How to Build Relationships with Your Prospects Through Social Media 

Selling today is all about building relationships. Gone are the days of high-pressure sales tactics. Today, we sell in a much more effortless and natural way by first building a relationship with the prospect. Then, when they need your offer, they’re already primed to buy. 

The perfect way to do this is through social media. We use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to interact with friends, brands, celebrities, public figures, and organizations we love. You can leverage this tool to build relationships with your audience. 

Find Your People on Social Media

The first step is to find your audience on social media. What platforms do they use and what do they do there? You’re much better off meeting your people where they already spend time than trying to get them to follow you.

Start by looking at the most popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you sell to other business people, you might invest your time in creating a presence on LinkedIn. This is a social media site for professional networking. Talk to your customers and find out what sites they’re most active on and establish a presence there. 

Educate Through Content

Your goal on social media is to establish yourself as a helpful expert. You should be the person your audience goes to when they have problems you can solve for them. You can do this by educating through content. 

Share content that helps your audience solve specific problems or issues they face. Answer your followers’ questions. Give tips and advice. Use video or other multimedia content wherever appropriate. Keep your audience engaged by giving them free help and you can build a trusting relationship with them. 

Give Your Audience Somewhere to Hang Out

The next step to building strong relationships is to provide your audience a place to hang out based around your brand. Each social media platform has its own way of doing this. For example, on Facebook, you can start a Page or a Group. Invite your customers to sign up and get them talking there. 

You will serve as moderator, facilitating conversations and activities within the group. The key to making this work is remembering that the community belongs to its members. Get feedback from your members on what they’d like to see and do. If your group provides value to its members, then they’ll stick around and spend time there.

Build Relationships, Don’t Sell

The key to building strong relationships using social media is that you don’t sell there. People don’t use these sites to shop directly. If you bombard people with promotional messages or posts, they’ll start tuning you out. Focus on just helping and getting to know your audience.