MLM.com recently featured an original article from Scott Allen that provided great insight into strengthening online relationships. According to the article:
“So, you’ve got hundreds of LinkedIn connections, Facebook friends, and Twitter followers. Now what?
Along the way, maybe somebody told you, or you decided for yourself, that having a strong social media presence would be a good way to grow your network marketing business. And you know that it’s a numbers game, so the more people you can connect with, the better, right?
Not necessarily. While there’s generally no particular harm in connecting with as many people as possible, it may not be the best and highest use of your time. If those relationships aren’t actionable, how valuable are they really?
How actionable a relationship is depends on the context. For example, you might give some change, maybe even a dollar, to a stranger in front of you who’s coming up a little short at the register. You might offer to pay for dinner for a friend in a group who forgot their wallet, but you probably wouldn’t do it for the table next to you. You might loan a family member some money to start a business without a lot of questions, but with an acquaintance, you’d want to do some due diligence – get to know each other better.
This concept is known as the “action threshold”, and understanding it is critical if you want to grow your business with social media.
Consider this example: is it more valuable to have a) 10 connections who will share and comment on nearly everything you post, b) 100 connections who frequently like something you post, or c) 1,000 connections who rarely, if ever, read what you post?
Who is more likely to sign up for your business? The person who happens to catch one post from you about your business in their social stream, along with the hundreds of other similar posts they see? Or the old friend who you actually talk to maybe once a year, but who sees all your posts, and, over time, notices how much healthier, happier and more successful you’ve become?
Point is, they have to know you fairly well to even take notice—for your story to cut through the noise. They have to know you fairly well to have some trust that this opportunity is real, and not just marketing hype. They have to feel like you care about their well-being and not just your own.
So how do you build stronger relationships online? How do you turn an acquaintance into a friend or a friend into an ally?
While it’s true that face-to-face interaction can certainly help strengthen relationships, it’s not an absolute requirement. In fact, many of the tactics for strengthening relationships simply happen more often face-to-face, but can be equally effective—sometimes even more so—online.”
To continue reading the full article from MLM.com, click here.
And to learn more about social selling, read this article from Momentum Factor’s Jonathan Gilliam.
Additionally, to find out how Momentum Factor can help protect your company from compliance issues related to social selling, contact our team today.
