4 Tips To Make Your Social Media Marketing More Charismatic

Social media marketing depends on personality. Developing a charismatic personality for your brand or yourself can help you achieve greater success online.

Who would argue? We know charisma can help motivate and persuade – two core functions of marketing in the social web.

The German sociologist and philosopher Max Weber said charisma is:

[A] certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader … How the quality in question would be ultimately judged from an ethical, aesthetic, or other such point of view is naturally indifferent for the purpose of definition.

It’s not enough for me to tell you to go be charismatic. I might as well tell you to go fly. There are some steps you can take to make yourself more charismatic.

1. Be focused on others

Social media marketing effectiveness depends on context. It’s contextual because what works for one group of followers won’t on the other and what works on Twitter might not work on Facebook or LinkedIn.

By focusing on others, you will better understand and relate to their needs and wants.

The more you relate to your followers on a human level, the better off you are. Whatever your politics, you can take a lesson from Bill Clinton. Blogger Mark Hughes described an encounter with Clinton:

When you are talking to him, you feel like he doesn’t care about anything or anybody else around but you. He makes you feel like the most important person in the room, an assessment I’ve heard many people make about him and it’s absolutely true. He seems utterly genuinely friendly and will remember you if he’s ever met you before.

Too often on social media channels, brands and individuals simply blast messages to their followers. They forget that social media is a two way channel for communication and, instead, treat it as though it is a new channel for mass communication. This is how to make sure your social media marketing efforts fail.

The first part of ensuring you are capable of this two way communication is to listen to your network.

There are 10 steps you can follow to make sure you listen closely to your network:

Define an objective. You need to know what you are monitoring and why you are monitoring that particular outcome. Setting goals is key to ensure the effective and efficient use of your resources.
Know where you will monitor. As much as you would like to, you can’t be everywhere and you can’t pick every battle. Learn where your target market or constituency communicates and congregates online and listen into those communities and networks.
Pick your keywords. Social media monitoring tracks certain keywords. You should monitor your company name, your brand names and the names of your company’s senior executives.
Be selective. If you have a large network, you will have a lot of messages to sort through – some of these messages will be more valuable than others. Triage the worthwhile messages and analyze them once they reach a critical mass.
Develop a plan. You need to plan to handle emergencies and crisis situations that arise online. Your social media marketing plan should also allow for routine engagement with your followers.
You need a team. With the rate at which social media conversations move, you cannot go it alone. Have a team of people with the relevant expertise close by or easily accessible if you need to answer a question that comes your way.
Don’t jump right in. Don’t start running your mouth off if you’re new to a network. Listen first, get a sense of the community’s rules, and then get involved in the conversation.
Handle outbound and inbound conversations differently. Outbound conversations are those messages you instigate and send out into the social web, they can’t be broadcast messages featuring promos and free trials – make the information educational and informative. Inbound conversations are those that are instigated by another person and are directed at you – you can share promotional material if the contact is a warm prospect.
Build relationships with thought leaders. As you listen carefully, you’ll be able to identify the thought leaders in your network and sphere of influence. Communicate with them, build relationships with them and they will help magnify the reach of your messages.
Select the right tools. If you decide to focus on Twitter, pick a social media monitoring tool best suited for that channel.

2. Be extroverted

You need to put yourself out there. Put yourself out there to engage the people in your network and those within the reach of your sphere of influence.

To engage your followers, you can:

Respond to customer questions and complaints
Share customer success stories and testimonials
Tweet links to content you’ve created
Post photos on Instagram
Set up a Google Plus Hangout
Set up a Facebook poll
Premier new TV spots on YouTube

3. Be a skilled communicator

Effective communication is at the core of a successful social media marketing campaign. You need to listen and you need to engage, but you also must be able to carry a conversation.

Tell stories, be entertaining, share your thoughts and find common ground with your audience. While some people are naturally gifted and have these skills, they can be learned, practiced, and improved.

As Forbes blogger Jason Rosenthal wrote:

A fundamental shift is taking place in the way people – and businesses – are using social media. No longer is it enough just to transmit the mundane details of everyday life … Businesses are turning to these social communities to engage in a two-way dialogue in an effort to expand their brand identity to a broader market and inspire consumers to take action.

4. Be empathetic

You can focus on others, listen to others and engage with others, but still not be charismatic. Your social media marketing needs to communicate empathy to be truly charismatic.

You need to genuinely care about the success of your customers and your concern needs to be clearly communicated.

You can tweet out your customer’s success stories, post photos of successful customers on Facebook or publish a monthly case study featuring one of your clients.

Many believe that charisma is a natural gift. They think you either have it or you don’t. They are wrong.

What is clear: the four tips outlined above will help make your social media marketing more charismatic and, therefore, more successful.

Your turn

What characteristics do you find charismatic? Can those characteristics be used to improve your social media marketing campaigns? What social media campaigns have you found particularly charismatic?