A few weeks back I was watching some social media peeps wax lyrical about how businesses shouldn’t be using their social media accounts to sell: they should be totally community focused instead of product focused.
But friends, as much as I’m sure your favorite brand loves chit-chatting with y’all, it’s a brand. Without you buying stuff from it, it doesn’t exist. We talk about being authentic, and there’s nothing more authentic than cutting through the noise to say that brands want you to support them not just with your likes, but with your dolla, dolla bills.
It can be a fine line to walk – being friendly and approachable while still being a business trying to sell services, solutions and stuff. Sure, Wendy’s and Oreos have multiple full-time social media people on hand to respond to every interaction with funny, quippy remarks, but for smaller brands, that same sort of interaction can suck up all the time that they need to spend on actually being a brand. People have access to you, so they expect access to you, and the more you feed the beast, the more you end up with people in your DMs wanting to shoot the breeze all day. Ah, parasocial relationships. Love ‘em.
If you’re a new biz or an entrepreneur, this post might be hitting you in the feels, because you know how it is. Relationships matter! You want to show everyone that there’s a real person behind the account! But once your business (and account) grows to a certain point, that’s just not a realistic expectation to set for yourself. You should be focusing your energy first and foremost on growing your business. Social media is just one part of that. And ideally, it’s one part of a strategy that funnels people from your social media and over to your newsletter sign-up page or shop – not just into your DMs to chat.
Got fans ‘picking your brain’ in your DMs instead of buying? Here’s what to do.
- Delegate customer service inquiries. Have people sliding into your DMs to talk orders or ask a support question? Consider setting up a customer care email and directing traffic to that inbox instead. This extra “step involved may assist in filtering out the more frivolous requests.
- Simplify your responses. It’s great to be responsive. But are you spending valuable time writing out novels in response to every comment or question? Canned responses are great for FAQs, and simple responses (including emojis) are totally fine for most other things. When it comes time to hand over the reins of your social media to someone else, they’ll appreciate this! (You can also try occasional AMAs instead of being constantly available.)
- isn’t to be a social media influencer (probably) – it’s to use social to drive people over to your website, newsletter or shop. If people are hanging out in your comments, it might be because you’re not being strategic about your content strategy and goals. Take another peek at your content to see if you’re setting yourself up for success with a solid call to action. Here are a few ideas >> click.
- Retarget your socials towards selling – not chatting. Similar to the point above, if your posts are getting traction but aren’t converting, it might be time to pivot your strategy. Focus on bringing awareness to your products and services, and on driving people to your sales touchpoints. Those behind-the-scenes videos and chit-chatty Reels are fun, they afterall help build trust, but eventually you have to trickle in information about the solutions you offer to relieve the pain or challenges for your audience.
Need some help figuring out how to get more customers through your digital doors? Book a Pulse Check with me, and let’s walk through the simple changes you can make to be the brand that everyone loves to support – and not just the brand everyone loves to talk to.