Some people don’t think social media relationship building is a winner.

They are not using social media for their business correctly, nor do they understand the value in social networking.  Social media is the art of listening, learning, sharing and providing value.  It is not about your children or other family members signing in on the different social sites under your name and saying to everyone, “Hi, I went to lunch with my friends today” or “Hi, it is a great sunny day and I am going swimming.” No, I am not saying completely do away with your other forms for marketing, but social media should be incorporated as part of your marketing efforts.  Without utilizing social media as part of your marketing efforts, you are limiting the potential of building repeat customers who are loyal to your company.  During times when business is slow, it is the loyal customers who will still keep buying from you due to the established relationship, trust and they know the value of your services / products and your company reputation.

Building a relationship takes time. If people trust you, they are going to be loyal and if they are loyal, their average order will be higher and the frequency of purchases will increase.  The life expectancy from the loyal customer is longer marketing with a quick fix approach and an immediate response.  Social media builds relationships to keep them coming back for the long term.

Think of making friends, it takes time and the loyalty that separates a best friend from an acquaintance is the difference in relationship building.  Apply these principles to social media on a business level. Now, I am not saying you are going to become best friends with all your customers, but what I am pointing out, are the differences and it takes time to build a loyal business relationship.

By referring to social media as the art of listening, learning and sharing, I mean listen to people who are complaining about the products or services they currently use.  These are leads, because they are not happy with the product or service and they are openly talking about it through social media interaction. Listen to what they are saying and think about how you can help them, not sell them.  Learn from them on how to make a better product or how your business product or service would be more beneficial, but don’t sell them.  Share the benefits of the product or services; build a business relationship on listening, learning, sharing and providing value.  After all, we do that in our personal relationships with our friends, family, neighbors and people we do business with on a regular basis.

Hard sell marketing tactics from the past won’t work today, as consumers want value and that value is created in a loyal business relationship.

Listening, Learning, Sharing and providing Value are the keys to social media relationship building