Social media provides several tools for communication with your fans, clients, and customers. While traditional advertising platforms, like radio and television, provide a limited time frame to showcase the best features of your product and really sell it, social media allows for an ongoing conversation about not only what you make but also what your brand stands for. Carrying on a conversation using social media as a door-to-door salesman would will only turn people away, as this is obviously an insincere form of relationship development. Instead, consider being genuine and developing an interest in your fans, so that they develop a real interest in you and your brand.

Some of the key tricks to being genuine when using social media for advertising as a business is to not treat social media as an advertising platform. While you may be inclined to talk about your product and leverage platforms like Facebook and Twitter to pitch a sale, any potential fan or follower will be less interested because they know nothing about you as the brand behind the product, or what you stand for in your community. People are more likely to patronize a business if they know they’re devoted to building green homes, for example, or donate leftover food from their cafe to shelters. Use the ability built into social networks to tell people who you genuinely are as a business and team, and how you contribute to the bigger picture, whether that’s your niche community or local community.

Additionally, be sure not to resort to smarmy advertising tactics to try to convert a fan or follower to a sale. Facebook and Twitter are both equipped with features that allow you to not only publicly communicate one-on-one, but also send private messages. (On Twitter, these are called Direct Messages, or DMs.) With Twitter, you can set up an “Auto DM” to send to each new follower that can just say hello, or be as questionable as asking them to visit your blog and buy your book. Most Twitter users hate auto DMs because they are so impersonal. If you must connect with all your Twitter followers to try and sell a copy of your book to each follower, try at least starting a basic conversation with each Twitter user and then pitching your book. It is not the most ideal way to pitch your product, but at least people will know you are genuine and truly passionate about it.

When using social media for advertising, remember to develop a relationship with your fans and followers for a genuine approach at pitching your product. While you may be inclined to directly promote what it is your brand builds, remember that building trust first will lead to not only more customers but repeat visits, which will increase your sales that much more.