Helping your audience to connect with you, AKA “the feels”, is the key to success in social media – And the key to amassing your tribe.
Keep it before you, always. Don’t lose sight of the goal of making people feel so good, they keep coming back for more. When they come away from your page, group, or site, it should be with a warm fuzzies and the knowledge that they matter to you.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
American Poet, Memoirist, and Civil Rights Activist
The Feels
With that as your goal, you need to learn to master social media marketing on Facebook. No other site gives you more tools to engage with your audience than they do. They have what you need to not only find your tribe of fans, but to take excellent care of them once you do.
So, let’s learn HOW to take advantage of that and develop trust through strong connections. It is not about pitching things to people, but building genuine relationships with them through a variety of means, including your personal blog or website, Facebook pages, groups and communities.
We are going to teach you how to nurture those you come in contact with, so they become life-long fans. They will be your tribe, your people….among those dear to your heart. They will also be your happy customers who send you even more business. So, yes…all this nurturing does dramatically affect your bottom line. However, that should not be your focus. When you go heart first into your business relationships, and nurture first, the money comes as a natural result.
Let’s be about the business of learning how to do that and do it well.
Who Is Your Tribe?
One of the definitions Merriam Webster gives for tribe is, “a group of persons having a common character, occupation, or interest”. Another mentions they have a common leader. That leader, like it or not, is you and you need to assume that role. You need to lead and nurture that tribe of people bound by common interests and values.
Strong leaders don’t boss people around; they support, encourage, and set the example. To do that well takes heart. Use your heart in your business. The tribe will then follow. As trust develops in the relationship they have with you, they will do what you suggest in your calls to action more often. The numbers will reflect the effectiveness of leading with love towards those you serve through your business.
Now that you have a tribe, what to do with them?
The first step is to get to know them.
Once you know them, you nurture them and help meet their needs.
Then, you have the trust you need to convert them to customers as well.
Happy customers will be reflected in your profits. It is that win-win situation we should always strive for. Now, let’s learn how to create that.
Getting to Know Your Tribe
This should be the first step, but sadly, it is often skipped. Too many simply assume they know their fans.
Why would you want to rely on assumptions when you have the ability to find out, for real? I know, it is crazy obvious to me too, but some people don’t seem to grasp that concept. You, being the super-smart marketer you are, will put effort into getting to know where your tribe is REALLY coming from.
How about simply asking them? This is so obvious, but again, many miss it. Most people are anxious to be heard. They want to connect with those who they feel understand them and care about what concerns them. We live in a pretty impersonal world. Give people a chance to be heard and most will take it.
There are a variety of ways to ask and should use a little bit of everything because what motivates one person to act might not motivate the next. Some ways to ask your tribe what they want are through surveys and polls. You can use surveys in your email marketing, you can have poll posts onyour Facebook business page, as well as groups and communities you administrate.
Or – you can also simply ask. There is absolutely nothing wrong with creating Facebook posts that simply ask a question, in a way that will bring responses. That not only gives you information you can use about their wants and needs, but every comment counts too. That’s a win-win. It also shows you really care, which we assume you do. Like I said, people want to be heard, so you want to give them opportunities to be.
Nurturing Your Tribe
Facebook gives you multiple opportunities to give your people what they have told you they want. You can deliver it to them via your business page posts, or through administrating groups and communities. Let’s take a look at each one.
Page Posts
Page posts should always give your fans something they can use, need, or enjoy. If you know they need encouragement, write encouraging posts. If they need information, give it to them. If it is opportunities they need, help provide them. It’s even okay to simple give them something to laugh at from time to time.
Point them in directions that will help them, and don’t be stingy with directing them to places other thanyour own site and products or services. Not only are you then meeting their needs more fully, but you are developing trust by showing you care enough to help without profiting from it financially.
Of course, sometimes the sending them elsewhere will be via an affiliate link, but since we are ethical, we are open about that, right? Full disclosure and honesty about such things goes far in building trust and loyalty.
Facebook Groups and Communities
If you are not taking advantage of groups and communities on Facebook, you are missing out on one ofthe best ways to build relationship with your tribe. In both instances, you are gathering a group of people around a central interest. You audience in a group or community is there because they already have an interest in what you are doing. You are no longer trying to find your people, you have them… ready, willing, and eager to be nurtured by you.
This is an area where you can really shine as the loving leader of your tribe. The same principles about posting apply here, only it is to a more targeted audience, so you typically get more engagement. This is a place to get more intimate yourself, which helps create an environment where the members feel free to openly share too. This is where you can get cozy with them and deliver the warm fuzzies that keep them coming back for more.
Selling Your Tribe
Now you have found your tribe, you have taken excellent care of meeting their needs, you’ve demonstrated your love for them and they have trust in you. You have a real relationship with your fans. Now, you can motivate them to sales quite naturally. It is easy for you, feels right to them, and everybody comes out of the relationship happy. Is that not what it is all about?
Hopefully, this has helped light a fire within you to make the extra efforts to nurture your tribe. The effectiveness of all that loving kindness and care will be evident in your sales, and referrals. Happy customers tell their friends.
In future blog posts, we are going to go into more detail about how to nurture like a pro. Follow along, applying what you learn and you will see your engagement and sales increase as a result.
If you have questions please comment or connect with us! Since we practice what we preach… we really do want to know how you feel and what you need! Talk to us. We love to listen.
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