Social media is a great way to reach out to customers…
And the reasons to offer some insight into your business are numerous:
- Are you offering a new promotion?
- Did you get some great new products in?
- Are you introducing a new service?
These are all great things to announce on social media…
But if you’re only using social media as your personal PR and promotional venue – you’re missing the point!
Facebook and Twitter are rarely effective for making instant sales.
But social media does something far more important than sell your products – it establishes a preference in the minds of your customers.
By helping you build relationships, social media sites are extremely useful tools for establishing a small business identity that customers can like and trust.
When customers like and trust your business, they will prefer to purchase products and services from you, instead of just seeking out the best deal.
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are all about being social.
Likes and retweets are powerful tools you can use to expand your reach by directly communicating with customers daily.
Both of these tools are signs of approval and engagement. The more likes or retweets a post gets, the more people the post reaches…
General Rule of Thumb
Most businesses need at least a 10:1 ratio of relationship-building posts to sales-oriented posts.
Small businesses that create experiences as their primary service should strive for a 20:1 or a 50:1 ratio, with relationship-building posts showing customers the experiences and advantages your business creates.
Sales-oriented posts should consist of soft sales pitches…
Hard pitches should be avoided completely, unless you are responding directly to a comment or post made by a specific individual.
For example, if a customer posts a problem on your page, looking for a solution, then you can pitch a specific product or service that solves their problem…
Otherwise, sales posts should simply be invitations that customers can take advantage of.
How to Make Your Likes Dig Deeper
If you want to truly expand your impact and win over your customers, you also want to pay attention to the content your customers post and reciprocate their interest in your small business.
As they say: “A phone goes both ways” – the same is true for social media…
Here are 5 Social Media Marketing Tips for getting a better result:
- Take some time to look at your customers’ content
- Participate by liking, commenting, retweeting, replying, and sharing
- Remember you are representing your business as you do this – stick to your business identity
- Record (offline) any useful insights you’ve gained about who your customers are, what interests them, and any ideas you might have for future content
- Don’t be a robot – relationships are built with people not afraid to be people (let your personality shine!)
In your corner,
Charlie
P.S. For more advanced relationship building insights, join us in The Predictable Profits Insiders’ Club.
