Social media is all about creating a dialogue between your business and your target audience.

While choosing to post high quality, interesting content will  not instantly translate into sales, it will help you to build trust and awareness. It will also help to increase your audience’s receptiveness to your company’s business and promotional messages.

By using well established sales techniques, you can improve the effectiveness of your content. Here are some ideas:

Reciprocation

The art of reciprocation is very useful in locking in emotional buy-in from your audience. In simple terms, if you do something pleasant for your audience, they will feel compelled to return the favour in some way. In the consumer market, this may mean buying from you, and in the business-to-business arena you may receive a recommendation in return.

One way of encouraging reciprocation may be to retweet or share content by your potential customers. They in turn may then reciprocate and broaden your reach.

For business customers, post recommendations and testimonials, as they will be more inclined to repeat buy if you are endorsing their products and services. You should also praise the work of businesses that aren’t already customers. However, make sure that your gestures are legitimate, as your audience will quickly notice if your motives are less than genuine.

Commitment

As human beings, we have a strong desire to be consistent and to follow through. By using content that invites customers to comment positively, you can encourage part-commitment.

One great way to engage you audience and capture commitment is to publish blogs and articles that demonstrate your expertise. Tips and guidelines are always well received, as they can help make someone’s life easier.

Actively ask for feedback and interact with those that comment positively. These people have semi-committed and it is worth your while building a relationship.

Simple sales techniques applied to high value content can do a great deal to increase conversions, so give it a try.

Steven Morris