Whether you’re a business owner or salesperson, social media is a great tool you can use to attract referral business and build long-term relationships with your clients/customers and their circle of friends. But how do you get started?

First, decide what your message will be. If you’re a business owner, what do want to promote? Who is your audience? Which platform will work best with those two variables?

If you’re a salesperson, the questions are the same, except you are the product. You need to stand out.

But, once again, what is your message? That unique sticky “thing” that people will remember?

Once you identify it, stay true to it. Bring it up often, in all of your social media marketing.

Do you have a logo? Do you need one? How much does it cost to get one? These are all great questions, but the one I start with is, “Do I need one?”

If you’re a salesperson, maybe, maybe not. First determine that sales is indeed your chosen career, that you love the sales portion of your career so much that you can’t imagine doing anything else.

Then ask yourself, “If sales is my career, do I feel like the company I’m selling for will be the last place I will ever sell X?”

If it’s not, try not to tie yourself to the corporate brand and be mindful about how you brand yourself.

For example, if you’re selling Ford vehicles, don’t brand yourself as “Eric, your Ford guy”.

You may want to be “Eric Beech – Putting Dreams in Garages”.

Once you develop a tagline like the one above, remember to use it in all your posts and videos, whether they’re live or recorded. Say things like: “OK, thanks for watching. I’m Eric Beech, and I put dreams in garages.” Then, no matter where you work, your tagline will work too.

See where I’m going with this? We, your customers and followers, want to know you better. As consumers, we want to do business with people we care about, that we feel connected to. So show us who you are.

Once you know who you are, start sharing it with the public. Do you love chocolate or donuts? Or maybe chocolate donuts? Show them to us!

If you’re the guy who puts “Dreams in Garages”, maybe you need to actually shoot some video in a garage, or video your customers pulling their new vehicle into their garage. There are so many branding options!

I have a friend who calls himself “Phil on the Hill”. He should have some pics of himself actually standing on the hill he is talking about, or shoot his vehicle walk-around videos on the hill, to further drive his branding home.

Are you getting a visual on this yet? Good!

The more you share the details of who you are and what your brand is, the more you’ll begin to see business coming in from your social media. You’ll begin to be an influencer in your market.

If you can’t see how doing this consistently and with purpose will create a healthy pipeline of referrals, you might need to get off the internet … like, today!

As always, my team is here to help you anytime you need it. All you have to do is get in touch!