Social media is a community, a community of people that choose to engage and interact on their comfort level. Yes, time is a factor but we make time for what we find important, in areas that are familiar. As consumers we gripe or praise to be heard and responded to. As bloggers we seek to find new readers to be heard. This can lead us to believe that we are innately selfish as there is a need for attention. Social media welcomes the attention but it is not always reciprocated. Companies are learning how to incorporate social media into their marketing strategy and see where they can build their brand and awareness while forgetting that that a conversation is taking place without them.
Engaging and building relationships is what social media marketing is all about and seeing where you personally or as a company fit in is ongoing. Traditional marketing while still being effective is measured in sales as there is not an opportunity to talk until the consumer reacts by purchasing. Social media changes that as you can reach out to people and talk to them to gauge how they are may react. Expanding your social media community cannot be measured in dollars but through efforts measured in web currency.
7 Tips for Expanding Your Social Media Community
1. Find Them. Research the leaders in your industry who are active in social media to see who and why they are leaders. Interact with their community.
2. Make them Feel Important. People who are recognized as providing value, benefit or helped are inspired share as the reward is more attention.
3. Pay Attention and Repeat. The greatest speakers engage an audience by doing their homework and talking about people or things that affect the audience directly.
4. Resist the Urge. The urge to overpower and bring it all back to you. While you may have a similar story or experience let them be heard.
5. Be Curious. Ask questions. Questions get answers that spark new insight and provoke more questions.
6. Seek Out Common Interests. This may not seem like it may bring in business but allowing people to see what you like and are passionate about outside of business creates conversation outside the interest community.
7. Stay Involved. Social media is a 2 way conversation that does not always happen right away. It may take months to be have a core set of people who welcome you into their community.
Social media is changing the way that we interact. As it evolves and we find new ways to interact and build relationships the success will be in going the extra mile of bringing the human part behind the brand. A small business or big company creating a social media strategy has to include full adoption and engagement by the entire company. A response from the CEO will be needed to gain trust.
Thoughts? Is social media effectiveness helping or hurting your efforts.
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