Infographic source:
https://www.google.co.uk
How many times have you read that you should keep in constant constant contact with your prospective clients and customers through your #social media platforms? Quite a lot right?
But how often is too often? When do you cross the line between being helpful and informative with your posts, to something that is seen as annoying and intrusive.
The general accepted advice is to post at least once per day to your #Facebook page or #Twitter account, and allow enough time for your customers to respond before replying to their queries and questions.
Why we need to post every day
Many new #business owners will often wonder why we need to post something on social media every day. The simple answer is that because it works! Your customers have a chance to get to know you, and learn to trust what you have to say, as long as what you are saying is of value of course.
You can pretty much guarantee that every other successful business in your niche will be posting every day too, and those that don’t are quite easily forgotten about. You are present enough in your customers conciousness to be a familiar and welcome voice, but not too intrusive to become an annoyance to them.
Building familiarity and trust is a slow process, and your customers will only be ready to buy from you when they want to, and not when you want them to. This is why you need to be around for them to answer questions and offer more information to help them decide to buy.
Put yourself in your customer’s place. Who would you buy from, the friendly guy who posts good information every day, or that guy who only appears once a month or so, and it always pushing me to buy something.
Patience is a virtue
Did you know that only 2% of sales actually happen on first contact? According to the National Sales Executive Association, it can take between 5 to 12 times before you see up to an 80% response rate that result in sales. This shows that people are more comfortable buying from your when they are familiar with you, and you have earned their trust.
Keeping up constant contact can be both testing and time consuming, especially if you are moving into social media from a high-pressure sales background where you are used to everything happening fast. You have to adapt to becoming the tortoise rather than the hare.
Persistence and patience is the key, and once-per-day contact is a tried and tested method to win over your prospective customers. So how do you know if you are being too eager? How do you know if you are contacting them too much?
The answer is you will not know for sure, but one of two things will certainly happen: Your customers will either buy from you, or they will tell you to get lost.
What if every day is too much
For some small business owners, especially if you are a sole trader with no other staff, doing everything yourself can so time-consuming that you cannot justify dedicating time to post to social media every day. Don’t forget that every post you create must be of some value, and that simply going onto Facebook to say ‘hello’ simply will not cut it.
There will also be certain business niches where posting every day may seem a little excessive, or the idea of posting every day seems a little too scary to you. If this is the case, then posting three times per week may be your best way forward. You will be posting often enough to stay in people’s conciousness, but at the same time your posts will not become too overwhelming for you to handle.
The can apply the same rules if you are trying to build an email contact list through your social media sites. If the thought of emailing your client list every day, as well as posting onto social media sites daily, is too much to handle, then specify how often you will be in touch – and make it a realistic target for you to cope with.
