brand reputation or at the very least, you will lose them and your chances of forming a relationship with them will be slim to zero. So how can you avoid letting your customers down?
Minimize promotions. Don’t always talk about how useful your product is. Instead, provide valuable tips and information, guides, best practices, etc. in the form of videos, text, images, and infographics. If you can, run a contest too.
5. Start an interesting conversation: Has anyone said something interesting about your brand on Twitter or Facebook? Are you turning comments into conversations? Believe it or not, conversation creates trust and builds a relationship, especially when your concern and concern for the customer shows through in your responses.
6. Extend friendship to social networks: I’ve only been talking about relationships with subscribers and fans since the beginning of this post. Relationships with influential business owners who are not in direct competition with your business are also important. Whenever you meet people in your niche, check to see if they have social profiles and engage them in regular conversation.
Share ideas with them and let them do the same and watch how strong your relationship with them will become and the impact it will have on your business.
Conclusion
If you’re having trouble implementing these tips, shift your focus from the number of followers you have to the number of loyal followers you have. That’s the most important. I hope these tips are practical, because they are, and their effectiveness is limited only by how seriously you apply them.
Goga Smith is an internet marketing specialist and blogger. He writes about tips, tricks, and Twitter marketing. Also Goga is a blogger at Followersshop.com, where you can buy twitter followers.
