Relationship Marketing Archives - The Social Media Advisor

February 15, 2023
Blog, Brand Storytelling, Content Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Social Engagement, Social Media Strategy, Video in Social Media

Influencing the Culture of Your Social Media Followers

Social media is an excellent tool for demonstrating a positive company culture, grabbing the attention of your ideal clients, and attracting and retaining talent. The following tips will help you use social media to demonstrate your company culture and co-create your social media experience with your audience!

Be Transparent

It’s a well known fact that most social media accounts aren’t being managed by the business owner. Or that the posts are being scheduled in advance. And while both of these means of outsourcing can be a great thing for small business owners, it’s important to do this the right way. Your audience needs to know you are there for them. That who you say you are and who you actually are align. That you’ll be there for them if/when they comment and engage. If you want to build trust with your followers, it starts with your authentic presence. You don’t need to show you audience everything about your life, but letting them in here and there will showcase that you are a real person, with real feelings, looking to make a big impact on the world – and they’ll love you for it!

Create Culture-Lead Content

People will be drawn to your online persona based on your content. The type of content you create will have a direct correlation on who follows you and how they engage with your posts. Each post should be designed and each caption written in a strategic manner. Begin by asking these questions about your content:

How do you want the viewer to feel?
What transformational impact are you delivering with this post?
What action do you want the viewer to take after seeing your content?

If you want a highly engaged audience culture, you’ll have to focus on encouraging your audience to respond, reply, and share your post. This isn’t easy. Often simply asking can work but not all the time. You’ll want to create excitement and interest to stop the mindless scrolling and get people to interact with your work.

Connect

One of the best ways to lead the social media culture of your online presence is to be present. If you can schedule time to have live conversations, Q&A events, educational videos where people can comment, ask questions, and engage in conversation with you in real time – they will start to feel truly invested in what you are building. They’ll feel connected with you and your brand. Schedule times to show up and just talk to your people. Yes, there will be trolls but those are easy to block, delete, or ignore. Your target audience will be there too and that is an opportunity worth showing up for!

Anyone can build a Social Media Page, but do they know how to build it correctly with the right social media marketing story and strategy for business, the right keywords and really target your ideal client? We build brands, write searchable copy for your profiles and develop strategies to expand your reach and build relationships using solid Social Media Marketing techniques. Since 2008, our team has provided support to clients Nationwide in online marketing. Find out more at our website.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

January 19, 2023
Blog, Relationship Marketing, Social Engagement, Social Media Strategy

People Are Drawn to a Great Business Story

Since the dawn of humanity, people have been drawn to a good story. In a world of ads and sales, the one thing that makes a great online business stand out from all the noise is their ability to tell a great business story. Brand storytelling flips traditional marketing on its head. More than just advertising, a brand story grabs your audience’s attention and makes them feel something.

If you want to really make an impact with your social media marketing, you must be able to tell a great business story!

Social media marketing was never about only posting promotional content and waiting for someone to open their wallet and buy your products or services. It was always about connecting with people online, in real time, and building relationships with your customers.

This endeavor is not for the company that wants to post about their work and then head out. That’s not how building relationships works.

However, if you know your own messaging and can tell a great story about your mission, vision, and values – then you have the foundation of a great social media marketing strategy!

Storytelling does not come naturally to everyone. Some people are great storytellers and, for others, it’s a skill that needs to be developed. However, you don’t need to be born a storyteller to craft a brand story and create content for social media that shares that information with the world. It’s really about getting personal, bringing your personality to the content, connecting with people, and showcasing that what you do makes an impact for others.

Ideas for your brand story:

Talk about your origins and why you chose to start your business in the first place.
Connect with people who have transformed in some way by working with you and share their story with your audience.
Do some behind-the-scenes content to show your followers insider knowledge on your process or operations.
Show how your small business is making an impact in your community.
Team up with your power partners and have conversations about the work that you do.
Share information about your mission, vision or values.
Break down the process for working with you and what that looks like for your customers.

This is just the beginning. There are so many ways to share your brand story on social media. If you get stuck, book a Discovery Session with us and we can talk about options for collaborating on your strategy and content.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook , Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

January 23, 2022
Relationship Marketing

How to Amplify Your Relationship Marketing

Thanks to social media and online marketing, we’re all acutely aware of the importance of online branding. There are some great tools out there for small businesses to build a brand that spreads virally across the Internet. But most brands are missing something important: a focus on relationship marketing.

Lead generation is a strategy that focuses on getting new customers, using techniques like email, cold calls, and ads to attract new clients. Relationship marketing works differently. It focuses on building existing relationships between you and your clients so they will come back to you and evolve into brand advocates.

Changing the Focus

Instead of wasting money on print ads and TV commercials, you should focus more on relationship marketing strategies. Relationship marketing means maintaining long-term relationships with your customers so they feel comfortable buying from you over and over again. When done right, it’s a lot cheaper than traditional forms of advertising, and it’s also much more effective because real people are talking about you without having to pay them to do so.

Relationship marketing is all about building trust. No matter what kind of product or service you provide, if your customers can’t trust that they’re getting a high quality product or service at a fair price, they won’t buy from you. So it’s important to build a reputation for quality and value in the marketplace. Once you change the focus from leads and sales, to building relationships – you’ll find that your business not only retains more customers and leads to more referrals, but you’ll find the additional satisfaction that comes with building a loyal fan base as well.

