I attended Mari Smith’s relationship marketing webinar this week (awesome event!) and wanted to share a few marketing tips plus my recommendation for turning on the Facebook Subscribe Option on your Personal Profile.
“Relationships first. Business second” is a favorite quote from the webinar! As consumers, we all are more inclined to do business with people we “know, like and trust”…so as business owners, we should be focusing on building a long-term relationship with our potential clients instead of the quick sale.
How do we build those relationships through social media? Start with an overview of Mari’s Four-Part Formula for social media success:
- Build a Quality Community – proactively build a following.
- Content Strategy – focus on writing more and becoming an authority in your industry. Share your content and give away your “best stuff”.
- Consistency – maintain the same style in your personal and promotional content. Focus on your messaging and the frequency.
- Caring – genuinely, passionately care about people.
Next, I recommend an easy way to practice relationship marketing – turn on the Subscribe Option on your Personal Profile (Timeline). http://www.facebook.com/about/subscribe
Up until this time, business and personal messages were separate: your Personal Profile (Timeline) was (supposed to be) used for making personal connections with family and friends while your Fan Page was used for marketing your business. But as Mari points out in the webinar, the recent Subscribe feature gives you the opportunity to use your Personal Profile as another marketing channel.
It requires no extra work on your part, since you are already making regular updates to your Personal Profile. By offering the option to Subscribe, people now have the chance to learn more about you or “follow” you without making a formal friend request.
It’s a safe first step in the “know, like and trust” formula for building relationships. When someone subscribes to your Profile, it’s a one-way process: you are not subscribed to them automatically (as you are when accepting a Friend Request from them).
Giving your community a glimpse of you as a person rather than a business goes a long way, especially if your Fan Page represents a company entity. Also, if you’ve reached the 5,000 friend limit on your Personal Profile, turning on the Subscribe option gives you a way to expand your community.
Privacy Concerns
Remember that all public posts and public photo albums are visible to your subscribers.
If you have concerns about privacy, then you can keep your personal (and family) information hidden by changing your privacy settings and using Custom Lists.
For example, I have lists for Family and Close Friends (created by Facebook) and a list for Personal Contacts (that I created). When I post an update that I don’t want my subscribers to see, I simply choose to share the post with those Custom Lists (click on the icon in the bottom right corner of the status update box, and choose the list you wish to share with).
I also have a public photo album that is visible to subscribers, but most of my family photos are visible only to my Custom Lists. For more information on creating Custom Lists read our previous post on recent Facebook changes.
Edit Subscriber settings
Go to your Subscribers tab and make any changes, such as limiting who can comment on your public updates.
You can also “hide” your list of subscribers by clicking on the Edit button and changing “Who can see your subscriber list on your profile” to “only me”.
If it becomes necessary, you can also block Subscribers by clicking on their name and reporting/blocking them.
More information on the Subscribe Option can be found in Recent Facebook Changes: Tips on Subscriptions and Privacy.
Have you turned on the Subscribe feature yet? Want to connect? Send me your link and I’ll subscribe to you!
Visit Mari Smith’s site for more information on her book The New Relationship Marketing.
About Terry League