Build Authentic Relationships on Social Media Today With These 8 Effective Tips

If you are trying to build authentic relationships on social media, that’s great news! Authentic relationships are the butter to the bread of your social presence. And if you haven’t built genuine relationships on social yet, you’re basically not making the most of it. This is a lesson that I learned the hard way – I made a professional Twitter profile, not knowing what to do or which strategy to have in place.

Over time, I’ve learned that there’s a lot you can achieve simply by investing in building relationships over social. I’ve had clients and referrals come my way alongside several opportunities, for instance, I’ve been invited as a guest on Twitter chats and on a webinar too.

Not sure how social media and relationship building work together? I’ve eight tips to get you started right away.

Build Authentic Relationships on Social Media Today With These 8 Effective Tips

1. Show up consistently.

Think of consistency as the backbone of building relationships on social media. You can’t expect to make any friends if you don’t show up regularly. Why? Because an inconsistent presence makes you hard to trust. It also makes it difficult for you to leave a memorable impact on your audience.

So, rule one is to show up weekly if not daily. Try a social media scheduler for helping you post on a regular basis. Having said that, hop on the network yourself, which brings us to the next tip.

2. Engage, engage, engage.

Showing up regularly is just one aspect of consistency. The other, you ask? Engaging consistently.

You need to leave meaningful comments on others’ posts, respond to anyone tagging or mentioning you as well as adequately address the comments on your post. This way, you can tell people you’re active and are reading their stuff, therefore, engaging with them.

And you know what’s the best part about engaging? People engage back – thanks to the principle of reciprocity: the psychological urge the encourages people to return a favor (read: comment in this case).

3. Be yourself

This means you write like the way you talk instead of sounding like a robot or a business. The more human you sound, the more people can connect with you.

However, a word of caution: being yourself doesn’t mean you make your social feed all about yourself. Instead, being yourself means you show certain aspects of your personality in the way you interact with people.

4. Talk about what interests you as well as your audience.

As I mentioned, don’t make your feed all about yourself. Think of it like this: why would anyone be attracted to your social profile if there’s nothing of interest for them?

So, talk about what interests you as well as your audience – the sweet spot gives you content that you like to talk about and it offers value to your followers too!

5. Give up the picture-perfect image.

Building relationships in real life is a lot about being real, isn’t it? Well… turns out, it’s much the same on social media. You don’t have to worry about putting your best foot forward all the time.

Instead, you can go ahead and be vulnerable – talk about what worries you or what lessons you learned from an episode of failure. Just keep in mind one thing: don’t end up being a Debbie Downer.

People are attracted to a positive outlook, so don’t keep complaining round the clock – that’s no way to attract your audience.

6. Share behind the scenes content.

I’ve always found that behind the scene (BTS) content works wonders. Why? Because people love to see what goes on behind those closed curtains. Had a good week? Talk about it (I did so in a recent tweet). Working on a new blog post or applying to a new job? Share it.

This week was an incredibly productive one. I completed:

✔️ A piece of 3k words
✔️ An expert roundup of ~7,400 words
✔️ A post on the 4-day week
✔️ The 1st draft for a new client I’m excited to work with

Do I deserve a big, fat chocolate cake? You bet I do! 😁#freelancer

— Masooma | Content Writer (@inkandcopy) July 3, 2020

Best of all – share the lessons you learn. Let’s say you’ve been through a recent job interview but you didn’t make it. Make the most of it by sharing your takeaways or lessons you learned.

7. Share interesting visual content.

Memes, engaging videos, GIFs, appealing images, and the rest of the visual marketing shebang take less than a few milliseconds to attract people. In fact, posts with images can get 650% higher engagement than posts without them.

So, it’s best to build relationships by offering what people are interested in. Add emojis (but don’t go overboard with them) in your captions and comments. Slide in a GIF to express your emotions. And, don’t forget a good ol’ picture.

To further amplify your visual content, consider incorporating stock videos into your marketing mix; they offer a dynamic and professional touch that can enhance your brand’s overall appeal.

8. Support others.

Lastly, support others as you’d do in real life. Now, how would you support others on social? There are lots of ways to do so. For instance, retweet or share their content. Read what they post and comment on it.

If you want to go the extra mile, share your followers’ blog posts/content in your social feed. What’s more, If they post any queries, help solve their problem in the best way you can do so. There are also #FridayFollow hashtags on Twitter that you can join to give a shout to people you want to.

Wrap up

Hopefully, these tips would’ve helped you answer the question of how does social media build relationships? Have other relationship-building tips? Share them away in the comments below.

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