Social media is the place to be to market your business. Of course, if you're an online entrepreneur, that's a no-brainer and a must. But even if you relied on "local word of mouth," COVID changed that. The pandemic has shown us that if you don't have a way to sell and market your offering online, you can go out of business fast.

There're tonnes of strategies, how to's, and frameworks that work. And as an entrepreneur, I'm sure you create your own that aligns with who you are and what you stand for as a person and business.

Nevertheless, there are some core principles that you should follow to ensure your long-term success in the online world. Here are seven of them.

Principle 1: Listening

Listening online is more of reading the conversations that are happening. Which conversations? The ones of your ideal client. When you listen to what their goals and challenges are, you can create solutions that will sell. Moreover, you also learn how they talk about all this, how they tell their stories, describe their pain points and dreams. Listening allows you to understand your ideal client and learn to speak their language.

Principle 2: Strategy

By strategy, I mean being focused on your niche. If you try to appeal to everyone, no one will relate. The more you define your ideal client, the more successful you'll be. By strategy, I also mean being intentional about how you, as a business owner, stand out from the sea of others who want to help your ideal client.

Principle 3. Audience quality

You've probably heard that before, so I'll be the reminder 😊. As you build your audience on any social media platform, it's better to have 1,000 followers who stay and care about your content than 10,000 fake ones that follow you for a day and leave the next.

When your audience loves your content, they will engage. When they engage, they will get to know you better. With that, they will start to like you and trust you. And that's the straight path to successful selling.

Principle 4. Value

Yes, social media is a platform to build your personal brand. And yes, you should show your audience who you are as a person. But the only way people will keep coming back to your posts is if they see value in them. Quality images and copy create quality content!

Now, value means different things to different people. But since you listen and know your niche well, you'll also know how you can deliver value to them 😊.

Principle 5. Engagement

If you want to see engagement on your posts, you need to give that as well. Because social media conversations are precisely that – conversations with many participants in it. You can't post and never engage in other posts and then expect people to comment on your feed. Participate in other people's conversations, reply to comments left of your feed, contribute value. In short, engage.

Principle 6. Consistency

Building a social media following requires consistency and patience. Consistency shows that you're serious about what you offer. It shows that you care about your audience, and you're there for them, shine or rain. It shows respect and professionalism.

And patience is required because to build quality following takes time. This is a long-term game. None goes from 0 to 10,000 followers organically in a month. The fantastic thing about the long-term game is that it will compound.

Getting to 1,000 followers might take time, and a lot of effort, but getting another thousand will be much faster thanks to the compound effect (just like interest on your savings account).

Principle 7. Collaborations

Collaborations help you expand your circle of influence. When you collaborate with other entrepreneurs who share your passion and values to serve, and their offering is complementary to yours, it's a win-win-win.

You benefit from getting exposure to their audience, and they benefit from yours. Their audience becomes your audience for a moment and vice versa. And the best thing is, your ideal clients win too as thanks to you more of their problems get solved.

So are you ready to step up your social media world and serve?

I am :) for you and for me. And if you want to chat about "how to's" on any of these, connect with me for a free strategy session here.