Topics:

1. When you respond to questions on social media, you create a small moment of enchantment.
2. What we’re doing with social media is actually replacing a live interaction.
3. If you’re going to use social media to try and build this loyal fan base … you can’t simply drop content and never look back.

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Build a Badass Business: Episode #33: How to build loyalty with social media 

Coming to you from the city by the bay, this is Build a Badass Business with Diane Sanfilippo. Diane is a New York Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur. She’s here to teach you how to grow and develop a successful business you love, and how to create raving fans along the way. Here she is, your host: Diane Sanfilippo.



Diane Sanfilippo: Welcome back to the show. Today what I want to talk about is building loyalty through social media. One of the things that people ask me a lot about is, what’s your best advice for social media; how to use it, how to either gain fans and followers or how to make the best connection possible with our fans and followers. The number one thing that I think that everybody can be doing on social media; this doesn’t mean you have to do it on every platform, all day every day, but the number one thing I think you can do on social media is to respond to questions. What you do by responding to questions, especially when you have a large audience, or even if you’re growing your audience, and you have 100 people, or 1000 people, and you don’t have 10,000 or 100,000; what you do when you respond to questions on social media is you create a small moment of enchantment.

One of the podcasts I listen to is from Stanford Business School. I don’t listen to every episode, but there are different talks that folks give, and Guy Kawasaki gave a talk all about enchantment. This isn’t really a point that is completely from his talk, it’s just the idea of enchantment. The idea of creating a moment for the person on the other end of their computer screen that makes them feel delighted. That makes them feel special, that makes them feel that you have given them your attention for a moment. What you’re doing by listening to this show right now is giving me your attention. And I appreciate that so, so immensely, and I want to share a great value with you.

Now, if you come to any of my social media platforms and you ask a question, I am going to do my absolute best to answer that question. Does that mean that every single question gets answered? No, probably not. Sometimes people ask a question on a very old post, and I won’t see it. Sometimes someone asks a question that I actually answered in the caption to that picture, or maybe in the text, or in the blog post that I’m linking to, their question is answered. So there are times where I won’t answer it. Of course not ever single question get answered.

However; if you drop something on social media, and you never go back to retrieve or reap the ramifications of what it’s doing. So you leave a Facebook post and four days later, you’ve posted 15 things since then and you’ve never looked back at what the comments and questions were; how do you think people feel if, time after time, they’re leaving questions or comments on the posts that you make, and yet you’ve never responded to them. What kind of relationship does that build?

I think what a lot of us are trying to do with social media is to build relationships with our fans and followers, and I think a lot of times we see what we do as the business owner as a one-way street. Like we’re giving, and that’s it, it ends there. But the truth is, what we’re doing with social media is actually replacing a live interaction for most of us. Right? A lot of you; I talk about this on as many episodes as I can, where I want you to be getting out there and connecting in your community. I think that builds the absolute best connection that you can with people in real life.

However, the cool thing about social media is that you don’t’ have to leave your house to do this. You don’t have to book a plane ticket or stay in a hotel to do this; but that doesn’t mean that you can build a relationship without that human interaction. Without that human element. You still have to be human, you still have to be compassionate, you still have to be able to engage with people. So, if you’re going to use social media to try and build this loyal fan base or a loyal following or a loyal readership, you can’t simply drop content and never look back at what it’s doing. You can’t abandon it there, and say, “here you go!” and not have any interaction thereafter. You really do need to pay attention to what’s happening.

Here’s the other point that comes from this; when you pay attention and listen to what people are saying in response to what you post. And I mean listen by even just looking at how many likes there are, how many comments, how many times somebody shares something, and what they’re saying as well; that’s your opportunity to find out what to do next. So many of you guys ask me the question; I don’t know what to focus on, I don’t know what to do first, I don’t know what to do next, I have so many ideas! But when people who are interacting with you have a response to something, they have questions, they have comments, they’re telling you, in not so many words, what they want.

So when they are sharing a million times over a certain type of recipe; let’s just say it’s a slow cooker recipe. If you write recipes, let’s just say they’re sharing a slow cooker recipe so much more than other types of recipes, you can take that as a sign that your people like slow cooker recipes. If you want to have that same kind of interaction, you want to give them what they want and be able to do the kind of work that you want to do, you really have to listen to what they’re saying.

Now, does that mean you only make those things? No. Of course; here’s another perfect example. You post a recipe for cookies, everybody is going to share, and like, and comment on your post for cookies. Now, does that mean that everything you post should be cookies? Probably not. You probably have some level of feeling like maybe not everything I want to post is cookies, but it’s hard to resist posting that. And if you guys are folks who follow what I’m doing, and you’re in this paleosphere, and you’re like, I wish people would stop posting treat recipes, it’s so annoying! Which I don’t really share that attitude. I’m like, let people post whatever they want to post, it’s their prerogative, that’s their business, they do what they want to do.

However, if you want to know why they’re doing it; it’s because it’s what everybody responds to the most. So not only do they want that engagement, but they want to give people things that they’ll be able to respond to because it will just help perpetuate the type of engagement they’re having; especially on Facebook where a lot of us are losing that engagement because Facebook is getting so, so big.

So really to just boil it down to the one point of, how to build a much more loyal following on any platform on social media; it’s creating that enchantment by interacting and engaging with your fans and followers, and answering their questions, and helping them. Making them feel like they walked away from an interaction with you in that day, or within that week, that they got help, support, answers, information, or pointed information. That’s totally fair to say; hey, I have a whole blog post about this, check it out! You don’t have to rewrite the blog post for them, just point them to the information, and you’ve created this sense of attention that goes in the opposite direction, right. Instead of constantly demanding their attention; you’ve said, thanks for your attention, here’s mine back. And you create engagement that way. As well as enchantment.

What do you guys think? Questions, comments, does this resonate with you? What do you think, how do you feel when people do this with you, when they actually respond to something that you post on social media? I get a lot of people who are like; oh my gosh I can’t believe you responded! And then I also have a lot of people who are like; they refer people to me because they’re like, she will answer your questions; she will help you. And I take a lot of pride in that. I think that for some people, they feel weighed down or burdened by social media. I’m like, if you’re burdened by it, just abandon it, don’t do it. But if you can recognize the value that you can provide, and what kind of relationship you can create, then it’s totally different.

Hey guys, I’m so glad you’re loving the show. Let me ask you to do me a favor; come follow me on Periscope. You can find me; I believe you can search Diane Sanfilippo, or you can search @BalancedBites, which is my Twitter handle, which is the account name over on Periscope. I am going to start doing live sessions, really quick thoughts for the day. I’m not sure if it I will be every day, but it will be pretty often, and some Q&A on business topics and motivation, inspiration, etc. So make sure you’re following me over on Periscope. Download the app in the app store, and I will see you there.

That’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Don’t forget to subscribe in iTunes so you don’t miss an episode. And drop me a review to let me know what’s speaking to you from the show. If you want to get in on the conversation and you haven’t yet joined the group already on Facebook, head on over there and join the Build a Badass Business group. I share insights and tips regularly, as well as answer your questions right there on the page. Do work that you love, and hustle to make your business grow like your life depends on it, because it does. Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you on the next episode.

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