In just about any kind of business, you start first by telling your friends about it, asking them to spread the word. You reach out to fellow business owners and share the news of your launch. This is all called word-of-mouth. What you might not realize is that this is exactly what social marketing is all about. It actually puts your word-of-mouth on steroids allowing you a much larger reach and leveraging the power of one on many instead of strictly one on one.
You are doing the very same activities that you’ve done for years, except now you are doing them online. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, and other networks don’t require some newfangled strategy, fancy tools, or unfamiliar techniques. Instead it is all about taking what you know about relationships from offline to online so you can bring new customers and clients back offline into your business.
Let’s take a quick peek at some of the tenets of a good relationship:
#1 Listen more than you speak.
#2 It’s better to be kind than right (aka diplomacy is rewarded.)
#3 Stay in touch.
#4 Be consistent and persistent.
#5 Go the extra mile.
These are the very same “rules” that apply to good old fashioned Main Street marketing. And it is likely by these “rules” that you built your business in the first place. Now, it’s time to reinvigorate your business with new marketing tools and apply the same “rules” online.
So what does that mean you are going to leave behind:
#1 Broadcasting (you know that one way conversation or rather shouting about your services and products!)
#2 Being right at the expense of being kind (get over it.)
#3 Staying in touch only sporadically or randomly.
#4 Using non-human avatars (logos, brands, cars, pets, storefronts) and being different on each network.
#5 Doing the bare minimum because you are stretched thin and tired of doing more with less.
Main Street marketing, as relationship marketing is often termed, has been around for years. It isn’t new and I’m betting that if you really just slow down a bit, clear your busy brain of the excuses you’ve been making, you’ll find that you really do know how to build profitable relationships well and right.
