How to Send Messages the Right Way on Social Media
How to Send Messages the Right Way on Social Media
The state of social media right now is still up in the air. With organic reach on most social media channels, (mostly Facebook and Instagram) taking a dive, it's no wonder that a lot of businesses are turning to ads to generate even a little bit of income. It's no secret that Facebook (and all of the social media sites Facebook has bought) is very pay for play these days. However, there is still a way you can reach the people you want without paying a lot in ads. You can of course go live on Facebook, and push stories on your Facebook and Instagram page. You can also break into unchartered grounds like TikTok, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. With all of these strategies, you should also learn the art of the DM.
Why DM Marketing?
Connecting with the customer directly is probably the most effective way you can ensure and track how much your service or product is needed. Social media is a great way to test this out however, you can also apply the same rules to text messages as well, which has about a 95% open rate vs a 20% open rate in emails. Sliding into the DMs is becoming an actual thing for many businesses now, and you can benefit as well!
There are so many options for businesses now to send DMs and texts to their customers or clients. WhatsApp for Business is now a thing, and if you are based in the US but have international customers or clients this is an amazing option for you. I actually did a blog post a while ago on how to use WhatsApp for business. The international appeal of WhatsApp is more than enough to tell you to get on DM marketing quickly!
What is a business direct message?
I get asked this a lot when I tell people about direct message marketing for businesses. The best way to reach out is to not reach out as a business unless you are a huge corporation ($50M+). Even if you are the owner of a huge corporation you can still make your conversations intimate by using ManyChat bot or another automated message platform. One of the biggest trends I am seeing in social media is people making actual genuine connections. Gone are going to be the days of influencers hacking the algorithm and pretending to be something they are not.
A couple of years ago we saw Facebook's official blog post about bringing people together and the consequential actions that Facebook took to their algorithm because of it. Genuine comments and messages would be at the forefront. This is actually great news for a lot of businesses that are relationship dependent. It would require more work on your part as a business owner to research the types of clients you want and then study each lead, but once you get your list, you can start sending messages!
How to structure a direct message?
Another common question that I get asked all the time, the how. How do I structure a good DM to go out on social media? Well the most important question you need to ask yourself is what would you like to sell and who are you trying to sell to? Now here is what you DON'T want to do:
Try to sell your services/products at the first go
Be formal, (you CAN be formal on places like LinkedIn, but even that place is becoming more casual)
Be spammy
Instead, think of social media as a big cocktail party, (this analogy works really well on LinkedIn, but it works for others as well) what do you talk about at all these parties? How would you interact with people? You definitely wouldn't sit there and rattle off your list of services to people! Here is what you should do instead:
Compliment on a post, an achievement, or an accomplishment they just had.
Give out a free tip or even free advice (I do this all the time)
Use humor! Send a gif or a funny joke.
After you send out that cold message, you may or may not get a response. It's very important to follow up either way! I always suggest 3-4 followups. Once you get a response the conversation should be a little bit more simple after that. If you don't go to networking events already, I highly suggest you go to some to get more of the feel of what I am talking about.
It's a Numbers Game!
The more you reach out the more responses you will get. That's how it goes. You won't get a response from everyone and you will most likely get a lot of nos from people, but this is where the research and targeting come into play! Take note of all the demographics you want your ideal customer or client to be, and do the research on every single one of them on social media. If you are a service provider you should probably do this on LinkedIn. Make sure you engage with all of your prospects before you reach out. Don't reach out right away after you connecting on LinkedIn. You can reach out after someone follows you on Instagram but in a more casual way like "Thanks for the follow!".
Want to learn how to do it? Let's talk!
Social media is a beast that not a lot of businesses can tame. You might have a few strategies in place that are already working for you, but are you seeing the ROI you want? Do you already message people on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Snapchat and not seeing much of an ROI? Maybe you didn't even know that you can message people on social media to get an AMAZING ROI. Let's change that perspective. The Spirit Digital can help you slide into the DMs of all of your potential clients or customers that you absolutely love and bring you the joy that you desire from your business. Wondering how this all works? Let's get on a call!