You’ve probably heard that it’s not very effective to hard sell on social media. Constantly pitching your own products and services will get you nowhere.

So, the only thing hard selling will get you is unfollowed, blocked or labelled a spammer. Ouch!

That’s all true – but we’re not using our social media networks just for fun! We’re there to promote our business, too.

So, how are we supposed to convert followers into buyers if selling doesn’t cut it? Other people seem to do okay – what’s the deal?

This has got to be the biggest issue facing small business social media users on a daily basis.

Many of my clients complain that they don’t know what to write when faced with the blank ‘What’s on your mind?’ or ‘Compose new tweet’ box. Stumped. Unsure of just how to get people interested in their stuff.

Equally, we haven’t got time to play around – our marketing activities need to pay! So, let’s look at how to market on social media in a genuine way that gets the results we’re looking for.

First off, let’s change from ‘selling’ to ‘informing’

The word ‘sell’ can feel uncomfortable. It makes us squirm and shift in our seats. None of us want to come across as greasy or pushy.

It’s not surprising we feel this way. Not many of us came in to business as natural sales people. Neither did we know it would be such a huge part of our business. But that’s exactly what we have to do.

Without customers we have no business!

How about we put it another way? Yes, our objective it to sell our product or service but what if we inform people about our great stuff and simply invite them to get more information?

Think about it. You’ve got great products, services and expertise to share. You know what you have can help. People on Facebook and Twitter are looking for a solution to their current problem or issue. You could be the perfect match!

Here is an example from KISSmetrics, who knows this technique perfectly, they always aim to inform first:

Reframing your thinking in this way helps take the negative pressure off. So you’re not ‘selling’ but:

• informing about your new product and how it can solve your customers’ problem
• informing about your latest e-book and how it benefits prospects
• informing about your services and how they help your clients

That feels more comfortable, right?

People use social media to meet others, learn, and share information.

In truth, if we’ve taken the action to follow you or ‘like’ you on social media, we want to hear what you have to say!

Remember though, that successful social media users are those having conversations and building relationships. You don’t do that by just sharing and tweeting about your stuff. More on that later…

OK, so now we’ve reframed our thinking, how do you share without the sleaze?

• You want the reader to feel an emotion when they see your tweet or post. Enough emotion to move them to action. Curiosity, interest, excitement and fear all do that.

The action is to click on the accompanying link to read more. Which brings me to my next point…

• When you’re sending out social media messages about your cool stuff, always include a link where people can find out more information. That can be a link to your website, blog, sales page, newsletter sign up or product page.

Many people forget to do this but it’s massively important. You have to make it super easy for people to take action.

• Focussing on benefits works too. Think like your prospects and customers think. They want to know what’s in it for them. How will clicking on this link benefit me? Take this example:

“I’m holding a Twitter workshop. Get your ticket here! [link]”

isn’t as clickable as:

“Do you know the key ingredients for a successful Twitter profile? I’m revealing all right here: [link]”

Yes, the first message is informative, but the second asks a question all newbies would want to know. It makes them curious and maybe a little worried. Suppose their Twitter profile doesn’t have those key ingredients? We all want our social media profiles to be top notch.

How much is too much?

Earlier on in this post I mentioned that conversations and nurturing relationships is where you’ll find the social media gold. And, if you’re not doing that on your social media profiles, you’re not going to get the results you want. Simple.

You don’t want to be known as ‘that guy’ who only promotes his stuff. Instead be that other guy – the generous, informed, helpful, expert, ‘must follow guy’!

To do that, you want to be sharing a mix of messages as well as your own marketing posts, but how much?

After a while you’ll find the ratio that works for you. A good starting guide is to apply the 80:20 rule:

• 80% sharing useful tips, other people’s content, retweets, conversations, musings and helping people.

All that good stuff that helps you build your reputation, nurture relationships and increase your followers. Here are three great companies, who are using the 80:20 rule exceptionally well, if you browse through their Twitter stream, you will get a good idea of how this works:

• 20% informing people about products, services and blog posts.

As well as being insanely useful, this is the stuff that requires real action from your followers and leads to a conversion: visiting your website, signing up to your e-book, buying your products or services, and reading your blog.

Your 7 step action plan to get your message out there

So before I finish up, I want to leave you with steps you can use to create your non-sleazy messages. Apply these actions and watch your conversions grow!

• Take a timer and set it for 30 minutes. Turn off all distractions, including your social media profiles.
• Write or type out as many messages about your product, service, event or newsletter as you can. Think about the benefits and why people would want to hear about your stuff
• Aim for 10 but I bet you can think of more!
• Refine until you’re happy with them
• Schedule your messages in to using the 80:20 rule above. Once they’re scheduled you don’t have to worry about them!
• Remember to check your Buffer analytics for message effectiveness. Tweak the timings and focus on your most popular posts to help create even better results next time.
• Rinse and repeat.

What do you think?

What’s the hardest thing about selling via social media? Share in the comments below.

Editor’s Note: A version of this post originally appeared on Buffer blog