Episode 9: How to Talk to People Online

Hello, dear friends. Today we are talking about a very hot topic that is one of my favorites, and it is how to talk to people online. So in this episode, what you're going to do is you're going to learn a simple system, um, to nurture your network. It's one of my favorites. Then you're going to talk. We're going to talk about two simple ways to build up your audience if you are a newly growing audience, human, and how to generate new leads. Where I talk about two fancy things that I've learned about called business to business and business to consumer. B two B or B two C. And we're going to talk about why interactive marketing is one of the most effective ways to build your business. So first and foremost, you want to be talking to people online when you are thinking about your business. A lot of us forget the kind of rules and groundwork that brick and mortar businesses set up for us. And we feel like, oh, if we talk to people online, it can feel weird, it can feel a little funky. And one of the things that I found is I want you to think about your presence online and whatever platform you are on. And I want you to think about that like a brick and mortar. I want you to think about if you walked into a physical restaurant, for instance, and you walk in and, uh, no one greets you, no one says hello, no one asks you, oh, would you like to be served? It's awkward, it's not comfortable, and the people are there for a reason. They're physically walking into your store, so they want to be served. What I found is that a lot of us think that online businesses, we don't think that, like, a lot of times we think that we are being pushy or salesy, and so we just avoid this completely. And that is one of the biggest mistakes I see people do, is not talking to people online, not having a way to, to actually talk to your humans. So the first thing that you need to do m is you need to actually nurture the people that are already in your network. When we think about you as a human being, you already have an audience. An audience just means that, like, the people who are following you, maybe people, if you have an email list, people who are subscribing to you, if you have a YouTube channel, people who are subscribing there, you might have a TikTok, a LinkedIn. All these different platforms are places where your people are. It is a platform where you already have some sort of an audience. So what you want to do is you want to figure out a way to open up conversations on a one to one level with people. Now, when most people think about being online, most people think that they are talking to people online. They're posting, right? They're like, oh, yeah, I went live. I do polls, I talk to people online. But that's not actually having a one to one conversation. That's actually called one to many marketing, and it's nicknamed outbound marketing or billboard marketing. So the purpose of marketing and posting and just putting things on your stories, that goal is to get brand awareness for people to know who you are and get to know you and like you and trust you. But I want you to think if you are seeing somebody on a billboard, it's just to be like, hey, here I am. Um, here's what I do. The purpose isn't always to get people to buy right away, especially if your offer is hundreds of the hundreds or thousands of dollars. So you want to be thinking about, how can I reach out to people on the one to one level, not just one too many. And one to one is nicknamed interactive marketing. And we'll talk about why that's so important. But what you want to do is you want to get to know your network on a, ah, one to one level. You want to be talking to people and you want to find out, why are these people here? Now, for me, when I first started my business, it was a lot of friends and family, so I knew why they were there. However, when we're thinking about your posting in general, what happens is you are on, your posts are only shown to 13% of people the majority of the time. So if you don't interact with people, um, what happens is people don't see your posts and they think because Instagram or whatever social platform you're on thinks that you're a robot because you're not actually talking to humans. AI has gotten so good that it will literally, just like, people won't think that you're actually a person, they'll think that you're a robot. So you need to nurture your network, build your network and start talking to humans. One of the best ways that you can do that is to nurture your current network. Now, for me, I wanted, I genuinely want to, like, be like, hey, thank you for following me. Let me know if you need anything. Right. So there are two different ways that you can go about nurturing your current network. You can either go in and have just, just introduce yourself, say, hey, let me know if you need anything. The second way you can do that is by asking a question that furthers your relationship. You can do one, or I, uh. You can do either or. But I would recommend doing something to actually talk to your people and your network. So, for me, one of the things that has been really critical is that whenever somebody follows me, you should be getting something. And now I don't do it, but my va does it. But you'll be getting an actual message. That is a video of me saying, hey, thanks for following me. And there will. I have three videos that are typically sent out. You'll get one of the three. One video is just like, thanks for following me. Let me know if you need anything. I'm here to help you. The second video, the other two videos that are sent out have what's called a closed question. A closed question is something that is a very simple, quick answer that requires little thought or effort. So, for instance, when I, um, when I, like, uh, do the closed end in questions, I'm thinking about something that's really easy for people to answer. So one of the videos asks how long people have been in business? Because it's very easy to answer. I'm like, I've been in business three and a half, almost four years for other people. For the second video that I send with a closed question, I ask, who? Who do you help? Who do you help with your business? So I want you to brainstorm, based on your business, what would be an easy way to start a conversation and foster that relationship with your current audience. That could be like, if you are a coach, uh, for children, or if you're a coach for parents, you can ask them about their kid. How many kids do you have? Do you like, how old are they? What's going on for them? Those are really easy inside that just help you build a relationship. And honestly, like, if we're thinking about building relationships anyways, it's so much nicer to have, like, these awesome flourishing relationships with people ahead of time before you end up getting, um. Um, what's it called? Like, you don't want to just, like, talk to people only when they pay you. That's