MWM ask the expert
MWM 18
How To Truly Engage Your Social Media Audience And I have no doubt that some of them work like gangbusters, too. But most of them, frankly, don’t. And of all the techniques that do work, a common denominator is a giant time suck that makes social media marketing more of a job than something you do on the side to build your following, grow your prospect list and eventually make more sales. So today I’m going to share my #1 social media marketing hack with you, and before I do, I’d like to offer you a word of caution: While this works well with building your audience, there is also something about it that is just a little bit… inauthentic. Your social media audience KNOWS that you are not staring at your screen and waiting with bated breath for their response to your latest post. And yet they want, or on some level even need, for you to PAY ATTENTION to them and CARE about what they think. Let’s take a far-out example to illustrate: If you were a movie star, and I mean an A-list movie start like Al Pacino or Meryl Streep or Tom Hanks, people wouldn’t expect you to actually respond to them on social media. But if you did respond to them, or even if you just appeared to respond or even appeared to care what they think, it would probably make their day if not their month. “OH MY GOD TOM CRUISE REPLIED TO MY TWEET!” You get the idea. You already instinctively know what I’m about to tell you, although you probably haven’t utilized it effectively. Successful social media marketing comes down to establishing parasocial relationships with your followers. Para-social is a fancy term for a relationship that a person imagines they have with another person whom they do not actually know, such as with a celebrity or a fictitious character. Your goal is to get your audience to engage with your social media marketing personality in a manner that is meaningful to them but doesn’t take up much of your time or tax you emotionally. In essence, you’re making people think you care about them (and maybe you really do) but you’re not actually engaging with them on a personal one-to-one basis.
