Submitted by Katie Hellmuth on | 0 Comments
Your new and old customers and clients are out there - in the social networks. They are there conducting business, and seconds later are viewing baby pictures. Your next sale or long lasting client relationship could be one status update away. Your job is to court them, to woo them down the path of what you are selling, convincing them to buy it, and then retaining them with your amazing customer service and attention to detail.
As a website producer, and SEO and social media strategist, I work with many different types of Tin Shingles in different industries. This premise applies to all preneurs. I challenge you to claim that this could not work for you, or would not be your strategy. Some small business owners take the old approach that Facebook, for instance, is most certainly not for them, that their customers are either not wasting time there, or that they are not focused on business at that time.
This is a short-sighted approach, as I have proof that it is not the case. I run three businesses and a blog. Not only do I watch my digital clients and students of my Tweetworking class make their own success stories, I make some of my own. Be that a new member here at Tin Shingle, signing a new SEO client, or selling a sexy sleep mask for travel. Yeah, all vastly different products and services, and all ones that I sell. My biggest challenge is not confusing my friends and followers, and diluting my message.
Here are 3 tips on how you can court and woo your followers on social networks like Twitter and Facebook:
- Update your status update with what you are doing: Sounds obvious, but what you do all day long is normal to you, so you take it for granted. Others can only know what you do if you tell them. Once you tell them, they might need it. Sabina wrote great tips on doing this via Twitter.
- Be passive: I'm from the Midwest, so am fluent in passive aggressive language. This means I know how to talk about what I sell, without telling someone to buy it. This is a longer term strategy that helps your offering stick in your customers mind, and when you go for the hard sell, they may be ready for it.
- Go for the hard sell: You tell them exactly when to buy, and what to buy. Do this sparingly, as you don't want to tire your friends and followers and sound like a car salesman.
You'll find the right balance for you, and what formula works. Silence from your peers does not mean they didn't hear you, or don't care. They just may not have commented, or may be building their conviction to hire or buy from you. Personally, I've never been very good at getting comments at my blogs. But I had repeat readers. I know this because I could see the proof in my website statistics, received direct emails from them, or got in-person comments if I passed someone on the street. Keep going. You could be getting closer to your sales goal with each status update.
