Social Media Humanizes Your Business

Letting your online audience know that there are real people behind the business that you drive makes your business about the people and their stories.

In my first blog, My Story, I hinted to the concept of “humanizing a business”. In this post, we’re going to explore what humanizing your business means to you and how you can get it done with social media. I’m not going to lecture you about how important it is to build a relationship with your online audience, or how trust is a critical factor in business. What I am going to talk to you about in this post is that in order to build relationships and build trust, you need to demonstrate three key qualities on your social media channels: transparency, helpfulness, and persistence.

Be Transparent

I’ve worked with clients who had reservations about showing a personal side and letting their audience in. I can understand the reluctance with not wanting to be open with strangers online. Whatever you do, you need to be comfortable doing. But remember that your business is a “stranger’ to your audience, who could get to know you mostly through your posts, starting with your name, your profile and, just as important, the faces behind the business. So go ahead and  upload those photos of you and your staff. The other thing about being transparent is also about being genuine. If you try to be fake, your readers will figure it out sooner or later and will turn away faster than you can imagine, but not before letting other followers know.

Once you have seized the opportunity to show your audience what makes your business different and unique through personal, genuine communications, you learn to be more open about important decisions that affect their buying decisions. I’m talking about things like changing your location, changes to your products or services and so on. Your followers don’t like to be caught off-guard.

 Be Helpful

Your social media channels are not an advertisement avenue. There’s nothing wrong with occasionally announcing promotions you’re running to reward your customers, but don’t lose your audience by pushing ads on to them. Think of your channels as a means to communicate with your audience. Be human and help your fellow humans. This means give them relevant information, fun posts, and helpful tips that keep them engaged. For instance, don’t tell them “Buy now” like you see in traditional ads bu – that’s not helpful. Instead, give them information about your products or tell them how your services can help them solve a problem. Don’t talk about being the best;  shift the focus on to them.

I wanted to share with you some great statistics that I came across on Sprout Social. Although their post is focused on branding, the stats related to social media followers are relevant here as well with regard to advertisement on social channels.

Be Persistent

“An Ascend2 survey found 49% of digital marketers say social media is the most difficult type of marketing to execute”, according to Sprout Social. Persistence is one of the key factors in the execution. You can’t give up too early.

I was working with a different client this week who believes that social media is in fact an effective form of online marketing – he falls in the 43 per cent bucket who believes that social media is the most effective online marketing tactic – but was discouraged and on the verge of giving up. My client understands the concept well but struggles with seeing quick results, especially in his line of business where his customers are expect exactly that.

So here’s why persistence is important: consider a personal or professional relationship of your own. Relationship building doesn’t happen overnight, right? It takes some common grounds, plenty of interactions, multiple connections, exploration, and time – time to trust one another. Oh, and did I mention that it goes both ways.

What’s Next

I’m not claiming that it’s easy. But start by setting your goals and then executing on them. Get creative, be playful, throw in some humour, whatever aligns best with your business. And whatever your goals are, use an open, authentic and transparent approach in your communications and do so with consistent posts. Don’t distance yourself from your audience; you don’t want to be neutral; you want to be human. Do so and you will draw audience in, with time. Followers will want to engage with you and, with that engagement, trust will start to build. Don’t give up; stay persistent.