not like I really. At least for me, that wasn't the kind of business I wanted to run. I want to help all the humans as much as I could and whatever my time could allow. So just keep that in mind when you are thinking about your network and all the funky feelings that might come up, a way to overcome that is just getting into service and being like, you know what they're following me for a reason they did actually opt in. So let's talk with them. That would be my simple system, to end up talking to people that are currently in your audience. And what we want to do is we want to think about what's called touch points. So for you, a, uh, lot of businesses, if you are listed as a business on social media or on your, if you have a website or things like that, you might be getting messages that are in this format. Hi, nice to meet you. You want to buy my stuff? Hi, nice to meet you. Do you want to buy my stuff? Hi, nice to meet you. Do you want to buy my stuff? And, uh, that can be off putting to some people. That is a strategy. If you play the numbers game of the people who are working with you, some of them might be into that, right? That is a philosophy that many people teach. I just don't love that. I feel like, it feels weird to me. Um, and I just prefer that I get to know somebody and actually, like, see if they're actually a good fit before I ever offer to work with people. So coming back to touch points, what you can think about is a touch point. And these are not my words. Okay, first off, I would never say touch point. Like, I would say, like, connection point. I think that's a little bit nicer. But in the lingo of the business of businesses, you want to be having touch points with people. So I would say that's what's nicknamed a hard touch. I'm not kidding. These are, like, actual words that I've heard being used when I learned how to do some marketing. So you can do a hard touch and hard sell somebody, just go full send and send them, hey, work with me right now. I, um, would not recommend that because it feels kind of weird. Right. So what we want to do is we want to do a mix of what I call soft. Well, the industry calls soft and medium touches. Again, you. But, like, still very helpful to think about. So within a soft touch, a soft touch is what I would recommend you do with pretty much everybody. It's like, hi, nice to meet you. Ask a closed ended question. Now, if people respond again, lots of times people will not respond, but if they do, then you want to continue the conversation. I always like to end with a question. For the most part, when I'm interacting with people, I'll be like, okay, like, tell me more. And I also think that shared vulnerability builds really strong relationships. So instead of just it feeling like an interview or like an interrogation, when you're like, okay, tell me about your kid. Tell me about this. Tell me about that. Tell me about that. Instead of just asking questions, what I like to do is I like to do some small talk, and I'm like, okay, cool. Let me tell you a little bit about me and, uh, like, my business. It's like, if they answer, like, it's like, how many years have you been in business? And they say, I've been in business since 2020. I'll be like, oh, my gosh. Same. I actually started my business in October, or I started my business in August of 2020. I actually ended up getting certified in 2020, um, through 2021. Did you end up, um, getting a certification or anything like that, or are you just going for it? Do you see how I'm giving a shared piece of vulnerability? I'm sharing about myself so they can get to know me, and then I'm asking a question. I'm not just playing 20 questions with them. That doesn't feel fun. If that's ever happened to you, like, you know, you probably had that happen to you. It just doesn't feel great. So I like to do what's a mix of, like, soft and medium touches, and I like to also be giving value. So when you're talking to people and you're nurturing your network. So I like to call it nurturing. It's what I like to do is I like to do a mix of open and closed questions. So I'll be like, tell me about how many years you've been in business. They'll be like, what made you decide to get certified? That's a more open question. Like, what made you decide to start your business? That requires a little bit more thought. So maybe I'll do, like, a couple of closed questions first, and then do an open ended question and serve them in that way. The next thing that you want to do is a medium touch point. You want to be asking people if they want to opt into something further. So once you've gotten to know somebody, once you know a little bit more about them, their background, their relationship, then you can give them a stronger touch point, and you can be like, also, by the way, I've got this eight hour workweek webinar. I know that you are working part time, and I think it could be really helpful for you. Would you want to come? And then you can ask them about, uh, a webinar. You could ask. Be like, oh, my gosh. You know, it's like, I remember I was working, like, 50 hours a week as well. Here's a post I just did. And, like, send them value and be like, how much do you actually want to work a week? The warm, the medium touches are to have people, like, opting in at higher levels and just sending them lots of value, being like, here's some value. Here's something helpful. Tell me about this. Tell me about yourself. I know it's crazy, because for me, I didn't realize how valuable this was. And it's interesting. In this current round of the mastermind, I was teaching about how to talk to people online. Um, it's a part of the managing lead system that I teach. And I had so many people, four people in this round that were like, you talking to me was the reason that I purchased. And one of the people that's in this round of the mastermind was like, Megan has been talking to me since 2022. We met, and, uh, we've been talking all the way since then. It'd been two years of us chatting, and I think that. And she was like, that's one of the reasons why I decided to buy from her. So I want you to nurture your network. It's going to be worth your while. Whether somebody literally, like, hears from you once. Like, I just. One of my. The other people that's in the group, she talked to me literally, like, one time, and then she was like, oh, my God, I need to work with you. Another person. It took two years, so it could be the long game, it could be the short game, but it's effective. The two ways, if you're looking to build your audience and nurture new leads, is to go out. And I'll probably do like a whole separate podcast about this. But you want to find new people, so you can find people with common interests to you online, and you can actually go. And that's called business to customer. So let's say you like, I used to go to yoga, and I, uh, still go to yoga. I used to teach yoga. Fun fact, at a place called core power in Raleigh. And