Social media marketing can be a powerful tool for those who have the knowledge on how to use it effectively. It can also be your worst enemy if you don’t know how to engage your marketing on social media.
There are four basic steps to follow when interacting and marketing with social media on places like Facebook, Twitter, and many more social hangouts. Following this simple four-step procedure could earn you a fortune and keep you from entering forbidden territory.
Likes: Before you can start offering whatever it is you’re marketing to anyone on social media sites, you first need to get them to like it. Interacting with people and showing interest in them and talking about them and what they do will make them think you’re an interesting person, even if you haven’t told them much about yourself. People love to talk about themselves and what they do or what they do. Allowing them to do this will create good feelings for you and make them like you. It is similar to a salesperson building a relationship with their prospect in a sales situation. An auto sales coach gave me the best definition of a sales person I’ve ever heard by the name of Jackie Cooper. A seller’s definition of him is “One who can make another or others feel, think, and act in a predetermined way.” Isn’t that what we’re trying to do when we promote our businesses or opportunities to people on social networking sites like Facebook?
Listen: Once you’ve made someone feel, think, and act by liking you, it makes sense for them to listen to what they have to say, as long as what you have to say is interesting and beneficial to them. No one will listen to anyone for long if you’re not offering something of interest or something that benefits the person you’re talking to. Your success in getting them to listen to you is determined by whether or not they like you and how interested they are in what you need to talk to them about. So make sure you do your homework and find out if the person you’re talking to would be interested in what you have to offer in the first place. It would be hard to get someone to listen to your opportunity for unique ice cycles if that person lives in the North Pole, or to get someone interested in a nice juicy steak if that person is a vegetarian. So do your homework and make sure you’re talking to the right prospect for your topic.
Believe: Now that they like you and listen to you, your job is to make them believe in you. At this point, you better know what you’re talking about or you’ll lose them. If you’re marketing a product, you better know your product inside out and inside out. If you’re marketing an opportunity, you better know that opportunity inside out and inside out. People don’t like being pitched something you don’t know enough about to give them a good pitch. If you have knowledge about your product and/or opportunity, you will be able to give a credible presentation and position yourself as a leader in your field. People like doing business with leaders and professionals because you make them feel secure in their decision to do business with you.
Buy – This is the last of the rules of engagement because this is the desired outcome of the Like, Listen, Believe process. It is at this point, where you have earned the right to ask for the business. If you’ve done all of the above steps correctly, then you should have a customer or at least a good prospect for your offer. If you have positioned yourself correctly and the prospect liked you, listened to you and believed you, then you have been successful in social media marketing. Whether or not they do business with you will depend on how well you made them feel, think, and act in a predetermined way.
I know there are more rules to engaging in social media marketing, but these four basic steps will keep you from becoming a spammer or hobbyist and they are very easy to remember: Like, Listen, Believe, and Buy.
Great success to you and God bless you!