The real value of list building with social media is in your ability to create a brand and an image with incredible reach. The opportunity for you to build a highly responsive list using different social media platforms on the Internet is enormous. However, for all its potential, there is one simple, but far too often overlooked secret to list building with social media the right way.

The secret to successfully using social media marketing to build your brand and your business is authenticity. Being authentic is the essence of Attraction Marketing and it is the single most important success factor for your marketing efforts.

Why? Because so few people marketing their business using Social Media are authentic – just look at your Twitter page if you need proof. What percentage of the posts you see in your active Twitter stream offer any value to you as a follower? What percentage of posts you see in your active Twitter stream outright shill some product link you care nothing about?

The truth is the bar has been set very, very low, and so it is easy for you to stand out as an attraction marketer when you choose to be authentic. It enables you to build a relationship on a solid foundation in which people can begin to know you, like you and trust you.

The bottom line with Social Media is simple. It’s one of the only arenas where you can actually generate a great income by being yourself. And when you are being yourself, you are being authentic. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines being authentic as “being true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character”.

When building your online presence it is imperative that you are being yourself. Represent your brand whole heartedly while being honest with your audience, and your followers will come. Express your passions and beliefs and allow your personality to shine through — and people will want to hear what you have to say.

The secret to building a successful business is, rather than thinking of each person you come into contact with as a potential sale, to instead look at each person as someone you’d like to help and get to know. When you do that, they will tend to want to do the same, and a real relationship is born.

Relationship building is something that you absolutely cannot fake. If all you are doing is constantly reaching for someone’s wallet, people will notice. Once they do, any trust you may have established is gone.

On the flip side, you and your business offer real value. If people only had the opportunity to get to know the real, authentic you, wouldn’t they be that much more likely to want to do business with you? If people only understood the path you have followed, the sacrifices you have made for your family, and the values you have stood for in your life, would they not come to see the real value of you as a person and look at your product or service in a different light?

List building using social media affords you the opportunity to connect with people in a way that is far more powerful than giving someone a business card. It affords you the opportunity to build real relationships.

By: Warren Wojnowski

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