20 Tips For Best ROI In Social Media

In Social Media the Return on Investment (ROI) is based largely on the influence you have upon your group of friends. If you’re just starting out in social media, you may not have much influence built up at all, because it all comes with trust.  You can build trust or borrow it. If you get a referral or nod from a power influencer or firestarter, you are borrowing their trust.

An example of influence at work: Your yoga instructor friend is amazing, you watch  as she teaches with grace and peacefulness everyday. One day she comes in and tells her class who her guru was and recommends a cd or book by them. 90% of that class is going to go buy or at least investigate her recommendation. Why? Because she has built your trust and you see her success, so you are influenced by her recommendation. It’s the same in the online world. To build your return on influence you just need to build trust or  identify who the influencers are and develop those relationships so you can borrow from the trust they have built with their network. Social networking has made his ultra simple to do.

Here’s my top 20 Tips for the best ROI (Return on Influence) in Social Media

1. Learn how to recognize the influencers and firestarters on each of your social networks. You will be needing them to help build your ROI.

2. Make it your goal to get to know the influencers and build more than just a business relationship with them. Please don’t just bombard the top people on your network with ridiculous requests to back you when they don’t even know you.  It’s like walking up to a someone you’ve never met at a bar and asking them to have sex with you.  Be respectful.  Build relationships and trust…you’re in it for the long term relationships not the one night stand.

3. Be Real with people. When you are first entering a new network, be real. Don’t be fake & brown nose it just to get in with the “in” crowd. They will see it.

4. Listen. To be a better marketer you need to be a better listener. Have you ever had a relationship that ended because the other person never seemed to listen to you? That rate is times 10 in social media because it’s easy to click & unfollow.

5. Care about others. Goes right along with listening, but you need to SHOW you are listening. Take notice of the needs of others and talk to them about it. This is where you may be able to recommend yourself or another.

6. Don’t be all about selling. Those that have been online a while know who’s there to market & sell, and who’s there to build relationships. Remember, your goal is to build relationships with the influencers. They smell SALES PITCH coming a mile away, and some will call foul the moment they do. That is NOT good for your ROI!

7. Use the “Me Too” ideal. We all prefer to buy from people we relate to or that are like us. You like Dexter? Me too! (Yes, I am a huge Dexter fan. I plan my Sunday’s around football & Dexter!) Be yourself & be relatable to.

8. Be Human. Showing your individual likes/dislikes, talk about what you’re in to. There are so many choices out there in social networking. What makes you different and relatable to others?

9. Don’t be the Karen or the Brian in your group. If you’re a Dane Cook fan you know what I’m talking about. There is always one person in your group of friends that no one really likes. They may let them hang around, but When they leave, everyone talks about how that one person sucks. If you’re not familiar with Karen or Brian, watch this video & you’ll get it. (Warning: Dane Cook is hilarious, but you’ve got to be okay with the f-bomb and a few dbag references)

10. Value the attention when you get it. People are starved for time and we are generally thinking about 5 or 6 things at once as we pretend to give something our full attention. If you manage to capture some attention from your group don’t squander it, and don’t constantly ask to be in the spotlight. Value the attention you’re given because we are giving something we really don’t have much of.

11. Find lovers of your services or products. Anyone can pay for advertisement, but what if your friend told you about something they love..no sponsoring, no incentive involved? Isn’t that more compelling?

12. Make & develop relationships with various types of people. I know the whole “target market” and “stay in your niche” is being screamed by those calling themselves organic followers. But, we are talking about networking..be the person that anyone can turn to when they need a tip on how to find a good photographer, dentist, or even babysitter. Be the one to turn to in several walks of life.

13. Keep your connections alive. You don’t want to slack off and stop communicating and then one day when you NEED that person go back and ask for help out of the blue. Stay close to your network.

14. Guard and protect your network. You want to share & help promote your connections, but you want to stay within your circle of trust. Your friends will appreciate it when you keep Karen to yourself.

15. Don’t focus on the numbers. A short term marketer or sales person only sees the number they need to hit or the volume they need to produce. Social media is about long term relationship building. Make it your goal to build lifelong connections.

16. Treat your network like a garden. Tend to your group, check on them to see if they need some motivation to grow, some TLC after a long day, or to celebrate after a new opportunity blossoms into a success!

17. Understand how the influencers work and imitate what they do. Watch their every move and how they communicate with their network. Ask yourself how they got to be where they are at. Who are their influencers? (This does not mean plagiarize)

18. Attend live events. Nothing replaces the face to face contact and personal connections you will make when you are rubbing elbows with someone. Virtual relationships are great, but mix it up & solidify those relationships by going to local meetups and large events. Are you headed to Blogworld next week? If not you are missing a tremendous opportunity!

19. Don’t be a bore. Let your personality shine and you will find the influential connections come much easier. The firestarters have been around a while and they have seen it all. Be different, be fun, be yourself. Relax and enjoy making friends, you’ll come across as a cool person to know & easy to recommend.

20. Don’t be a social litterbug. If you’re going to create social profiles on every network out there and only visit them once, then your profile has just become online litter. It clogs the system. Don’t just ping your updates to a bunch of sites, but go back and communicate with each network. Otherwise, do us all a favor and just delete the profile.

Those days are over where you could just build a store or a business and expect people to come in drones. With so many choices out there for services and products, we all want to know who we can trust. Who can we buy from and know we are getting a good return on our buck? We want someone we know to recommend a place to go or who to trust. Why? Because we already trust our friends.

Trust is the deciding factor. All the advertising in the world, all the marketing, press releases, and awareness campaigns will never measure up to the influence of a recommendation from a  trusted friend. So begin building your return on investment by building your influence. When you nurture your network you will see it expand and you will see the rewards.

What are some of your tips for great ROI?  What other factors besides trust do you see as big factors in social media?  Please share them in the comments.  Your opinions and suggestions are always welcome!

To Your Success,

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