If you look to Social Media as a tool for marketing, it's vital you look beyond the the NUMBERS.
I recently Unfollowed someone on twitter, who has 20,000+ followers. He is full of auto-Retweets. I was not getting value from him anymore. I can not distinguish between when he's online & when he's not. He seems to come online to thank & retweet those who have retweeted him,
I'm wondering what could be his goal. A huge Klout score? Huge follower base?
If you earn a retweet you feel good, right? I feel good too. But do you feel full in your pocket? Does a retweet measure business growth?
Building relationships on Social Networks is much more than all that. It's better to build a deeper connection than a wider one. Even big brands have deep relationships with a few influencers and connectors.
A Robert Scoble of Rackspace will be invited to a Google conference. He will tweet about it and blog about it. A relatioship built with Scoble, Is likely to result into some word of mouth if he loves the product. (This is just an example)
It's appropriate to ask yourself; do I have a strategy in place to build deeper (focused) connections that will result into profit (benefits) for fans/followes and me? Or, am I more concerned about the number of ReTweets, fans/followers and mentions?
What strategies can I use to build deeper relationships?
- Guest Blogging. If you write good stuffs. You will be approached by other blogs to be guest. It is an opportunity to build a relationship with the blog(gger). Pick the blogs you choose wisely. This relationship can result in backlings and more readers.
- Engage. Except you are Techrunch or Mashable. You don't want to broadcast messages. Even Techcrunch has a strategy to engage with influencers. The writers are having personal accounts. They engage with others in tweets/chats.
- Take note of influencers/connectors. As you base grows, it may be challenging to keep in step with the numbers. Take note of key people who
- Comment on blogs. In my case I have blogs I comment on regularly. I am still working on my comment strategy. It is another step to build deep connection. Leave meaninful comment. Don't be tricky. It will show if your comment is thoughful.
- ReTweet good stuffs they have. Don't be a self promoter. On twitter, you have the opportunoty to share what others have. Show some love and you may just get it back. Even if you don't get a retweet, you can gain a friend.
- Recommend them. If you know someone who is great for a particulat thing, recommend them to others.
- Call them by name. Use their first name when responding to tweets or comment on blog/Facebook. Everyone feels warm with that, don't you?
- Send them mails - Newsletter in case of subscribers. Not only when you have products to sell. Appreciate them. Ask for feedback to serve them better and offer special offer to your subscribers.
Note. You cannot build deep with everyone. Take note of influencers, connectors and those who are currently interested in your service. This can include, blog readers, subscribers, those who comment, those who are buying from you etc.
They will form a spark. A spark will form a fire. A fire can consume the forest. You don't need more than a spark to set fire in a forest. A spark among some woods, under the right temperature will do the trick.
Identify & create sparks, that can create fire and grow your customer base. Then focus on sustaining and keeping them satisfied. The realtionship counts.
I will be covering that in a future posts. (How to sustain business relationships)
Now you see, it not the number of teeth that count, but the healthy ones. Focus on building a deep relationship, the number will come and your business will grow.
What strategy have you been using to grow your business relationships? I will love to hear from you in the comments.
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