By Jenny Hart

It might sound counter-intuitive, but one of the best ways of marketing yourself via social media is to not talk about yourself. Not all the time, at least. How many companies have you seen on Twitter who just sit there tweeting about their product, their news, what they are doing today? It doesn’t get the results you might hope for, because you give potential followers no reason to engage. It might sound harsh, but unless you are a celebrity or an incredibly influential businesswoman, no one is going to be interested enough to follow you just to hear what you think.

Everything in our lives is about value, especially with business. People may be happy to spend hours every day on Twitter or reading blogs, and it is important to remember that they do not consider this time to be wasted. They feel that hours spent on Twitter adds value to their lives. Because of this, they are going to be careful when it comes to choosing who to follow and which blogs to read. The more value you can promise someone, the more likely you are to win their follow, whether on your blog or your Twitter account.

How do you add value to potential readers? In the same way most technology does now; become a way in which people can access many different types of content quickly. In the same way new cameras are now WiFi enabled so that you can upload your photographs straight to the internet without having to use a computer or laptop, you can provide your followers with content that they would have to go elsewhere to get. Tweeting out links to interesting blogs you have read on the subject of entrepreneurship will attract like-minded individuals.

We all love reading interesting content that teaches us something, but we don’t have time to read through all the blogs on the internet. Following several people who read a few blogs and share the best posts from each of them filters the amount of reading we have to do. Assemble useful content for other people and they will begin to follow you because they like the selection you have on offer.

The same goes for blogging. Why not make the last post of each month a round-up of all the interesting articles you have read over the last four weeks? Without sharing content, some people will follow you for your thoughts and opinions, but if you want to interest a lot of people who have never met you and have very little time to get to know you, you have to offer them more than yourself.

There is also the reciprocation factor. Sharing someone else’s content does two things. Firstly, it brings you to their attention, and secondly it forms a relationship with them. They become likely to share something of yours in return, as nothing inspires goodwill towards you from another person like telling the world that their latest blog post is great. Even if they don’t reciprocate by sharing your content, you might get a tweet or message of thanks in the public domain where their own followers will see it. That can be just as effective as a share, if some of them come to check you out.

It might seem strange, but focusing on other people really does bring your name to  the attention of others. If you look at the people on Twitter or blog sites who have a lot of followers, the chances are they spend a lot of time sharing other people’s content. People on the internet are incredibly wary of other people trying to sell them anything. By engaging with other users in the form of recommending and distributing blog posts and news articles that you think might be interesting, you are showing that you are not there to sell them anything.
In return, they’ll buy you.

Jenny Hart writes for one of the biggest professional landlord advice sites in the UK, probuytolet.com and balances her professional life with raising two beautiful boys.

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