The Importance of a Personal Connection: Interactive Social Media

Since the dawn of social media, brands have been trying to engage and interact with their prospects, leads, and customers in a way that is more human. One way that companies and brands can achieve that type of relationship is through social media. Companies don’t want to be seen as power hungry. Instead, companies want to engage and interact by educating and personalizing their consumers’ online experience. Social media is an important aspect of any brand. According to HubSpot, social media produces almost double the marketing leads of traditional outbound methods, but you can’t do this by simply creating a page and mindlessly posting updates.You need to have a two-way conversation with your audience on social media. You need to engage them not just as your buyers, but as people and really help them achieve their goals whether it be answering a question or finding a business partner.

As the popularity of connecting with other people on digital platforms continues to grow, social media becomes an increasingly important marketing resource. However, unlike other advertising tactics, social media requires the establishment of a personal connection in order to be most effective. So how does one make that personal connection? Read on.

1. Provide value. Many companies look at social media as simply another avenue of promotion. While it is possible to discriminate new information on social media platforms, consumers recognize ads and many find it invasive to receive propaganda from accounts they are following. What they respond well to are those things that provide a sense of value that don’t feel like a marketing ploy.

2. Technology has opened up new economic avenues all over the globe. When choosing a product or partner, businesses and consumers can select from a worldwide array of organizations. Being selected in this competitive market requires more than just presenting a valuable product or service. As Mark Bonchek and Cara France explain in this Harvard Business Review article, to remain competitive, businesses must create a mutually beneficial relationship between their organization and its customers. An important part of developing any relationship is creating trust between both parties. In her article, The Science of When You Need In-Person Communication, Laura Vanderkam shares that personal interaction is one of the best ways to build trust between individuals and enthusiasm for shared projects. The ability to shake hands, see verbal expressions, and detect other non-verbal cues all help to foster a stronger, more trusting relationship.

3. Helps you connect on a human level. Unlike a one-way conversation where a company typically dominates the narrative and doesn’t really acknowledge or interact with visitors/followers , a two-way conversation directly connects brands and consumers. A two-conversation is a dialogue, where brands speak and listen to their audience, responding directly to their wants and needs.

A business presence on any social media platform should not rely solely on distributing information. It is increasingly important for companies to actively engage with their audience and encourage authentic interaction with users in order to develop and increase brand loyalty. The number of available social media outlets can make it difficult to know where to start. The key is to choose the medium that feels like the most natural fit for the brand.