The biggest part of marketing yourself in Social Media is to engage with those you are in contact with. If they don’t feel they have a personal relationship with you, they won’t be reading your posts or buy the products and opportunities you’re trying to sell. Here are some tips to help you engage your audience!
Don’t overwhelm yourself! There are so many networks out there, you can never seem to sustain a “name” out there with just one. But that doesn’t mean you need to sign up for all of them! Pick the ones you can handle, and stay active on those. It’s better to be more active on less networks than have hundreds of networks that you don’t have time to check. (I would say Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter. Plus a blog if you’re up for it!)
Message templates: New contacts. A lot of VA’s and even people running their own networks, will use template messages for new contacts. They can be similar, but most of them aren’t identical. (By the way, Facebook will ding your account if you send out the same message or link multiple times – if you get too many warnings they will temporarily disable the messaging feature on your account, so be careful!)
These templates will be for connection opportunities such as: When you request to add someone as a friend, when someone accepts your friend request, a Twitter autoresponder (or personal DM message) to new followers, ect.
Message templates: Conversation starters. You can choose people at random or sort through them by their job title or location to be relevant to the content you are sending out. Direct connections come more easily when you’re sharing what you two have in common.
This is great, too, for when you are launching a book and you want to connect with those who may want to read it, or help you market it through their networks. (Radio hosts, marketers, others in your industry, prospects, ect.)
Personalizing mass invites for events. When sending an event to your contacts, I always like to add a “note” to the event invite. This makes it seem personal and sometimes has the person look twice before they don’t read or simply decline the event.
If using Linked In, you can sort through people on your messages by their job title or location. This is helpful while you may be contacting business owners vs. college students, as well as the contacts in your area vs. across the country. Whenever possible, make your message relevant to those you are inviting.
Creatively engage with your following. I loved this article: 5 Awesome Examples of Engaging Social Media Campaigns on Hubspot Blog. Especially the added tip that reads: In the end, it’s not always about what you do, it’s how you do it. If your fans and followers are engaging with your campaign, that’s great, but make sure you give them a reason to be there that will help move the needle for your company as well. Set goals (do you want to increase reach, generate leads, etc.?), use calls-to-action, and make sure your campaign is engineered to achieve those goals. Use your social media campaigns as a tool to build interest in your business and ultimately generate new leads and future customers.
Do something you don’t see that often. The more creative and interactive, the faster your campaign will take off as well as your Social Media networks!
Here are some 12 other great ways to interact and start conversations in Social Media:
- Always respond to the comments you receive across all networks, as well as direct messages and mentions on Twitter (the good AND the bad – this is a great way to show your networks that you are listening!)
- Ask questions through statuses, blogs, and tweets
- Answer questions you see in other statuses, blogs, and tweets
- Ask for public feedback/reviews on products from your customers
- Post about those who influence you on your networks (when you do, tag them so they will be notified!)
- Thank those who post about you – across all networks (you’re notified when they tag you)
- Create a Pinterest board dedicated to the content you are influenced by (New post coming up about Pinterest and how to use it! Stay tuned for that.)
- Create lists on Twitter to easily organize your followers and those you follow. Do this especially for those who inspire you!
- If you’re on Google+, do the same with your circles
- Start getting into video marketing (talk to your followers about what is coming up, a funny joke you thought of, a book you’re writing, a blog post you’re writing, a new theme of posts that are coming up, a class you’re teaching, tutorials, or be ambitious and start a tip of the week of your own via Youtube!) Show your personality and don’t be afraid of the camera!
- Share articles you find that will benefit the time of your readers
- Personalize everything. All the time. If you sound like a robot, you will be ignored. Put in as much effort as you can – it shows and definitely pays off!
This weeks takeaway tip: It’s important to remember that the point in engaging is so that each person doesn’t feel like a “number.” Show them all that you appreciate their feedback and support by spending just a few extra minutes everyday to engage with them. What harm could it do, really?
How do you engage? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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