Selling on Social Media - The Relationship Myth!

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Selling on Social Media - The Relationship Myth

• By Jerry Nihen
• Jay Nines Social Media Marketing
• http//www.jayninelessons.com

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Frequently, I find myself responding to the
following question
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"I understand that social media marketing is all
about relationship building, but how do I measure
ROI and justify my costs?"
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If you Google "Social Media Success Stories" you
generally find a lot of stories based on
companies that are boasting the "success" they
have had on social media platforms by engaging
their customers. They feel they have achieved a
higher level of success because they interact
with people on their website.
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Social media marketing DOES help you build
relationships and communicate with your
customers. However, customer interaction is
something that you should already be doing -
regardless of whether or not you are on social
media. So, saying that social media marketing is
JUST for customer relationship building can leave
a lot to be desired.
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Setting up a social networking platform falls
along the lines of Marketing 101. Go where your
customers are. In this day and age, your
customers are most likely on the internet.
Statistics from 2010 show that there is over 1.97
billion people using the internet, and over 700
million people using Facebook and Twitter alone.
LinkedIn itself has more than 100 million users,
and it's estimated that 22.7 of all internet
usage is spent on social networking websites.
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What does this mean? Well, you're not necessarily
bringing your business to these websites for
"relationship building." Instead, you're bringing
your business to where you customers are. Since I
have already discussed that customer interaction
and relationship building is an important concept
in business -not just social networking-it's safe
to say that there has to be more to social
networking than relationship building.
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One of the concepts that I teach is that there
are three aspects of social media marketing
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Advertising - Social networking should be used
as an advertising platform for new customer
attraction and current customer up-selling.
Although you are not participating in direct
advertising methods, it's still important to know
a valuable aspect of social networking is to get
your name to potential customers.
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Branding - Social networking should be used as
a platform to demonstrate the high value of your
business, and act as a go to place for people to
see the personality behind your company. A
company's brand is the personality that defines
the company and sets you apart from your
competitors.
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Community - Social networking sites should be
used to build a community around your company,
where current/potential customers can connect
with your business. This is a place where they
can find new information, connect with each
other, and interact with your company.
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The last concept, the community building, is
really about attracting people who are already
set up on these platforms to your company. Just
like a local brick-and-mortar store is going to
try and locate itself on the busiest street in
the community you're going to locate yourself on
these platforms where your customers already are
interacting. The key is to entice them to join
your social networking campaigns.
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Now, the concept of this article is not to show
you how to build up your following. The concept
you need to understand is that JUST setting up on
these platforms for "relationship building" is
going to end up hurting the TRUE concept behind
social media marketing You're going where your
customers are.
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Interested in learning the TRUTH about growing
your social followers and fans online? Check
outhttp//www.jayninelessons.com/csnj for
your FREE video that reveals the number one
secret to SUCCESS with social media marketing
campaigns
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Jerry Nihen is a Social Networking Consultant
that has worked a wide variety of businesses and
individuals that have launched successful social
media strategies and campaigns.