Be Active, Not Passive

The key to relationship marketing is creating connections and making people feel special. When you connect with people on a personal level and help them solve their problems, they will naturally want to do business with you again. This doesn’t happen when you focus all of your energy on completing projects. You have to be intentional about building and nurturing relationships for this to work.

There are a lot of ways to build relationships with your customers. In some cases, it might be as simple as thanking them for their business or offering them suggestions based on their preferences. The point is that you need a strategy for reaching out, staying in touch, and following up with your clients and customers.

Collaboration Over Competition

In our society, we’ve gotten accustomed to competing with each other. We’re encouraged to believe that we have to be better than everyone else in order to succeed. But this mindset can end up costing you in the long run because you may find yourself feeling isolated, stressed out, and overwhelmed.

The truth is that collaboration is a much more effective strategy for marketing your business. In fact, the human brain is hardwired for cooperation. We are social creatures who thrive on connection rather than competition.

Build relationships with the vendors, companies, trade shows, and competitors in your industry. You won’t regret knowing these people when you need them and they’ll all know who to refer when someone needs what you do!

Build Your Community

Create a community. In an age where everyone has an opinion and millions of people are posting their thoughts online, it can be hard to get attention. Create a place online where people can connect, share ideas and provide valuable information. No matter what business you’re in, chances are there’s an online community of people who interact on the same topic or are interested in the same product or service you offer. If there isn’t one, why not create one? Provide valuable information and people will come.

Relationship marketing leads to higher conversion rates: Studies show that businesses who invest in relationship marketing see much higher conversion rates on their email campaigns, social media posts and other online communication efforts. People are more likely to buy from those they know, like and trust so creating relationships with customers helps convince them of your credibility and reliability. You’ll also be able to create better social media content that resonates with followers and boosts engagement on your posts.

Relationship marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing out there. It will help your business grow, provide you with new leads, and help you make a name for yourself. But it’s not easy to do. If it was, everyone would already be doing it.

The first step is to shift your focus from sales to service. I promise that if you treat your people well, like friends and family, they will be loyal and they will refer you to others. The sales will happen naturally.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

August 8, 2021
Relationship Marketing

Top 3 Ways to Cultivate New Business with Social Media Marketing

You’ve probably been told that your business should be on social media but you’ve just not taken the time to figure it out OR you’ve tried your hand at social but just couldn’t get it to work for you. Just know that you’re not alone. Finding new business on social media is very possible but you may need a guide and a cheerleader to show the way and cheer you on!

Here are our top three ways to find new business on social media:

Consistency

Consistency is the most common piece of advice from social media marketing experts and the one small business owners find the most difficult to follow. Because there is not always an immediate benefit to sharing something on social media, it can feel like your efforts aren’t valued and may be a waste of time. However, every new business on social media starts in the same place. You have to earn the right to have an engaged audience by showing up consistently and sharing content that your audience finds valuable. If you only post occasionally, or when you think about it, you are training people that you aren’t dependable or reliable. You aren’t giving them a reason to stick around. Invest in posting consistently for six months in a row. I promise you’ll see a major difference in your results!

Trust

Trust is the #1 reason people choose to work with any small business. Purchasing is an emotional experience. Recent studies have shown that no amount of logic will convince someone to pull out their credit card or sign the dotted line. There is always an emotional reason behind why we purchase anything. Emotions = vulnerability. This is why trust is so key to the conversion process.

Here are some things buyers may consider before buying:

Have I heard of this company before?
Has anyone recommended this company before?
How does their brand make me feel?
Do they make a social impact?
Are they trustworthy? What sort of reputation do they have?
What can I find out about them online?
Where can I find out what other buyers think about them?
Does their website and social media grab my attention and, if so, does what they share resonate with my values and what I believe in?
What am I going to get out of this exchange?
Are they going to make it worth my time to pay attention or purchase?
Do I trust them? Will they do what they promise? Will this be a good investment for me?

These are just some of the things buyers consider when they are trying to make a purchasing decision. All of them are rooted in trust. The more you show up, the more you share your brand messaging, the more you interact with others online, the more opportunities you have to showcase that you are a trustworthy brand.

Interest

One of the biggest social media marketing mistakes is when a small business talks about what they are interested in without giving any consideration to the interests of their audience. This is why posting too much promotional content is bad news: no one wants to engage with someone who’s clearly only there to get money out of the interaction. While we know that your marketing efforts are about converting followers into customers, it’s essential that what you share is interesting to the audience first and foremost. Otherwise, why should they stick around to see more of your posts? Be interesting, be present, share ideas and information that are valuable to our audience – these are the paths to building the trust necessary for someone to choose to do business with you.

Are you struggling with not knowing how to use social media for your business? Not sure when to post, how to post, or what #Hashtags even are? Over three months, we will develop a roadmap of exactly how to use social media for your business in our Quarterly Roadmap Sessions. We will work on ads, reporting, creating posts for higher engagement, and break through the fears and frustrations small businesses experience with social media marketing. Let’s chat.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

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