Thanks to guest blogger, Laura Rubinstein
On March 25, social media marketing strategist Laura Rubinstein was my guest on the Marketing Blab. Prior to the Blab, she was kind enough to post this guest blog and share her insights about building relationships via social media marketing.
Social selling is the buzzword du jour for sales and marketing people. Actually, it’s nothing new. When using social media for business, successful entrepreneurs put building relationships at the top of their social media to do list.
That’s right, if you want to sell using social media, you need to do exactly what works offline, engage with people and cultivate trust. Remember KLT – the know, like and trust factor? Well, your mission – should you want to be successful – is to create a tribe of people who care about what you offer and become raving fans.
How Do You Build Trust Online?
The foundation to any relationship is trust. Trust is not automatically assumed, it is earned by the actions you take and the alignment those actions have with what you say or promise in your marketing communications. Consistency goes a long way in building trust too. That includes being consistent in your:
• Frequency of communication
• Branding across networks and your website
• Messaging – having it being align with your mission/purpose
• Solutions working
• Quality of service
Get the picture? Ask yourself, “What makes me truly trust a brand, business or service?” It probably has something to do with consistency.
Get Over Your Resistance
The biggest block to success online is buying into excuses, myths and discomfort with a social network. I invite you gently to “get over it.” You must do that before proceeding with the rest of this post. If you need help, here is a resource to guide you through online success.
The Secret Sauce to Landing Clients
Obviously there are many factors to building profitable business relationships, but if I had to give you the biggest secret to landing clients online, it is using the private messaging feature that almost all networks offer.
Hopefully you have already realized that developing and delivering amazing content (via your blog, downloads and email) that offers solutions your clients are craving is critical to the trust building aspect. Thus, once someone has sampled or gorged on your content, or otherwise engaged and shown interest that a personal connection with you would be welcomed, it’s refreshing and makes you stand out.
In sales we used to talk about the telephone as the cash flow machine. Now it’s your social messaging box. Create a series of messages to send during different phases your prospects and clients go through. Make someone’s day with a thoughtful tip, offer or check-in. You never know where it will lead.
Do you have any fellow alumni you haven’t connected with in a while? Why not reminisce or congratulate someone privately on their recent successes they posted? There are unlimited possibilities for using private messages to build their confidence and loyalty. It’s right there in plain sight every time you log into your social media account.
So what are you waiting for? Who can you message today and make a difference with? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below because I’d love to hear from you. Thanks a million!
About guest blogger Laura Rubinstein: Laura is the founder of Social Buzz Club and Transform Today. She is the bestselling author of Social Media Myths BUSTED: The Small Business Guide to Online Revenue available at http://SMMBBook.com. Laura works with businesses to build their influence online using savvy inbound marketing strategies that attract new sales and grow their bottom line.
