Building Solid Interactions on Social Media Channels

As you are becoming more and more involved with the various social media channels for business, it becomes even more important than ever to interact as much as possible. There are a variety of different reasons why you need to interact using social media and the results that you can achieve will take you and your business very far.

What you should do and how you should drive your interactions

There are many different things that you should do to achieve the perfect end result. However, it is important to understand clearly what the first step is and why that is exactly where you should begin. Before you start to actually interact with your connections on the various social media channels, it is a very good idea to do some basic, yet essential, housekeeping. In this case, that means that you need to make sure that all of your social media profiles are current and complete. 

Surprisingly, many people who have social media profiles started those profiles but never bothered to finish them. They may be in various stages. The people who are in that situation may not be aware of what a mistake it was to walk away from them without making the effort to really make them what they should be. The fact is that your social media profiles are a representation (or reflection) of you and of your business.

If you are serious about your business, your branding, your offerings, etc, you have a responsibility to represent yourself appropriately and thoroughly. The most important (and most basic) elements in your social media profiles are: your full name, biographical sketch, photo (make sure that it is a professional photo), your website URL, your logo (if possible), and your geographic location. 

Of course, that is the minimum amount of information that you must have on your social media profiles. You can add more information as long as it is appropriate and relevant to what you are doing and what you are selling.

Get to know who you are up against

It is beyond important for you to understand very clearly who your competition is, how well they are doing what you are also doing, and how you can gain an edge over them. With such stiff competition (in general), you need to come up with an angle that allows you to clearly explain why someone else should choose to interact with you instead of with someone else. There are many different ways in which you can get a handle on your competition as well as the people with whom you want to interact (as well as the influencers in your area of expertise). There are many online tools to help you and the social media channels themselves have tremendous capabilities, depending on your particular business.

One size definitely does not fit all

If you are like a lot of people (and it definitely would have been a good choice on your part), you are interacting on the more popular social media channels. That may be a good choice for many different reasons. One reason is that many other people are on those same channels so you can reach a large number of people pretty quickly and easily. However, it is important to keep in mind that although the social media channels all serve as only avenues for your interactions, they don’t all work exactly the same and the approach that you take with each one will be slightly (or very, in some cases) different from one to the other. If you haven’t gotten to know your social media channels well yet, you need to do that as soon as possible and put the effort in so that you can start to build those relationships through your interactions.

If you haven’t chosen your social media channels yet, it is time to get started right away

If you are really confident that the social media channels that you are using are exactly what you need for your business, this part is not for you. On the other hand, if you are not sure which ones to choose, it is a really great idea to look at the function and purpose of each social media channel, match those with the needs of your particular business, and start to connect. However, it is important for you to keep in mind that whichever social media channels you choose, make sure that you choose groups with a large number of members. The more members a given social media group has, the better your chances of eventually increasing the number of clients that your business will acquire.

Figure out when you should post your content online

It is pretty safe to say that there will be some deviation in the day of the week and the time of the day when you choose to post your content. However, the deviation will probably not be significant. You may wish to consider avoiding the first or last day of the week and Sunday. Other than that (depending on your posting frequency), the other days should be fine. You should also consider posting early in the morning on whichever days you choose. You can probably automate at least part of your postings so it isn’t as though you need to get up at 3 am to post an article. Oh, the marvels of modern technology are truly wonderful!

Conclusion

Interacting through social media is so important and it gives you a real opportunity to build relationships with other people. There are many different approaches that you can take when it comes to your interactions online. Of course, it is important that you respect the other person and that you make that person feel that you value what they have to say. Always remember that human beings interact as emotional beings. You must touch the other person emotionally and if you manage to accomplish that, they will react to you and hear what you have to say. The relationships that you share with your online connections are going to be solid in most cases and they will also endure and be mutually beneficial.

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