It's All In The Conversation: How To Use Social Media Marketing Tastefully

Treat Social Media As Another Medium To Build A Positive Relationship With Potential Customers

I was reading "Entrepreneur Magazine" this morning and came across this video that struck a cord with me.

What I liked about what Chris Brogan said was his emphasis on viewing posting, tweeting, stumbling, digging like an introduction and conversation starter. Your objective is to start a dialogue that will develop a positive relationship with your potential customers and clients. It sounds like common sense but we have all seen the opposite happen and may even have made the mistake of trying to sell first when first starting out.

In order to use social media sites like Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, and so on, to promote and ultimately sell you products or services, there are some basic rules of etiquette that you should be aware of.

1.  Treat your posts like they are conversation starters.

First and foremost, treat social media just as you would a face to face meeting at a conference or social event. Posting on theses social sites and forums is akin to striking up a conversation. Don't introduce yourself by pushing your products or services. Any potential dialogue would end right there.


2.  Use your posts, shares, retweets, reshares, and comments to develop a dialogue and relationship with potential customers.


Once you have begun a conversation your following posts, shares, retweets, and comments should be made with the intention building a positive relationship and nurturing trust. You wouldn't strike up a conversation, have a single back and forth as dialogue and then hit them with your brand and push for a sale if you were face-to-face or on the telephone so don't do it here.


3.  Let your brand and products or services come out naturally in the conversation.


As you continue the dialogue with others online via social media your brand will naturally enter the conversation. As you get to know your prospective customers you will be able to introduce the products and services that are best suited to these people. Allowing your business to become part of the relationship naturally,  the brand trust will be there and you will have much better success selling your products over and over again. Your followers and those you follow will begin to seek your expertise.  

I look back at my first efforts in online marketing

and realize that in some places I came at potential customers

aggressively

before getting to know them

or letting them get to know me.

I failed to look at social media marketing the way I look at offline marketing.

What I will take away from Chris Brogan, and I hope you will too, is that social media marketing needs to approached with the same care and respect as any other form of marketing.

Social media marketing has the same primary objectives as all other marketing strategies:  build a relationship and gain trust so that a loyal customer can be created.

Did this video resonate with you?

Now go out there and engage in the conversation that social media marketing offers. It is the most powerful medium full of eager buyers who just need to be respected and taken interest in.



Please, leave your comments about the video and share any experiences you have had with social media marketing - good and bad - so we all can learn.

Feel free to pass this post and video on!  

Randine

To learn other great marketing tips and "how tos" from some of the best in the business, click here