Engagement to Customers Framework
Turn social engagement into customers by finding, helping, and inviting them
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 95%
The framework reframes selling on social media as attending a cocktail party rather than grabbing the mic to announce your offer. It runs in three sequential moves. First, Go to Them: instead of waiting to be found, you enter your ideal customer's world through three kinds of 'parties' — engaging in comments, participating in groups, or hosting your own community. Second, Help Them: you give away your best knowledge for free, because doing so builds the trust a prospect needs before they buy, and because what feels easy to you is genuinely valuable to others. Third, Invite Them: rather than pitching, you extend a low-pressure invitation that empowers the prospect to decide whether they are even interested. The mechanism is trust accumulation through generosity, so that by the time a sales process begins the customer already feels they know you and has chosen to raise their hand.
Origin
Extracted from The Jasmine Star Show
Core principles
- 01Customers rarely find you by luck, so you must go to where they already gather online
- 02Social media is a cocktail party, so be social rather than broadcasting a sales pitch
- 03Sharing your best knowledge for free builds the trust required before anyone buys
- 04What comes easy to you is valuable to others precisely because it comes easy to you
- 05An invitation lets the prospect decide their own interest, which is not the same as selling
How to run it
- 1
Go to them
Stop expecting people to stumble across your offer. Identify where your dream customer spends time online and put yourself into their world through one of three 'parties': the comment party, the group party, or hosting the party.
Pro tip Treat social media like a cocktail party — strike up one-on-one conversations rather than marching to the center of the room to announce what you sell.
- 2
Work the comment party
Connect with people in the comments of your own posts, and where you lack comments, engage on the posts of accounts your dream customer already follows. Leave a genuinely helpful tip on a relevant comment so the person gets a notification and clicks through to learn about you.
Pro tip Reply to a specific pain point in someone's comment with a concrete tip rather than a generic compliment.
Watch out You are not selling here — a pitch in someone else's comments reads as an interruption.
- 3
Work the group party
Find the groups (including Facebook groups, which are still active) where your dream customer gathers, join them, and leave helpful tips, answer questions, and share how-to posts.
Watch out When you enter someone else's group you are a guest — do not pitch or sell.
- 4
Host the party
Create your own group, community, or account built around your audience's identity rather than your business. As the owner you can post authority-building tips that naturally position you as the expert.
Pro tip Center the community on the customer's life (for example, toddler moms connecting) rather than on your product, then layer in expertise as the host.
- 5
Help them for free
Give away your best knowledge to future customers without charging, because sharing what you know is the most reliable way to build the trust that precedes a purchase.
Pro tip If you doubt your knowledge is special, remember that what comes easily to you is a sign of your gift, not proof it is common.
- 6
Invite them
Once trust is built, extend an invitation to learn more about your offer. This is not the sales pitch — it is a way to empower the prospect to decide whether they are even interested, so they raise their own hand.
Pro tip Frame the invitation as an optional next step the person can explore on their own terms.
Watch out Do not confuse the invitation with selling — no one wants to be sold to before they know what is being sold.
In the wild
Erica is building an offer for first-time postpartum moms focused on enjoying the experience and staying healthy. She follows pregnant influencers who share their journeys and offers helpful insights, feedback, and tips in the comments — both to the influencer and to followers asking questions. She also joined Facebook groups for pregnant moms and creates helpful posts in the groups and comments, finding her dream customers and helping them before selling.
→ She builds a pipeline of trusting, pre-qualified leads by consistently helping in the exact places her dream customers gather.
Jennifer is creating an offer for parents of ADHD kids, teaching brain-based routines. She publishes educational content sharing her best practices while also showing empathy for how hard navigating parenthood with ADHD children can be. In the comments she builds connections with parents, and because they learn so much from her free posts, they can only imagine how much more valuable her paid offer must be.
→ Free educational content and empathetic engagement build trust that makes her offer feel like the obvious next step.
Common mistakes
Waiting to be found
Expecting people to seek out your offer by magic or luck almost never works; if it is unlikely they will find you, you must go to them where they already are.
Broadcasting a pitch instead of being social
Posting that barges into the feed to announce you are selling something is like grabbing the mic at a cocktail party — it interrupts conversations people are not ready for and repels rather than attracts.
Refusing to share knowledge for free
Withholding what you know, or assuming it is not helpful, prevents the trust-building that leads to sales; giving away your best stuff is what earns the right to sell later.
Is it for you?
Best for
Best for solo service providers, coaches, and small online businesses who know their offer helps but struggle to attract and start conversations with buyers.
Not ideal for
Not ideal for businesses that rely on paid advertising at scale or that cannot invest time in one-to-one social engagement.
From the transcript
“So part one of my engagement to customers frameworks is go to them and you can do this by finding them at a comments party,…”
“The best way to get somebody to buy from you is to share what you know.”
“The invitation isn't the sales process. It's just a way to empower somebody to learn if it's something they're even remotely interested in.”
From the episode
3-Part Framework for Creating Engagement and Getting More Customers