Social Media for Dance Studios – The Rules of Engagement

This is Day #3 in our 90-Day Social Media Challenge for Dance Studios and Dance Businesses. Today’s blog post is all about how to engage your audience.

If you know how to have a conversation (which I assume you do), then you already have one of the key components of success in social media for dance, and any other industry for that matter.

Social media isn’t just about self-promotion. In fact, it’s really about conversation. You have to take the time to engage your audience, get to know your fans/followers, and show an interest in what they’re doing. It’s no different from having a conversation with someone, and only talking about yourself without asking the other person how they’re doing, or what’s going on their life. That would be pretty rude, right?

Here are my top 3 tips for engaging your social media audience:

1) Listen – I find that you can learn so much more from listening than you can from speaking. I recommend listening as part of your social media strategy. You will learn about what’s interesting to people, how to engage them, and also what things to avoid.

2) Ask questions – This may seem obvious but, when a person asks a question, most human beings will naturally be compelled to answer it. Once that happens, a conversation has begun, and you’re on your way.

3) Respond – This is very important, and it’s how you build relationships. When you see a question on Facebook or Twitter, answer it, leave a comment, and offer your insight. Read an interesting blog post? Leave a comment, and share what you liked about it. Of course, you should also always respond when people answer your questions, or leave comments for you. You should monitor these responses, so that you can acknowledge them, and respond to them within a timely manner.

One more thing, it’s important to be genuine when engaging people through social media. People can tell when your only motivation is to sell something, get something, or promote something. So be aware of that.

As you grow your social media network, be sure to remember common courtesy, and the art of conversation. It’s a two-way street, not a one-way promotion.

Join the 90-Day Social Media Success Challenge for Dance Studios and Dance Businesses by leaving a comment here, and submitting a question.

You may also submit your questions to us on Facebook, http://facebook.com/KinerEnterprisesInc, or on Twitter, http://twitter.com/kinerenterprise