We’ve all had those messages land in our inbox whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn; you know the one where you’ve no idea who the person is but they are pitching their product to you or asking you to jump on a call.
If you are anything like me these are not the sort of messages you want to be receiving.
I had one who was offering to help me start up a travel business – I’ve been running my own since 2006! This shows a complete lack of research of the prospect they are targeting.
Lots of people are taught to message over 40 people a day in this cold reach style to grow their business, but people are getting wise to these tactics now and will either call you out or simply delete you.
If you want to use social media to gain clients, then the best way to do so is to engage with people who are a fit for your business in a nurturing, not a spammy way.
What does nurturing them mean?
Get to know them first before you even think about selling to them, comment and engage on their posts with meaningful words that are relevant to the post – not just a random comment.
Build relationships with people and let them get to know you as a person behind the business.
People buy from people and you have to create the know, like and trust factor in order to establish good foundations to work with and grow.
Add value to your personal profiles and let people see the real you.
What not to do
- Don’t friend request then instantly send a message, followed up by a would you like to buy my products message.
- Don’t friend request and then instantly invite them to like your page, or even worse add them to your group.
- Don’t constantly use your personal profile to sell sell, sell…
This is not the way to build relationships with people
Here are a few tips to help grow your audience:
- Find 3 to 5 groups where your Ideal Clients are and start adding value to the groups by answering questions.
- Know when the promo days are and share your lead Magnet or socials on that day.
- Talk about your group on your personal profile and direct people to it.
- Go live in your group and on your business page/profile.
- Find where you can do expert talks in memberships or groups.
- Research where you could be interviewed on a podcast – or start your own.
- Make use of Stories on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn as these are a brilliant way of interacting with prospective clients: tip use Instagram to create the story as the functionalities are way better than anywhere else, set it to save to your camera roll and then share this to the others.
Remember the key to growth is through building and nurturing
