What NOT to Do When Sending a DM for your business
Ah, DMs. The private messaging side of social media that can just as easily break your business reputation as make it. If you’re using direct messages to grow your business, here's a quick list of DM Faux Pas to avoid if you want this strategy to actually work:
DON'T Message "Friends" You Haven't Spoken to in Years
Would you be messaging them if you didn't have an offer for your business? If the answer is no, then leave them be. Reaching out to someone you haven't contacted in years to vaguely ask how they are for a few messages before trying to convince them to join your team or buy your product is just disingenuous. Nobody likes it.
DO share authentically about your business on your own social media pages, and include invitations for friends to reach out to you if they want to learn more! Open the door and let the other person initiate direct contact. If they're willing to take that step to message you themselves, they're already open to hearing your pitch, making your job much easier. Plus, you won’t alienate anyone along the way.
DON'T Cold Call
Friend or acquaintance or random person on Facebook - no matter who they are, don't just contact them out of the blue without prior connection and interaction on the platform!
DO find ways to interact and connect with potential customers or clients outside of the DMs. You have to establish a connection with them first to create a genuine relationship as a starting point before moving it into the one-on-one messaging world. Commenting on their content is a great way to do this while showing them genuine support!
DON'T Use Bots/Automations
There's a time and a place for automations, and the DMs ain't it! Aside from the fact that you can get banned from social media platforms for using unauthorized bots, it's pretty obvious when a message comes from an automation instead of a real person. It reads as a cookie-cutter message and loses any authenticity it would have coming directly from you.
DO send DMs yourself, and curate them specifically to the person you're messaging! Build up to the sell after a longer, genuine connection has been established. Take the time to think about what their needs are, why you want to connect with them specifically, and how you are best able to serve them. Incorporate threads of all of these into your message to make it clear you’ve done your research and are taking the time to get to know them.
DON'T Sell Without Serving
If you're not providing any value before selling, you're missing the point! Of course, we all ultimately want to convert sales and grow our businesses, but social media is about more than just that end goal. The means of getting there is serving others.
DO provide freebies, support, information, and connection beyond your paid services and products. Serve potential clients and customers first and foremost and they'll be much more primed to receive your offer when the time is right.
The Best Place to Engage (before the DM!)
My absolute favorite place to make connections with people outside of my real-life circle is in relevant Facebook groups! There are so many amazing groups out there for everything from business to skincare to hobbies and mindsets. Whatever your niche, there are at least a dozen Facebook groups out there you can join to find like-minded people who can benefit from what you have to offer! Any time I have had a successful DM conversation with someone on Facebook, it has started out in comments within a Facebook group.
I have my own little corner of the Facebook group world where you can learn all about social media and content writing strategies. Click here to join the Social Media Writers group!
TLDR;
People can sense authenticity, and if all they get are fake vibes from you then there will be no trust on which to build. Trust is the foundation of successful entrepreneurship, and a business without a solid foundation is destined to crumble.
