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Think of your social marketing strategy as one of mixers and mines.

Mixers, as in parties. You wouldn’t walk into a cocktail party, and immediately start selling your product or service, would you?

Imagine this in real life – this is clearly a strategy with diminishing returns. Why? Because you would get invited to fewer and fewer parties, right?

So, what do you do at a mixer? You get interested in people. You make some small talk, sure. You’re entertaining or interesting, up to a point. But mostly, you’re social.

You:
1) Get interested in other people, and share their interests.
2) Help others get heard, connected, and social.
3) Meet the people you want to meet, and let them get familiar with you.

Note that none of this looks or feels like selling, but of course one major reason we participate in the social networks is to sell – we just don’t act like the bore spouting product benefits over cocktails.

When you connect with people around genuine interest in their genuine interests, most of them will become interested in you. That’s where the mines come in.

Mines, because of the military analogy. Unlike a torpedo, a drone, a bullet or a missile, a mine doesn’t come to you. But when you step on it, you go off too.

Mines, also, because that’s where the precious jewels can be found – that’s where the gold is too.

Your mines include your profiles, which should be built for selling, your links, your website, and your content.

A note on your content: The further out in the field you are, the closer your content must touch on your prospect or customers problems rather than on your solutions. Start with the customers and work backward from there.

How does it work? You meet someone in the mixer, say on Twitter, who is a prospect for your service or a potential partner. You see from her posts that she is interested in, say, Singaporean Beetles. You used to collect Singaporean Beetles! You favorite some of her posts, and you reply with some helpful information. Over time, she checks out your profile, reads some of your other content, realizes you are in a business that interest her, and reaches out with a direct message, or through your contact information.

You’ve got a prospect!

Some call it Inbound Marketing, and it is. I call it the Social. It’s the art of Mixers & Mines.

Inspiring Action: Set your mines. Get out there and mix!

But how do you integrate this into your marketing machine? More on that in a post coming shortly.