An audience is a group of people that choose to let you communicate with them. Social media is simply the method you get to use to make that communication happen.
Social media has come such a long way since it was first introduced. You have so many options now and you should take advantage of as many sites as you can to use as your platform.
Some people say that social media sites are a time drain. They’re not if you’re smart about it, but you also need to know that if you’re going to build a relationship, you’re going to have to put some effort into it and that means taking the time to build.
There are plenty of sites, but the four leading ones that carry the most weight are Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook and Pinterest. Many beginner marketers know about these top four sites, but don’t really know how to use them to build the relationships they want to build with their audience.
Building an Audience Through Pinterest
You want to use all four sites, but the one that you will end up spending the most time on will depend on the industry you’re in and the niche you have. Most Internet marketers have heard of Pinterest, for example – but are unaware of the potential of using this site to drive targeted traffic to their domains.
They think of it as a hangout for people to socialize and not as a possible business tool. By not leveraging this valuable platform, you’re missing out on an easy to reach audience.
If you’re not sure how to tap into the potential of Pinterest, here are some easy tips you can follow to make using Pinterest beneficial for your business. It takes less time to use this site (as well as all your social media sites) than you think.
Pinterest is helpful because of all the visuals you can pin. You can have more than one board and you can make each of these boards relevant to whatever you’re promoting – whatever it is that you want the backlink to point to.
An example of how you can use this site would be if you’re a marketer promoting fashion items – like high-end shoes. You can blog about the shoes on your blog and put up a nice photo of them on your blog entry.
Then you pin the blog post on Pinterest. The blog entry gets repinned by others to their boards and it goes viral easily. Nice visuals get repinned, so images are important.
Quotes from your blog that impact others can also be pinned and then others will repin them. You want to use Pinterest to promote your products – both tangible and digital. If you’re selling an intangible product, you can pin snippets from anything that you’re teaching.
You want to be careful that you’re not flagrantly pushing products with every Pin. You don’t want to pop in, make it all about you and exit or you won’t have many followers.
One-sided relationships are selfish and drive people away. To keep from being a selfish marketer on Pinterest, you want to include images from others on your boards and don’t make them all from other marketers.
You have a life apart from business and the personal sharing is what helps build relationships. When you have followers, make sure you check out their pins, too – and repin them to your boards whenever appropriate.
You can add a Pinterest share button on your blog. That makes it easier for people to pin your site and help you generate free traffic.
Finding a Connection with Your Audience on Facebook
Facebook is a social media site that every smart marketer uses. There are so many ways to use this site to help grow your business. You already know how important it is to have a face to go with the business so make sure your Facebook profile has a nice headshot of you.
Take advantage of all the ways that Facebook can help. When you create your Facebook fan page, be different. Stand out from the crowd. People like what’s interesting or funny. They share what’s sad, helpful, what’s wrong, and what’s right. So be real.
Interact with users on your Wall. When they comment, respond back. Hop over to the Walls of people on your friends’ list and reply to whatever they’re talking about.
Share a thought, tell them to have a nice birthday, relaxing weekend, say that you hope their new business endeavor goes well – whatever you say, just involve yourself in their lives.
Make your content personal, too. Ask about a good restaurant or ask what movie they recommend watching on your day off. Tell them about something funny that happened to you or an embarrassing moment. Let them see your humanity.
Don’t forget to build albums on your Facebook page. Use these to show yourself using your product, talking about your product, traveling, relaxing, and meeting other marketers.
Use Facebook Groups and Events and use them to create a marketing campaign. You can make polls on Facebook, you can host a contest and you can use the Marketplace to advertise your products, too.
Testing the Waters of Twitter
Twitter is one of the fastest and easiest ways to market and it’s surprising how many Internet marketers don’t use this convenient social media tool. Some marketers don’t use it because they don’t know what to say in 140 characters.
Don’t think with your marketing hat on. Think of Twitter as a relaxing place to microblog about yourself. Sure, some of the stuff you say is going to be about your business, but talk about you, too.
Pass out tidbits of information that make a human connection. You can talk about walking the dog, seeing the sunset, having an epiphany, wanting to help people, what gives you joy, the biggest failure of your life, what you regret, and what you hope for.
Emotions are the same regardless of whether your followers are in business or not. That’s what they’ll connect with. They’ll connect with you emotionally long before they’ll connect to your product.
You can even schedule your Twitter to update a couple of times a day. Write out all of your Tweets in one day and then you’re done. In fact, it makes smart sense to have a specific time set aside to handle all of your social media updates.
When you’re on Twitter (and other social media) you have to remember to never hog the spotlight. If the majority of your posts are all about you, then you’re doing something wrong.
You need to interact with your followers on all of your social media. Be reciprocal. One way streets are for actual roads, but aren’t good for developing relationships. It only takes a second to interact on their Twitter and it only takes a second to Retweet something or share something of interest for them.
Reciprocation is as simple as a Retweet of their content or a tweet thanking someone if they share your Tweet. This shows accessibility and thoughtfulness and people like that.
Get Onboard the Google Plus Train
Google Plus is a social media site that more and more marketers are starting to use. You want to be on Google Plus because it has a lot of features including Google Authorship and you really want this for added visibility in the search engine results pages.
Google has changed their algorithms so that quality bloggers can really take advantage of this. With Google Authorship (part of Google Plus) you can verify your name and put your face beside your content.
The reason that this is so great is because it builds visitor recognition and trains readers to expect great quality when they see your face appear in the Google search results. It also draws the eye to your link above other text-only links.
Google Plus works by promoting interaction. It’s basically starting a conversation and joining other conversations – but the payoff is high. Simply conversing with others is how you’re creating and maintaining the relationships you need for your business.
You want to interact with people by posting new content and you want that content to be interesting. Don’t talk just to talk. Be excited, be passionate about whatever you’re sharing.
On your Google Plus about page, use a profile picture and then make your introduction. What you like, what you can be found doing most often, etc. This is your way of ‘meeting’ the people.
Next, you want to build your circle with people you know, people in your field, people with similar likes, hobbies etc. Another feature you can take advantage of in Google Plus is their Hangout feature.
You can start a Hangout or join one. These are video chats that you can use to interact with your circle by sending them an invitation. You can use a Hangout to share information, have fun and get to know your circle by having a visual and auditory online interaction.
Using Google Plus can give your business a boost when people are searching for something that’s related to your business. How does that work? Your presence on Google Plus acts as a road with brighter, clearer road signs that Google uses to direct the searchers to you.
Google Plus makes it easier for others to find you in a search. Another thing that makes it easier to find you is when you start using social share buttons on your blog and use your business domain in your social media site URL.
For example, if you have a business as Jane Smith, then you want to use @janesmith instead of something that’s not relevant like @brighteyes.
Managing Your Social Media Time
The biggest complaint that many marketers make against social media interaction is the time it takes to actually interact. You have to learn how to manage the time it takes to build these relationships without becoming a social media butterfly.
You don’t want to spend so much time hanging out on social sites to build relationships that your business suffers. That defeats the purpose. Social media is a tool to be used for building your business, not tearing it down.
If you can’t set aside a time every week and schedule your social media interactions, then set a short amount of time each day. Set an egg timer if you have to – since social media can suck you in to the void with the interesting stuff on there. Get in, share your content, interact with others and get out.
