Many people have similar challenges when it comes to social media. Some organizations believe that by simply establishing a profile on the major social networks their work is done. However, to truly establish yourself and your business using social media, one important concept to learn and understand that some organizations miss is how to engage online with your social network. Today I am going to give you some tips on how to start an online conversation.

1: Choosing your audience: this is a very important step, because you are not trying to get your message across to everyone; just to the people who are going to want or need your product or service.

2: Engage, Engage, Engage: once you have found your audience, reach out and start engaging. There are no shortcuts to building a strong relationship. Although the conversations are happening online, there are real people behind the profiles who you need to build a relationship with. Comment on one of their photo’s or status’, research their latest projects, show’s them that you care about what they have to say. The video below describes several more methods of engagement that are also effective.

3: Don’t get discouraged: not everyone is going to be perfectly nice to you, in fact some people may not even give you the time of day. But that is okay, because there is plenty of people who ARE interested in your services and what you have to say. You are going to have to learn to deal with rejection, for every 20 people you engage with, perhaps only 3 or 4 will get back to you. As you engage more, you will learn to better your communication skills and more people will begin to respond.

These three tips provide excellent starting points. My challenge to you is to get out of your comfort zone and start engaging with to your network. You have to start somewhere and the more people you start engaging with, the more your brand name and mission will be known! Set weekly goals for yourself, and don’t forget to let me know how your conversations are going!