How many social media followers does your business have? Have you ever posted something that was “liked” more than a thousand times? Do you know what the IMHO in the headline means?
Hopefully you’re not hyperventilating at this point. I know a lot of business owners who are terrified at the concept of social media. But in today’s business environment, utilizing social media to promote your business, cultivate leads, and engage clients and prospective clients is a great way to help develop your business. In the last few years, I have gained experience in the B2B realm using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to help grow my brand as a commercial banker, which adds value to my clients and prospective clients by delivering them relevant and engaging content. (We can debate how “engaging” you find it at a later date.)
Three ways to post on social media
While there is a lot of information out there about social selling, my goal today is to share the basics with you – namely the THREE primary WAYS to post online, and then the THREE primary RULES of posting online. Remember, this is just a quick overview of the main takeaways I have learned from my firsthand experience in the social selling realm.
The first thing you have to do (after you get your accounts set up) is to start generating consistent posts. There are THREE WAYS I post on social media for the purpose of social selling:
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- Produce original content (like this blog)
- Make thought-provoking 2-3 sentence posts (comments, questions, etc. – e.g., “What is your business’s most important asset?”)
- Highlight someone else’s original content that your target audience would find beneficial (share a link to an article or comment)
Three rules when posting on social media
But it’s not enough to just post loads and loads of content. Your clients and potential clients will quickly tune you out if you aren’t keeping the THREE primary RULES of social media posting in mind:
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- Be Relevant
Remember your target audience. Who are you trying to engage? What information can you give them that will be valuable to them? What expertise can you share the provides some value to them (but don’t give away all your secret sauce!)? When you post content that is relevant to your existing or prospective clients, it not only provides value to them, but it also reminds them of your expertise in your field. And finally, don’t post content your audience isn’t interested in. For example – I wouldn’t post about residential mortgages, but my counterpart in the residential mortgage department might. - Be Concise
Relevant is important. So is concise. Grab their attention as quickly as possible. Tell them what they need to know. And don’t waste their time. They’ll appreciate it. - Share
Hit as many relevant social media platforms as possible. You have to take into account two considerations when considering the platform – 1). What kind of audience looks at the platform, and 2). How do you engage them on that platform? Posting a picture on Instagram will reach a different audience than posting on Pinterest. With my audience, I get more engagement with my blog from Facebook, but I receive more feedback and potential clients from LinkedIn due to the nature of the platform.
- Be Relevant
One final thing to remember is to be consistent. The more consistent you are, the more you will stay in the top of the minds of you potential and existing clients.
If you’d like to sit down and discuss a social selling strategy for your business, comment on this post, shoot me a message on Facebook or LinkedIn, hit me on Twitter… or I guess you could email or call… but not many people are doing that anymore. Lol.
P.S. There are a lot of different platforms out there to help manage your social media accounts. Personally, I think Buffer does a great job, but find one that you find easy to use.
P.P.S. If you want to know what IMHO means, ask your children, or shoot me an email and I’ll tell you. Lol.
