When first starting with social media, it definitely feels like you are talking to yourself doesn’t it. The truth of the matter is, you are. That’s ok though. It takes time to develop a following and to convince your following to participate in the conversation.

The question then is “how do you change it?”

First, you should make sure that your customers know where you are. Make sure that you include your addresses (Twitter, Facebook, website, etc.) on business cards, advertisements and any promotional material.

Give your customers a reason to follow you on the social media platforms you choose to use. Let them know, for example, you will be making unadvertised special offers from time to time for Twitter followers or Facebook fans. Maybe you will want to have some sort of competition with a prize for the winner. The type of offer is, of course, up to you but whatever it is, you must follow through.

The next thing you will want to do is follow some of the local businesses in your area. Following businesses whose customer demographic is similar to yours would be very helpful but any local business will help. Engage the businesses you are following in conversation. On Twitter, for example, retweet some of their tweets and reply to some of their tweets. Be sure to use the @username to insure that they see your question or comment. If they reply to you, they will use the @yourusername. When doing this, all of their followers will see that they responded to you. This brings attention to you and hopefully a few new followers. (Just remember to pay it forward when someone else that’s new starts their social media program.)

Don’t be discouraged by the fact that you have to talk to yourself in the beginning or that after a month or so you only have 50 followers. It takes time to build your followers and fans. If you use the strategies we’ve talked about here and stick with it, I can assure you it will be well worth your efforts.

Photo: sasheemeeeeyum

The answer to that question is pretty simple. Without the customer there is no money, right. When the economy is tough and money is tight though, it can be easy to forget that. We tend to let ourselves get stressed about the money and forget that it is our customers that keep us in business. It’s important we remind ourselves from time to time that if we take care of our customers, the money will come. Our customers always need to come first.

Let me give you an example of this working extremely well. In the small town I live in, there is a small hardware store. Other than carrying a few unusual, hard to find products, there is really nothing special about the store itself. It’s a hardware store. There are other stores in town where most of these products could be purchased and major chain stores within 20 miles where everything could be purchased much cheaper. Truthfully, most of the products could probably be purchased at other stores in town cheaper. Despite all of this, their customers continue to shop with them. Why? What incentive do they have to spend more money for the same products, especially in this economy?

Well, it’s because they make it very clear that they are there to help their customers in any way they can. From greeting them as they come in the door (when possible) and offering help, to ordering items that they do not have in stock or do not normally carry. They demonstrate to their customers every day that they are important to them and that they appreciate them. It doesn’t matter if the customer is spending $1 or $100, they are all treated the same. Their customers come first.

Do your customers come first? Do your customers know that they are important to you and that you appreciate them?

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Photo credit: rabbits on chairs