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I grew up in Clinton, NY, a small village nearby. A village that seems far away now, from a time long ago. It was a place unrecognizable today. In this village you could get groceries, hardware, and shoes all from locally owned stores. There were few franchises, although I remember the first McDonalds in the next town selling burgers for 10 cents!
The owners of these stores were known to us kids as Mr. Ford (Ford's IGA Market), Mr. Allen (Allen's Hardware), and Mr. Vona (Clinton Shoe Center), They were fonts of information about their products. No matter what your question about prices, the right tools, the latest in footwear, they had expert answers and opinions to help you in your purchase.
My father was a real estate and insurance agency owner in town. I remember that he was constantly approached during golf matches, at cocktail parties (in a later post I’ll explain what a cocktail party is to my younger readers), and at family picnics by people with questions about car insurance or home values in the area.
And he was glad to oblige their curiosity. Helping people with their insurance or real estate in a social situation was natural for him. He became known as THE real estate and insurance guy in town. The Burns Agency was the authority in his marketplace.
The thing is, he never sold his questioners on his services. He answered their questions and left it at that. Useful advice, freely offered after hours.
It might help you and your company to think of your social media marketing in this way. Like talking business in a social situation. Get out of your selling mode. Stay away from jargon that people don’t understand. Think of your Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and LinkedIn as a face-to-face conversation with one person at a party. They’re asking you for your expertise to help them with something that has to do with your products or services. You give them what you know and leave it at that.
Internet marketing is more like the old days than you might think. It’s really all about one-on-one conversations with your audience, like business owners had with their customers in the 1950s and 60s. The only difference is, online marketing offers a scale of market reach unheard of in the small business world of my youth.
And, of course, the competition today is so much tougher than it was then. But it’s still about building relationships so you can get your audience to know, like, and trust you enough to buy.
Business owners back in the day had a lot of fun interacting with their customers while also offering useful information. You’ll do well on social media to do the same with your marketplace, too.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Burns is an SEO web writer specializing in persuasive copywriting and content marketing. He provides clients a winning content strategy plus the special web writing to make it work. You can contact Nick here.
