The Philantrepreneur Journal JAN 2015 | Page 24

unteer your time, or sponsor a nonprofit organization either as in individual or on behalf of your business? I ask this because it is one of the tools I use in order to maximize their reach. If you have a client who sponsors a nonprofit organization that provides food and clothing to homeless people, for example, there are several tactics you can use to maximize one post. You can link the content, within the post, to the organization itself. You can also share the post with the organization, which would be more likely to share it with their followers, since, after all, they are benefiting from the sponsorship. You can then look into social media groups relating to charity, awareness, or homelessness, and share the post there. These are all effective ways to maximize the number of people that will organically see your post. There is an added bonus. Back in the 1950’s, a store owner knew his customers, their families, when your daughter got 24 married, or when your dad was sick. They had personal relationships with their customers. Those relationships are one of the reasons people chose to shop at their store or take their business elsewhere. People felt connected to the store owner, and therefore remained loyal. Over time, we have lost the connection with our clients and our customers. Customer service became a machine that kept telling us to press one for English and two for Spanish, but never allowing us to communicate directly with another human being. This worked for some time because as our lives became more hurried, so technology made things more efficient… usually. However, social media has changed the relationships we have with our clients and customers. People reach out to social media to connect, not just with other people, but also to businesses. People want to do business with companies that are personal, warm, and interested in their customer base. Basically, if you humanize your busi- The Philantrepreneur Journal ness, people will feel more connected with you. They will be more likely to do business with you. They will want to tell their friends about you. One of the most authentic ways to humanize your business is to show your customers what you are doing to give back to your community. It shows that, as a business owner, it’s not all about the bottom line. It also gives them an additional platform to connect with you on. One of the biggest questions I get it how personal should your business content be? Business owners are scared to share too much personal information. It is a legitimate concern. I think if you share about 40% informational content, 20% selling and promotional content, and 20% humanized content, you will be alright. Leveraging what you are doing to give back to your community is some of the best humanizing content you can share.