Five Social Media Tips You Can Learn From Dating
I know the title of this
post arouses curiosity but am about to prove why you should handle and approach
your community on social media like you do with a girl/boy in the dating scene.
I happen to have spent the weekend home alone, phone off, no Twitter, no TV, no
laptop- nothing; basically cut out off the world! Well I was having that “ME”
time to reflect upon many things when my thoughts drifted to my social
life…dating and such kind of things! The more I thought about it, the more my
mind wandered to social media and how companies often try to build
relationships. So I engaged my thoughts to come up with this post! So in this
post I will explore similarities and lessons social media managers can pick up
from the dating scene to guide them in managing brands on social media. This
will be pretty simple so here’s how to go about it!
1.
KNOW
WHERE TO SEARCH.
This is actually the first
thing you do when seeking the right person- so where do you search? Some go to
church, others find bars to be good hunting grounds, and others go to events
such as weddings, networking sessions, seminars, dating sites and such. For
companies you need to know where your customers hang out, which platforms are
they active on? Are you targeting the 18-24 market? Where are they? Are you
looking for the 25-35 age group or the older ones? So at this stage you need to
identify the social networking sites where to focus your social media marketing
efforts. Remember social media isn’t all about Facebook and Twitter so take
time to explore where you put your resources for the maximum ROI! After you do
this, then as usual you need a strategy, with objectives and a plan. Then craft
the message- what’s the tone? How will you put it across in an engaging way? At
this you may also profile (do some research) your TA, identify their touch
points and things they love or enjoy doing and at what times or seasons/days/
times of the day as you prepare for step 2 below!
2.
TAKE
THE MOVE!
After you have the place
to do your search, you now take the bold move to approach the girl, so I assume
you have already set up the social media channels, well branded and with
profiles nicely filled up with information. As you do with dating, you dress
properly (branding), take the girl to
a nice restaurant, go to church with her and such! So here’s a few tips to help
you with that crucial first date!
·
Be bold –
Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts, opinions and ideas with her. On social
media don’t be neutral! Be a rebel or the hero. Neutral content/discussion
doesn’t arouse engagement! Be very keen as you don’t want the girl to curse
meeting you same thing, if your content isn’t great on social media, people
will leave!
·
Post less –Sharing
everything on your mind or what you come across will push her away so is the
community you have on social media! You don’t keep calling her and texting all
day so the same works with social media! If you're pushing serious content
tweeting and posting in the morning may get you RT's. Sharing content when your
community is not online will not earn you engagement. Use Tweriod to see when you tweet and when
your friends/followers tweet. Then tweet during those times to increase
engagement. You also need a content plan and a maintenance schedule for all
your social media channels with a policy/guidelines as you don’t want admins to
post anything!
·
Use the 1/9 tweet rule –Those
who only share their own content are transparent and audiences online look at
that as purely selfish and switch off quickly. Get in the habit of sharing 9
tweets not about you or your business for every post about you or your
business. This way you don’t spam people; the same thing applies to dating- you
don’t talk endlessly about yourself! Do less of push marketing, no “Me, me, me’
kind of content. A good ratio of
sharing to promoting your own content on Facebook is 4:1 as a minimum (the
more you share about other valuable content i.e. less marketing messages, the
more you get in return). Be sure you only
share content that adds value to your community – content which they’ll
find useful. If it’s a mixed up case scenario share content that benefits
people across the board.
3.
So
what next after the first date?
After you’ve went out for
dinner with her, you don’t ask to take her to your house! Maybe you play the
gentleman, drop her home, pick up a cab for her or at least escort her to her
bus stop. Right? You then call to find out whether she got home well as you
wish her good night and thank her for having dinner with her! Sindio wananume?
Now back to social media, once you get people to like or follow you, you
welcome them, thank them then immerse them with content about your business and
what you offer. You aren’t asking for a sale, you want to first build the
relationship, give value, good content, keep your promises- when people ask for
information, you give it on time, when you promise to call them, do it! After
the first date, maybe you schedule the next one, you want to see her often
right? So with social media, you may ask your followers to also LIKE your
Facebook page and vice versa, check or subscribe to your channel. You may also
redirect them to your website or ask them to check your products in a
branch/outlet/retail outlet near them. Remember you now want to ‘see’ and
engage them more often and get your community interact with your business,
experience your products and services more often. Remember you don’t push this
on them!
4.
Your
Reputation- what do other people say about you?
At this level if you had
done your search in the right place, done step two and three well, a girl will
ask her or your friends about you. Check your Facebook profile, ask your
colleagues and people who know you more about you! She simply wants to get an
opinion from people who know you before she makes a decision whether there’s a
future in what you have initiated. With social media, a customer will search
more about your business online, ask around for recommendations, also ask
friends about your product or service or maybe read product reviews online. So
this is where you monitor your brand mentions, address inquiries, read reviews
and up your reputation management! You don’t want your prospect to read a nasty
blog about your poor customer service, negative customer experience and such
kind of things. So how well do you track conversations on social media space?
Does your business deliver on its promise? Do you keep your word? Is your
product awesome as you say it is? Remember it’s no longer about who you say you
are but what others say you are so you need a strong social media team to
handle your public relations online. This is very important in the purchase
decision process! Any issues here that raise a red flag will turn people away!
5.
Take
her to bed- Call for action!
Most probably after step
four a girl will have made up her mind but you still have a chance to clean up
your name! You know it guys, how we say we’ve changed, we’ve quit alcohol and
we’re no longer players! With business, most likely your prospective buyer will
have 2 or 3 options now; with recommendations to try out product B from company
C. However you still have a chance to explain the benefits, value proposition
and the uniqueness of your product/service.
Address the fears the prospect has and do it authentically and in a
genuine manner. Don’t be a one night stander as you ask for a SALE, seek to
build & nurture a relationship! Ask her….ask for it….take her to bed! After
this you need to convert your customers to brand ambassadors, make the
experience memorable, and make it a great moment. Delight your customer! Keep
the promise! On social media you need to ask your community what you want them
to do, do you need them to signup for your newsletter? Share video? Tell them,
do you want them to add their friends to the page? Ask them so! However don’t
be pushy, give them a reason to do so, one which is remarkable content that
they can share, secondly could be incentives, could be your great customer
service efforts! Ensure you give value to spark initiative and encourage
action!