Are You Selling To Or Building Your Social Community?

Information overload and our ability to become commercial free has changed the old fashioned marketing funnel.  Attention getting tactics will no longer sell your products and services. How many of you tape TV shows and then fast forward through the commercials?  Yep – we now control what we want to see.  Having first the awareness that old methods don’t work anymore, then learning what does will help you to navigate this new sales funnel landscape.
Simon Mainwaring‘s 2011 book “We First” was a call to action for brand managers to understand this shift.  If you haven’t seen the book trailer video written and performed by Sekou Andrews, take a gander below which will set the tone for the rest of my post.

If you are trying to market your business or products using old school marketing, be prepared to be disappointed in your results.  There is a saying found in the Bible – you can’t put new wine into old wineskins. And you can’t apply old sales tactics to the new social media driven market. Today businesses and brands need to connect with their online communities and build relationships.  That doesn’t mean posting images and information that just “sells” to them by bombarding them with information and then expect them to respond.  That was push marketing – pushing information out to the general public and those days are gone.
The one direction marketing of yesterday no longer applies to today. Your fans, followers and customers want to connect with you, have a relationship with you and then determine if you are someone they can trust.  Welcome to the new online world of reviews and public customer feedback.

The New Social Media Sales Funnel

The new marketing model for today is called, ARC, which stands for Awareness, Relationships, Conversion. Let’s take a look at each component to learn what this means for your social networks.

Awareness

Do you have a story to share? Perhaps an event that is taking place or an important announcement? You don’t want to make the mistake of confusing this with the old style of advertisements. The goal here is to draw people to something that interests them and bringing it to their attention. Here is a great example on Facebook of a brand creating awareness.  In this example a video on YouTube is being used to draw their audience to an important event that Nylabone has co-sponsored. Not only does it show the brand’s involvement in the community, but creates friendly conversation with 19 shares.

Relationship Building

The next key component in your social media marketing is to create something of value for your fans and followers without demanding something in return. As people are drawn to your knowledge and credibility, they will feel compelled to share your posts and tweets with others. The more you meet their needs the better your chances are of building a strong community of trust.
Starbucks is one company that uses this technique often, as seen here in an example tweet published on Mashable:

The message is inviting and asks people what they would like to see. During the process you will want to be aware of any comments or questions, which will reveal a need that can be met.

Conversion

After you have built trust, provided valuable information, answers, and are meeting the needs of your social community you may become frustrated if you do not see an immediate return, often referred to as ROI (Return on Investment). Don’t panic! This is a normal part of the process.
I recommend creating contests, running a giveaway promotion, asking people for their opinion, or creating a fun or informative video that is tied to your brand. The worst thing to do is to start selling to your new community after establishing trust and start hammering away at social media posts. Time, patience, and word of mouth will eventually lead to sales.
Apart from your social media fans and followers you might want to consider things like Facebook’s Sponsored posts as part of your operating budget. These will still go out to your niche, but do not intrude upon your connections.
What about you? How does your company or brand interaction with fans and followers?
Share your ideas below!