How to Turn Your Social Connections into Customers

Why Should You Care about Visibility?

Lately it seems that everyone is talking about the term visibility, especially when it comes to social media marketing.

By now most of us know that we need to be active on social media to grow our marketing efforts. We’re participating in our Facebook groups, Twitter chats and commenting on each others Instagram picture of the day.

But are we really being visible to others? Are we making those most out of those moments of “I finally got your attention for 15 minutes”?

Or do we have our 15 minutes of fame and then our fans move on to someone else? Someone else who’s live streaming in Facebook. Someone who’s teaching an SEO tip on Periscope or showing you how to reach more customers on Pinterest using Blab?

Whether you like this new trend of live streaming or not, it’s here to stay. I’m pretty sure from the results I’m reading about that solopreneurs have been getting { including my own personal experience with Blab! }, it’s not going to disappear as the trend of 2016.

Social media marketing is shifting and moving into this “being in the moment” opportunity to connect. It’s not just whether you’ve scheduled enough tweets for the week to promote your new online course or you’ve bought Facebook ads.

It’s now about being live in that moment with your audience, answering their questions, having conversations and giving them a chance to get to know you more than just the behind-the-scenes photos on your Instagram feed.

It’s about letting them watch the conversation as it’s unfolding. It’s about being visible to your community.

Visibility helps us reach us more people to help them solve a problem. They see more than just your profile picture with a link to your blog post. And when they learn something valuable from you, it sets the foundation for the “know-like-trust” factor that we’re constantly seeking.

Being visible turns your social connections into customers.

Bringing Value to Visibility

Being visible online is more than just posting up a few videos on Facebook Live and saying, “Alright check off that visibility thing.”

It’s about actively getting yourself out there. It’s about connecting with people in a space where you can be easily found. It’s about being consistent.

And just like any other form of social media { or marketing for that matter }, you’ve got to do the work. There are no shortcuts in being visible.

When it comes to increasing my online visibility, I’ve become slightly obsessed with Blab. I mean, if you could call doing a Blab every week { one of those weeks, I was a guest on one Blab on a Tuesday and then did another one by myself a couple of days later! } for two months a bit obsessed then I’m totally guilty.

I’m amazed how simple it is to use, even for those us who are tech-challenged. The simplicity of this social program keeps me coming back and helps me get myself out there every week.

There are many ways that you can use Blab or any other form of live streaming to engage with your community but that moment where you deliver some value to them, that my friends, that is where you take this whole visibility stuff to the next level.

It’s one thing to sit there and talk about something important to your customers in an unscripted free-flowing way. It totally becomes another thing when you can use that live video to answer questions or show them how to do something to help their business.

I know how this works from personal experience – I was using the screenshare feature on Blab teaching Pinterest strategy tips and within 5 minutes of ending the Blab, I got not one but two new clients. My Blab was still in processing mode into a replay when the emails came over telling me I had made two sales.

Two people from my community were able to connect with me, got a ton of value from my live demo and then stepped away from their computer with actionable items that they could do right then and there.

This is that moment where you’re able to build relationships. It’s a pivotal place in your business where you can turn these connections into customers.

Getting More Value from Your Blabs

Other than the obvious reason of being able to connect live with your community, here’s just a few of the ways that Blab can create value to your social marketing:

• It’s more than a sales pitch – Blab is about communicating directly with people. Don’t just talk AT them and give the people attending your Blab a sales pitch. Show them something, teach them something and let them ask you questions that you can answer in real time.
  
• Interact with viewers — Ask your viewers questions and think about creative ways that you can invite people into a seat to be on screen for an interview or to ask or answer questions. This is one of the coolest things about this program! People love being able to chat with you more than just typing out their thoughts in a chat box.
  
• Ask a question – The value in the chat is really in the questions. When someone types in ‘/Q’ followed by their question, it stands out from the stream of comments and conversation going on between the viewers. Another great feature of Blab is to click on the blue Q of the question and the text of the question moves to an actual seat of the Blab where everyone can see it.
  
• Repurpose your Blab – When it’s done, you can take the recording and do whatever you want with it. You can download the audio and turn it into a podcast. Upload the video to your YouTube channel or embed into a blog post. Plus, your stream stays up as long you want it to be there so anyone checking out your account, can watch any of the previous Blabs you’ve recorded and watch your content on their time.

My favorite way to bring more value to my Blabs has been to use the screen share feature and do a live demo. I mean, it’s one thing for me to teach you by telling you something. It’s another thing for me SHOW you how this thing really works.

And like everything else in Blab, it’s super easy to share visuals only { no sound }:

• After the host has called in and is on screen, the host clicks on the purple button in the open seat.

• After clicking the purple button, the program will prompt you to download the Chrome Blab screenshare extension.
  
• To choose a screen that you want to share, the screen/site/image/etc MUST be in a separate browser. You won’t be able to include any other sites that you open up in a new tab on the SAME browser that you’re using your Blab. I usually open up two different Google Chrome browsers – one for the Blab program and the other for the screens that I want to share with a live demo.
  
• Then you choose which screen you want to share and BOOM – you’re doing a live demo on Blab!

I’ve already done a few live demos on my Pinterest Blabs and seriously, when it comes to your social marketing, it’s like getting two for the price of one.

First you get the Blab to help increase your visibility in your community. Secondly, when you add in a live demo to show your viewers how to do something valuable to help them, it takes your visibility to a whole other level.

And that’s the point where you’re really able to start turning your social connections into customers.

PS There’s so much going on in your life. You’re trying to make your business happen, trying to make money happen … it doesn’t happen by chance. You have to deliberately show up when and how they expect you to, if you want grow your business online.

Download the Social Media Productivity Planner! Grab the one tool you need to take you from wishing you had time to grow your business to owning a profitable business.

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