Most successful businesses have a presence on social media as part of their content marketing campaign. However, many companies make the mistake of believing that social media is just about their business and how great their products and services are.

The key idea to remember is the word ‘social’. Social media is about communication and interaction with followers, potential followers and thought leaders. There are several principles that you need to follow to make your social media marketing a success:

Listening

The first rule of communication is to listen. This means reading online comments to find out what your community is talking about. Only then can you join in a conversation that is relevant to your audience.

Accessibility

Your followers need to feel that they can reach out and engage you easily. You need to take part in conversations and be available at all times to address queries and requests for information. Even recommending that your other followers consider following particular individuals shows you that you’re human, and therefore accessible.

Reciprocity

Followers should be encouraged to share your content with others to raise the profile of your company. Reciprocity means that this is easier to do if you also share content published by your followers, so you may need to take the initiative with this.

Gratitude

Social media is about building lasting relationships. This is helped through praise and gratitude. Acknowledge your loyal followers by thanking them for their contributions.

Find the influencers

In all areas of business, there will be people who are regarded as online influencers and trusted experts. These could be bloggers, critics or journalists. Connect with them and share their content. In return they will probably share your content.

Social media is not just about you – it is about developing relationships and conversations with others. Done in the right way your loyal social media followers will also be your loyal customers.

John Murray

John is every inch the wordsmith and loves a game of Scrabble above all else. With experience writing for newspapers, John’s time at university was spent studying Creative Writing – something which comes across in his love of the pun.