Relationship marketing and social media are really intertwined together, be social and grow relationships to help you expand your networks.
Relationship Marketing is about developing relationships with people. People just started asking me to teach them how to network and then I developed a referral program.
Relationship Marketing is really about taking care of your connections how ever you have met them. A few years later I collaborated with a few people who were in in the Kindness movement, thus I produced two Kindness Conferences, and pursued in helping businesses to develop more kindness in their workplace culture.
Social Media and Kindness blends very well with Relationship Marketing, which became a natural fit for me.
My suggestion for someone who is just getting into Social Media is to start one step at a time.
- Start networking with people, introduce yourself and find a way that you can refer business to each other.
- Sign up with Social networking sites that fit your audience. If you are a Business 2 Business hang out in place like LinkedIn, Google+, be sure to ask your customers where they hang out at.
- Start small and add people to your network don’t worry about adding lots of people, you want to start in a small circle into a bigger circle rather than the other way around.
- Be helpful, share your expertise & knowledge in groups, this is where to me the juice is in discovering customers, and other like-minded connections. When you share freely, you now become known as the expert.
- Visit your networking sites where your customer is as often as necessary if it is just for five minutes. A total of 20-30minutes 2x a day.
- Get a Google Alert on your business and your name, as you will want to watch what people are saying about you.
- Sign up for a Twitter account, I use HootSuite to manage my accounts
- Get a Facebook Page for your business, don’t mix your personal and business contacts together, unless you are good friends
- LinkedIn – complete your profile including a professional head shot of yourself.
If people don’t know you, they are not likely to refer you or introduce you be sure to keep in touch with people and get to know them.
How do I stay in touch with my customers?
People can stay in touch with me via my newsletter and social media platforms on Facebook and LinkedIn, this can be overwhelming, this is why I encourage you to grow your network from the inside out, rather than what I was doing outside in.
There are many tips and tools to share with you..because I do them, so automatically I share them with you.
