Common Social Media Methods
Do you find yourself confused or unsure sometimes of the best methods for social media interaction?
Are you looking for social media methods that will get the most out of your social experience?
You’re not alone. We get a lot of requests for facebook and social media training, so we put this together, it’s a quick basics. There will be more training but this will get you started.
- Develop Your Own Style and Be Consistent With It
- Don’t Just Post – Comment on Other’s Posts and Updates
- Communicate With Those You Have Something In Common With
- Be Yourself – Don’t Try To Copy Some Else
Post Regular Updates – Consistency, and persistency will put you on the social media map. It doesn’t matter what platform or channel you are using – regular updates tell a fast story about the user. When I’m checking out someone’s profile to determine if it’s a person I want to connect with, the first thing I do is to see how active they are. I’m on facebook to connect, engage, and relate, and I’m looking for others who do the same. I’m also looking for others who will do the same with me. There’s really nothing more encouraging then when a person “follows” you… much more so than a simple “like”. Knowing that a person likes my posts enough that they are looking forward to seeing the next one, tells me I’m doing something right. I’m in this for business, and good business starts with relationships and followership. When a person posts regularly, they tend to look for others who post regularly… those are the people they can and want to relate with, and it’s also a great way to get to know someone better and faster.
Develop “YOUR” style – a definite result of posting regularly will be developing your own style that people can and will recognize. Nothing fake about that. Being unique shows people you are genuine and you speak from the heart…. that you are sincere and that you have beliefs and conviction in what you say. Copying and pasting others people s posts without altering to your viewpoint or style or words might tell people you are just in a hurry to post something, or that you’re not thinking for yourself. Leaders lead with conviction and they take the time to develop their own materials, opinions, and styles.
Comment on Other’s Posts and Updates – ok this is huge… bigger than I can say, for multiple reasons. First it tells your friends and contacts that you want a relationship and that you care what they say and feel and think. Creating relationships is what this is all about, and you cannot create relationships if you are always talking AT people, and not WITH people. Conversation is how you get to know others and how they get to know you, and this single fact alone with drive your business. And secondly, engagement is what Facebook looks for to “up” your Edge Rank score…and it’s your Edge Rank score that determines how far and wide your message goes. How many friends see your posts on their newsfeeds, and how long your posts “park” in their newsfeeds..so you see full engagement is crucial on many fronts.
Have Something In Common With Those You Connect With – I’m on social media to network, and the social media methods we use are primarily geared towards making friends and creating relationships, but mainly for business. So it makes sense that I look for others who have the same interests that I do. I’m very choosy who I connect with and who I don’t. It’s not about how many contacts you have, it’s about the quality of the contacts you have, and the engagement you have and get with those contacts…so therefore I treat it a bit as a target market. It would be different if Facebook didn’t limit the amount of friends you can have, but they do it’s just the facts. So this is something I must take into consideration, especially as I creep towards that limit. In fact there will come a time soon that a purge will need to be done, to make room for others more in stride with what I do and what I’m looking for. This is just good business sense.
Be Yourself and Don’t Be Shy – get comfortable and say what’s on your mind, but keep it positive for the most part. Don’t try and emulate others. I know sometimes when you see other leaders and those who get a lot of interaction to try and be like that person, and their’s nothing wrong with learning from others and having mentors, but you also need to 
show people who you are. This goes along with developing your own style, and posting regularly, but it’s also about getting comfortable which makes it easier to write and post in your words. This comfort level comes from being forthcoming and active, not from being shy.So just learn to let it flow just as if you were in the same room talking to people…keep it natural and not fake. It doesn’t have to be perfect just let it go and don’t be afraid to be funny or humorous if that’s in your nature.
Don’t Spam People’s Wall’s and Don’t Post Your Business All The Time – You might think that’s something you need to do to get your business out there but more times than not it will have the opposite effect… instead post high value and quality content. Educate, teach, inspire, inform, converse. Spamming will get you blocked, teaching will get you noticed. People want to connect and work with others who have something meaningful to say and to offer. This is an entire subject on itself, but just don’t link drop everywhere and DO NOT put your business on other people’s walls. That is their storefront not yours.
You’ll notice some mention of Facebook and while this post is about social media methods in general, Facebook really is our playground and where we spend the majority of our time networking for business.
We hope this has been of some help and that you get some value from it. We will continue training on social media methods with follow ups that get more specific.
by Brett Gurney
Striving for Excellence
P.S. Stay tuned for more Internet Marketing Tips & Techniques and guides to building the brand of YOU.
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