Okay… you might not have x-ray vision, or be able to scale a vertical wall, but I believe you can still become a social media super hero!
Using social media for business success is an important investment. It’s not enough to say you are “on Facebook” or offer the occasional “Retweet”. Engaging with your audience is paramount, sharing valuable, unique content that truly inspires and solves your client’s and customer’s problems is a must. It’s also a balancing act… It’s important to be bold yet gentle and courteous; self assured whilst still being open-minded; and professional at the same time as being entertaining and occasionally amusing.
Here’s a list of super powers that you’ll need to develop to ensure you become “SocialGuy” or “SocialGal”!
- Credibility – Be an open book, transparency, honesty and consistency is hugely important to building your online relationships. Check out one of my previous posts to discover my top tips for building trust and credibility online.
- Generosity – Recognise the work of others and that of your clients and customers. It might be by sharing a post, adding a comment, giving somebody a thumbs up on Facebook, a retweet on Twitter or a cute little heart on Instagram. We all like to know that others appreciate the message we’re conveying and if you share the love, I guarantee it will come back to you ten fold.
- Writing – Write about what you know or about what you love, tell a story, make ’em laugh… For more tips on finding your online voice, take a look at this article.
- Attentiveness – Listen to your audience, ask them questions and listen to their responses. The key to business success through social media is engagement, so please be present, the scheduled post may be a time-saver but it can seriously damage your credibility if you are not available to respond to comments or questions.
- Influence – Give information that will empower others. The internet is a noisy place and the hard part isn’t defining your message; it’s creating a community of people who want to hear from you. They will be out there, many will have similar interests and passions as you, or will want to unite for a similar cause – you just need to find them.
- Diligence – You don’t become a social media superstar overnight, remember if you foster all of the above super powers it will happen, like all good things you need to be patient and continue to work towards your goal.