Have you got a one-track mind?

Of course you don’t. Of course you think of your job being a consignment shop owner, a resale store shopkeeper, a non-profit thrift shop manager, staff, or volunteer. But you are so much more. You no more have a one-track mind than your fans and followers do.

So why do you act like you do?

Seriously. You don’t grab every customer in your shop and say nothing but Look at this! We got that! Great handbags just came in! See this and isn’t that great and here-buy-this do you?

So why does your social media

look like that? It’s SOCIAL media, folks, not FREE ADVERTISING. The purpose of using social media as a shop is to develop loyalty and maybe even friendship. To spark your fan or follower into giving you some word-of-mouth, thus spreading notice of and interest in your business.

No to scream BUY THIS BUY THAT GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY. Yet that’s what so many shops’ communications consist of.

Just as you talk and share and confide and laugh

with your customers face-to-face, so should you in Twitter, Facebook, and other social media you use to build a relationship with your followers. Just as you wouldn’t walk a half-step behind one of your regulars when s/he’s in your shop talking non-stop about what you have to sell… just as you’d sometimes just say Nice weather or How ’bout them Bucks or What did you think of that concert great last night…

You’d get SOCIAL.

Take a look at what your business has posted in the last few weeks (click on Profile) . Is there anything there besides an e-classified ad? Really, is that all you can think… and communicate… about?

What do YOU think? Is it advantageous to ply your fans and followers with ad after ad… or are they unfollowing you, defriending you, fast-forwarding thru your commercial interruptions of their life? Comment below!