I would go and I would find people with a common interest, and I was thinking about people who would want to invest in their mental health, people who I already had something in common with, and I would just build a relationship there. The goal of talking to those cus, the people who are like friends from other, uh, areas and avenues is not necessarily because you want them to buy right now, the thing that you want to do with those business to customer interactions is you want to be just building a common relationship and just building out your network. People may or may not follow you, but it could be cool for you to be like, oh, it's like, I've got this cool connection. This person goes to core power and finding people like that, people, um, that are in your area. So you could go and like Google your city. You can join networking groups and get to know people in that way. You can also think about like restaurant clubs, common interests, things like that, and just get to know people in that way. The business to customer kind of relationship. And when you're talking to people online, you want to be like, hey, I think we both go to core power. I was like, um, um. It's like, I think we both follow core power. Like, I did you go, are you more of a morning person or an evening person? Like asking just genuine questions and getting to know people in that way. That way can feel kind of funky for people. But for me, I was like, I just knew I could help people and I figured that the people who I would be reaching out to, that I didn't know online when I was talking with them, if we had a common interest, I was like, we are just probably going to be really good friends and it's going to be awesome. And maybe eventually they might know someone that could work with me in the future. Um, or maybe they will work with me in the future. That's definitely more of the long game. And you want to be thinking about like just building out your network, trying to create a larger following base, create more people who are actually interested in working with you. However, something that I have found is really effective when you're building your audience and generating new leads. You do not have to do this, but I have found that when you also do reach out to businesses and other people like that, I found that it's really helpful because then, especially if the business is something that is adjacent to your offer, it can be really helpful because you guys are both sharing a group of people that could benefit from both of you. So, for instance, when I was first starting my business, I was a general career coach, but I found that there was a money coach that I did an Instagram live with. I was like, this would be so fun. I definitely want to, um, make sure that my people have this sort of relationship so then you can do a collaboration with these kind of businesses. You also could talk, you, uh, could offer doing instead of like a collaboration, you could also give a presentation or do an event. For me, as a former teacher, your girl loves, loves doing presentations. So I actually would reach out to NC State I, which is the local university it's my alma mater. Go pack. Um. And within that, within that entity, I was able to give. It was something like, I think I gave eight different presentations to different, either class. There were classes that I gave, um, organizations and different clubs that were at, uh, NC state that I gave presentations to. So that's another great way. And just that can be more of a warm touch. And you're like, hey, so nice to talk to you. I was, I noticed that you do this. I do this. Would you ever like to have a presenter or would you like to have, um. Or would you like to do a collaboration? And for me, the thing that I think a lot of people don't see is that in 2021 and 2022, I reached out to like, uh, over 100 businesses and asked them if I could give a presentation. And only three responded. But because I had those three respond, I was able to work with them. This is where you can't take things personally and really just like, think about the people that you're serving, get really into service and be like, I could help this person. I know I could help this person and it's worth it. And you just send as many emails as possible to get your name out there to get that brand awareness and get people to get to know you. So that's really fun. The last piece though, um, I want to inform you about interactive marketing and how effective it is to grow your business. So when you're thinking about growing your business and you're thinking about like, doing that outbound marketing versus the interactive marketing, one of the things that I want you to consider is also the stats. So if you think about even companies like Google and Apple, they have started doing text message responses. They want to get to know you at a one to one level. I do like a, uh, meal service dinnerly. And they have a texting automation system. All companies, even huge companies, are heading that way. Apparently there's been a shift. So in the past, apparently I never experienced this, but it was awesome. You could do things like run an ad, a paid ad, and people would just buy from you. They would get into a funnel and they would just buy. According to 2020 three's research, that is no longer working as effectively as it did. I've seen it that, uh, it can work effectively still, but it's, it's way, way faster if you actually get that one on one interaction with people and people get to know and like you and trust you more. And if we think about, this is a, uh, generalization of a data and the study that was done. But if we know that it takes 17 times for someone to see your offer, they are way more likely to get your posts. They're way more likely to see your things if you're interacting with them one on one. So, for instance, if you are dming with somebody, your posts are going to go to the top of their feed. So you'll be the top of mind expert whenever and if ever they need you or if someone else in their life needs your services. So we want to start doing more interactive marketing. You want to start talking to people online. Remember, think about ways that you would interact with people in person. It's very, very similar. You can just interact with people online that way. And what I did is I, a lot of times I would go on a walk and I would respond and I would do a video. So it felt more like me instead of being like a stranger. That's just like messaging and you can try and mix that too. Voice memos are great. Just start interacting with people. Ask for people to interact with you in your post, your call to action, or your little piece at the end could even say, um, message me. It's like, if you want this, tell me about this, talk to me about this. And that's a way you can start to foster and talk to people online. So I hope you've enjoyed this. As always, let me know if you have any questions and I will be seeing you soon.