Once followers start receiving valuable free information from you they turn into REAL fans who follow your social media posts, newsletters, blogs, etc. When your free sign-up is tied into email autoresponders, you develop an automated system that does the marketing for you. For example, let’s say you have a Facebook follower who is directed to go to your website for your offer. Once on your website they learn more about your expertise and enter their email and now they are in your database. This is why it’s so important to have a great website with all the right “bells and whistles” set up before social media can do the work for you.

Most social media followers will “opt-in” to your free offer right away to learn more from your expertise. Your offer must be something of high value to keep their interest.

Followers won’t sign up for just a newsletter; who needs another newsletter? What followers do need is information they can implement right away. They need your expert advice. For example, my client Shelley Gillespie is the “Book Writing Success Coach.” She offers a free guidebook called “10 Steps to Book Writing Success.” And that’s exactly what her ideal prospect is looking for – instant information and valuable tips on how to write a book. Since Shelley gives good value up front, viewers feel comfortable offering their email in exchange for her information.

Look at social media as a tool to turn “cool” fans into “warm” prospects. Then with your autoresponder marketing, you can begin to turn more prospects into buyers. And, of course they can always “opt out” of your database at any time; but if they do, they were not true followers anyway. The quality of your database can become even more important than the number of followers you have. You want to build a quality database with followers who have come to respect your expertise and want to keep learning more from you.