Social Media is a great tool to bring an audience to your door step, but you have to do something extraordinary to convert them into a sale. You have to let them know that you are a genuine person, that you care about what they think and that you are there for both parties to have a win-win.
Let me give you an example—Empire Avenue is a social media game where you see how you are really doing. You get people to buy virtual stock in you. They look at your profile and decide if they want to invest, primarily based off a couple of factors including the price per share, are you going up in value, and what kind of dividend you pay.
The great news is that when they buy your stock, you know can send them a direct personal message. What I like to do is review their profile, discover what is personally important to them and acknowledge that.
Once I have done that, I include a brief story about myself, why I’m there and how I see both parties creating opportunity to do well together.
I use WIIFM (What’s in it for me) to help them take further action, either investing more in me, or taking an action that builds on my profile. Of course, I’m telling them how helping me accomplish my goal, will actually give them the majority of the benefit.
The goal with this action is to help your prospect feel good about helping you. You’re building trust and you’re letting them know that they are extremely important to you.
Don’t ask them to purchase something with real money. Stick to a request to endorse your blog, or the comment to help you grow your value in Empire Avenue. That’s something that benefits them as well.
Whatever it is that you ask, make it as simple as possible with specific instructions that can easily be completed in a matter of seconds. They’ll feel great for doing so and even let you know that they helped you out.
Once they have done something for you, thank them! Don’t forget this. If you don’t, the exact opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish will happen. They are expecting you to acknowledge them.
Send them a simple note, thanking them for helping you to achieve success for both of you. Once done, you have cemented a new relationship.
Now this sounds like a lot of work, and it is, BUT—it turns into real sells, such as affiliate commissions because these people now trust you. They will go to your blog and ask you about products and services which turns into commissions for you.
They will tell other people about you and ultimately, these other people will buy from you without having to have a one on one connection at all.
Recently, I met Gary Vaynerchuk in New York City, at Blog World. He gave me an autographed copy of his new book, “The Thank You Economy.” Essentially, the principle that I have discussed is extensively discussed in his new book.
I highly recommend grabbing his book and then putting this idea and others into practice. It works!