So far, we’ve shared how to Help and Inspire customers, prospects, and distributors with our online posts and build trust.

Now we’ll go into how sharing bits of our lives can help them relate to us and grow to trust us more.

After all, relationships truly are our business!

Let’s recap the basics: Relationships are built on trust.

The more we know and relate to the people in our lives, the more we tend to trust them.

Social media is a great place to share our lives with our family, friends, current and former co-workers, people we went to school with and other connections we’ve made in our lives.

It allows us to keep up with one another even if we haven’t spoken in a while. Although people may be hesitant to share too much about their lives online, understandably, due to security concerns, it’s not necessary to divulge every single detail.

You need only share as much as you’re comfortable sharing.

R: Relationships

Humans are relational creatures; we seek to relate and connect to one another and build relationships. Social media makes it easier for us to connect with people, even those we may not have met in person or haven’t seen in many years.

For perspective, scroll through your Friends list on Facebook; how many have you never met before? It’s likely there are a handful, if not more.

If you had asked the same question just a few years ago, the number would have been much less.

However, the internet has given us many opportunities to connect with people we never would have met otherwise in person.

As a result, we’ve become more open to building connections outside of the typical places, such as work, school, and our immediate communities. Now we can find our “tribe” no matter where we live.

Our tribe includes the people we have something in common with, whether it’s hobbies, interests or ideologies.

That’s not to say we all need to be clones of one another;  however, connecting with folks who share our passions helps us feel a little less alone, and that not only builds relationships, it also creates trust.

Share your life

Your followers want to get to know you! They want a glimpse inside your life to learn who and what is important to you, what you value, and how you balance it all.

This sounds like a lot doesn’t it? Sharing this information may feel uncomfortable, especially if you tend to be a private person.

You may be thinking, “I don’t know about sharing so much about my life with everyone. People don’t need to know that much about me.”

The great thing about social media is that you can control how much you wish to reveal to your followers.

You can be an open book about every aspect of your life or you can choose to share small pieces of it. It’s completely up to you.

You are your brand

The more you post about your business and industry, the more people will associate you with it. It’ll become your brand.

You’ve probably heard a fair amount on the topic of branding and have thought about creating your own personal brand.

Each time you post on social media, you’re building out your brand and shaping how people view you and your products.

Next time you post something, consider what it tells people about you.

• Tons of silly photos of kids? You’re a fun-loving parent!
• Videos or links to articles about your industry? You’re an expert! I wanna buy from you!
• Day-in-the-life photos? You’re so relatable!

Of course, these are all positive examples. What about if you’re always posting negative items, whether it’s multiple rants about the service you’ve received in various stores and restaurants, unflattering or offensive memes and gifs, etc.?

Although your connections may overlook the occasional negative post, if all of your posts are real downers, they may choose to “unfollow” you.

That means they’ll no longer see the great content you post when you post it.

After all, we’re all bombarded with so much negativity daily, why would we choose to subject ourselves to other people’s rants and negative vibes as well?

The good news is, one of the best ways to stand out is to be a beacon of positivity in your friends’ feeds. Before you post something, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does this show me and my brand in a positive light?
• Will this make someone smile and otherwise make their day?
• Would my grandmother approve of what I’m posting?

The last one is a check on civility. You may have noticed society is becoming less civil and tolerant of differences.

Instead of agreeing to disagree, many people tend to insult and brow-beat one another in an effort to get others to understand their point of view.

That approach never improves relationships; it just drives us further apart.

Before you hit “post,” think of a person in your life whose opinion you really respect, such as a parent, grandparent, favorite auntie or best friend, and ask yourself what they would think of what you’re posting.

If you think they would read it and get that disapproving look in their face (I’m sure you know the one), then reconsider posting it.

After all, you want people to think of you and think positive things, not think of you and think, “hey, remember that meme they posted? Yikes!”

People buy from you because they know and like you.

We tend to want to work with people we know, like and trust. The same is true in sales. We love to support the people we love!

The company’s products are often secondary to the relationship we have with the person selling them.

Or, if we really love a product, we’ll buy it from the person we know instead of some random stranger.

Facebook allows your customers to get to know you better. The more they know about you, the more they’ll like you. The more they like you, the more likely they are to buy from you.

And, the more they buy from you, the more likely they are to refer you to others who would enjoy your products. Sound familiar?

It’s only the basis for relationship marketing!

Since it’s impossible to communicate with everyone you know – customer, prospect, distributor, etc. – in person all the time, social media makes it easy to check in with them, say “hello” and make their days.

You can send them a message anytime, anywhere; basically, whenever you happen to think of them (like during your Power Hour. Wink, wink).

What’s better than that?

But I already do all of this. What more can I do?

If you’re already doing all of this, keep it up! There’s no point reinventing the wheel, right?

Continue doing what you do and you can be sure you’ll build trust with all of your social media-related relationships.

Consider this article positive reinforcement for a job well done!

If you’re new to social media or aren’t comfortable opening up to the world entirely, think about how much you are willing to share and stick with that.

There’s no hard rule that you have to share everything; open up about the things you’re willing to share about your life, whether it’s your favorite hobby, a favorite sports team, a community organization you love and, of course, your products.

You can decide whether or not to open up more as you go.

If you’ve committed a few social media “don’ts”, don’t worry about it! We’ve all posted something in the past that would make us blush or cringe now.

Hey, we’re only human. Every day is a new day, so start posting more positive things and before long, you’ll be seen as a shining example of positivity!

Then make a conscious effort to continue those positive vibes going!

A final note about relationships

Although the “R” in the HIRE acronym seems the most obvious, it’s the one that takes the most time and the most work. It’s also the first one to go by the wayside when we get busy.

Think about the last time you were overwhelmed with family, business and life commitments; chances are you likely stopped connecting with your customers, prospects, and distributors as much.

It’s okay to admit it. Luckily, Teamzy is here to help you stay in touch with your relationships, even when your attention is pulled every which way.

It takes time to build trust, just as it takes time to build your relationships.

The most important thing is this: You get out of it what you put in; if you invest your energy into your relationships, you’ll find you’ll enjoy a fuller life and a richer business.

It really is that simple! If you’re not sure who to connect with, log into Teamzy and view your Dashboard. You’ll have a list of people to contact at your fingertips.

Perfect, right?

So we’ve covered the first three letters of the HIRE acronym: Help, Inspire and Relationships.

In the final post, we’ll get into E – Educate and share how you can use your expertise to educate your followers about your products and industry. 

We’ll also get into several suggestions to help you use all four aspects – Help, Inspire, Relationship and Educate – to build trust will past, current and new customers, prospects and distributors.