There is nothing wrong with using social channels to sell.
In fact, there are many companies that do a great job of selling on social (e.g. Moz, Hubspot, Social Media Examiner). The difference between companies that sell well on social — and those that don’t — is based on the community they formed online.
Brands with thriving communities get more attention, more engagement and more visibility with their social posts. If you want to build a thriving online community, stop using your social channels to sell.
Why Selling Stunts Your Growth on Social
Here are a few reasons why selling on social channels can stunt your community growth …
Selling constantly on social channels is annoying (like a stream of sophomoric selfies)
Some companies think that every tweet should direct people back to their landing page or a salesy blog post. They think every Facebook post should be about themselves. They think that a constant stream of self-serving social posts will eventually reel in a customer. The problem is that those salesy social posts rarely get engagement — and often just get ignored.
Selling on social channels stunts your growth because self-serving posts are rarely helpful (and thus don’t get shared).
Your social stream should not look like a stream of Craigslist ads. You can have the best product or service in the world, but if you’re trying to evangelize your business with every post, you’re going to hurt and possibly destroy any chance of growing your community. Salesy and self-promotional social posts are less likely to get shared.
Selling constantly on social channels not only stunts your community growth, but it hurts your brand image
Remember that your social channels represent your brand. Is your company really that desperate for customers that you need to sell with every tweet? Take a look at your social stream and tell me the type of brand you are portraying to the world? Are you selling or helping?
Selling constantly will destroy your community building efforts, so let’s talk about some practical ways to build community.
7 Practical Ways to Build Community by Promoting Your People
Here are seven ways that can help you build a community by promoting others:
1. Interview those in your community and feature them in a blog post, video, or podcast
A simple way to promote those in your community is simply to reach out to them for an interview. You could plan a series of blog posts to interview various people in your community. It can be a series of articles featuring interviews with people who have used your products or services. Or It could be a straightforward interview about why they joined your community – and why they find it helpful. It could even be a blog post featuring a variety of tips on a certain topic from people in your community.
It doesn’t have to be just a blog post, it could also be done through a Google+ hangout on air or podcast. No matter what media you choose, the idea is that you’re using every media possible to promote others. This will not only help you with content production, but will help you grow your blog subscribers and fans across different social channels.
2. Host an online chat to bring your community together – and feature their advice
One of my favorite ways to build community is through online events (e.g. tweetchats, Facebook chats, video chats). There is nothing like real-time engagement with those in your community – and it’s a great way to learn about topics they care about. An online chat can provide you with many insights about your community – as well as informative content that you can share later. If you’re hosting a tweetchat, use the event to retweet others and feature people who share great insights. You can later take these tweets and turn them into visuals – which can fuel your social content calendar.
3. Create a weekly round-up blog post featuring helpful articles from those in your industry
Show love to others in your industry by sharing their articles on your blog. The round-up blog post is a simple, but effective way to get attention to your blog. When you share this article on social, you can tag all those involved. It’s a great way to provide value to your community be featuring helpful articles – and to highlight those doing great work.
4. Create slide decks (or ebooks) on topics your community cares about — and feature them in it
What topics does your community care about? What articles are they sharing? What are some of the interesting discussions happening on Reddit? Use these topics to give birth to ebooks or visually-appealing slide decks that provide a more in-depth look at these topics. In these slide decks or ebooks, you can include quotes from those in your industry or community. Use these platforms to showcase the thought leaders and community members in your industry. When your slide deck or ebook is done, you can then thank them in the credits and tag them in the social posts for their contributions.
5. Create a fan or follower of the week – and feature them on social channels
A great way to build community is to highlight people that are engaging with you on social channels. For example, you can create a fan of the week on your Facebook page (or followers of the week on Twitter). You can feature them not only in a post (but also in the header graphic of your Facebook page or Twitter profile). If your a B2B business, you can feature a business that is doing great work in your industry (e.g. a nonprofit) — and tag them in your post.
6. Create visual content that will draw attention to the great insights from those in your community
We all know the importance of great visuals on social posts. A great infographic, animated gif, picture, or video can help your content get more engagement. Well, create graphics and media that promotes those insights shared by those in your community or industry. What tips are they sharing in tweetchats? What helpful information are they sharing in a forum? What are they blogging about? Use their helpful or inspiring content to fuel your visual content with their quotes – and tag them appropriately on social channels.
7. Show love by spending money to promote content created by others in your community.
If you really want to love your community, spend some money by promoting posts shared by those in your community or industry. Spending dollars on others is a great way to serve your community – and honor those doing great work. At the core, this shows your commitment to building relationships — not just revenue.
In sum, use your social channels to honor those in your community (and industry). Share their art, their media, their ideas and tag them in relevant social posts to give them some love. It’s all about them – not about you.
