Social selling is an art, not a science. Utilize these best practices to gain insight into your target audience and create meaningful relationships that can lead to sales down the road!
You might not be so skilled at social media right out of the gate – don’t worry. Take some time before diving headfirst into online conversations on platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn page for starters (and yes I am aware of how boring it sounds).
This will allow you more opportunities to connect with people who share similar interests. While also learning what does NOT work when trying to convince another individual about something they already disagree with.
Creating a Facebook group of your own is one of the best ways to get a feel for how social media works and what thoughts and opinions really resonate with your target audience.
A Facebook group is essentially an online forum where members are invited to discuss common interests, problems, or anything in between. The advantage of creating your own group is that it allows you to have more direct contact with members who are already interested in what your business offers.
photo source: Facebook
After setting up your FB group the first step is to brainstorm a few topics of discussion that you think will be interesting for potential members. You can even go as far as to create a questionnaire and publish it on the wall of your newly created group, asking for feedback from those who sign up.
This way you can get a good feel for what people are interested in and craft your group accordingly.
Facebook Group Best Practices for Ambassadors
1. Listen
2. Engage
3. Provide Value
4. Be Available
5. Connect
6. Join and Participate
7. Share your passion for our candles
8. Share photos
9. Share promotions
1) Listen:
The first and most important thing to remember as an ambassador is to be there for your members. You must be able to listen well and hear what they need.
You should never assume that you know everything because people will always be coming to you to ask questions, provide feedback, and address concerns. Put yourself in their shoes. Perhaps you are new to the group or a newer candle consumer, and you have a question that the other members will want to hear. This is your moment to shine by showing them how awesome you are as a candle enthusiast! Take it from me, they will love you and be glad that they reached out to you.
2) Engage:
There is nothing more frustrating than posting something to a Facebook Group page and having it go without responses. It is even worse when you comment on a post and it clearly states that no one has commented. That is your time to shine as an ambassador!
If you see an unresponded post, also in our group, please reach out and start a conversation by offering advice, asking questions, providing feedback, or even just welcoming them to the community. You may be the one that helps encourage them to stick around and not give up on our group! This is what will make you a great ambassador and member of our Facebook Group Page and earn badges and perks.
At the end of this month, we all will vote for the “Ambassador of the Month”. More about this in a future blog.
3) Provide Value:
This is something that you should always be doing as an ambassador, but we will also give you some opportunities to do this more frequently.
Something as simple as a weather update, traffic condition, or even the day’s specials at your favorite store will be helpful. We trust you to be able to provide this value, and we hope that your group members will appreciate it as well.
4) Be Available:
One of the most important things as an ambassador is to simply be available.
We want to encourage ambassadors to always have their phone close by. This will allow you to check your Facebook Group Page quickly and respond to posts so that no one feels ignored!
5) Connect:
Another thing that you should be doing is connecting with other members! This is your opportunity to provide value to the group and build relationships with your fellow candle lovers!
There are many ways that you can do this, but I will share a few that we have seen work well recently. First, if you come across someone who is new to the group or just a newer candle user, please welcome them to the group and offer your assistance.
If they have a question or concern, see if you can help with it. This is also a great opportunity to help them out by answering questions or providing advice. We have seen ambassadors introduce themselves, welcome the new users, and then provide content that will be valuable to them.
You will always want to ask those you connect with if they have a question or concern before moving on to another conversation. A great way to do this is by saying something along the lines of ” Do you have any questions for me?”
This allows them to feel comfortable approaching you with anything that they may need help with or any concerns that they may have. This is the best way to engage with others and connect with them!
6) Join and Participate:
Not only are you an ambassador, but you are also a member of our Facebook Group! You must join the group to become an ambassador, and we want everyone to join and actively participate as a member. This allows you to engage with others outside of comments on our posts, which is where we try to keep the comments section focused.
You may have noticed that we have recently been changing our post titles to a “conversation starter.”
This is because we want this to be a place for our members to have conversations outside of the brand posts, and we would like everyone in the group to feel welcome to do this. Some examples of good conversation starters are questions like “Are you a candle lover? How many candles do you have in your collection?” This gives everyone an opportunity to share something about themselves, and others can interact with them by replying.
Another way to join and participate in the group is by messaging members. Be mindful when messaging though! We want you to add value to your messages, not just spam people with messages to get support. A great way to do this is by offering to help with lighting if someone is new to candles or suggesting some new scents that they might like based on the types of candles they already have.
Lastly, it is really helpful if you can post photos. This allows others to see what your candles look like and what you are doing with them. This also gives people ideas of how they can use their candles, which is always a great way to engage with others!
7) Be Available:
You can always go into the group to check for messages you may have received, and you can message others talking about something specific. This is a great way for you to get involved with the conversations that are happening.
Occasionally, there will be times where you will want to talk about Imperial Candles and your love for them! This is okay, and we would really appreciate that, as we wish every ambassador will support our brand! However, we also want you to focus on providing value and listening.
8) Share photos:
This is something that we really appreciate seeing! When you are using your candles, be sure to share photos of them on your social media pages.
We would also love to see photos of how you display your candles, what they look like in different settings, and if you are using any candle accessories with them!
If you don’t have photos of your own you can easily download them here:
9) Share Promotions:
We will often post in the group promotions, new releases, and coupons so it is important that you check in regularly to see if there is anything new that you would like to share on your own group!
If you are ever unsure of anything, please feel free to message us.
We are here to help!