Be Human, Not a PR Robot

When people first click on your Twitter account or Facebook profile what do they see?

Do they see a human? Do they see someone they can build a relationship with? Or do they see the voiceless, uninspiring company logo?

I don’t care if you brought on the most talented graphic designer on the globe to redo your company brand, DO NOT USE IT FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS. I’m aware that all caps conveys yelling.

It’s a message worth getting through. Put a human face on your social media. People want to do business with people.

If you don’t believe me, consider this. Say you are NOT in the market for car insurance. Yet there’s an annoying agent from your town who found your Twitter account, and all he’s doing is tweeting you rates and specials.

There’s his company logo, and every link that you find is straight back to his web site. No depth to his efforts, and no personality. It was a fleeting inconvenience. You hit the unfollow button, and the problem is solved.

Six months go by, and you open the mail. All of a sudden your rates skyrocket. You know that it is time to start comparing rates again. Are you even going to remember this previous incident? Probably not.

If you do remember it though, it is in a context that would suggest no way are you going back. That joker annoyed the crap out of you.

Now, what if he had put his face on the profile, so you knew what he looked like? What if his Twitter bio was filled out so that you knew he was an agent in your town, and willing to help? Most importantly, what if he tweeted about his interests?

If you build a relationship, you knew he shared your pain about the sinking chances of your favorite NFL team or the fact that the NBA season just got shortened. Or maybe he went to a concert for an artist that you really like, or something to that effect.

These aren’t the factors you’ll base your decision on, but now there is a connection.
Now, there’s a human touch. Maybe when you call his office you get him, instead of a 5-minute “press 1 if…” menu. This is somebody that you can go with now.

Social media is not always going to be the quick sale. It’s not going to be as direct as some of the marketing channels in the past. If businesses try to use it as a television, radio and print substitute, they’ll fail.

However, if they invest in it the right way, they’ll see the payoff. Treat people with respect. Show interest in what they have to say. One of my favorite analogies is that it is like a 24/7 networking event.

You are not going to interrupt a potential customer while he’s talking to someone else, shove a card in his hand and walk off immediately after. Well, you’re not going to do that and get customers anyway. Don’t do the social media equivalent and solely post about your business.

Listen. Engage. Be human.

Pin It