Imagine, if you will, that it’s Friday night and you want to try a new restaurant. Where do you turn for information on local eateries? If you’re like most tech-savvy restaurant goers who have only a vague recollection of what it’s like to use the yellow pages, then you probably turn to the Internet-and more specifically, social media-to find information on the best restaurants in town.

You don’t own your brand-your social media savvy readers do

Bloggers, yelpers, Facebookers and tweeters can relate. When I was preparing to visit a new restaurant last Friday night, one for which I had a Groupon, I logged on to Yelp and found out everything I wanted to know about their food and drinks. I learned that their sangria was the best in town but their food was bland. Guess what? The yelpers were spot on. The sangria pitcher that I shared with my friend quickly vanished, while our fish dishes left us wanting to grab the salt and pepper shakers.

The point is, while I briefly perused the restaurant’s website for directions and hours, never once did I read their online menu and let it sway my opinion on whether to try a particular dish or drink. I looked to my peers for their social media reviews.

And that’s why it’s so critical for bloggers and anyone attempting to sell a product or service to get cozy with their readers and become more like a peer than a salesman knocking on the door with a set of encyclopedias. If your readers suspect you’re trying to sell them something, they’re going to slam the virtual door in your face. On the other hand, if they think you’re delivering content of real value, they’ll stick around and hear you out.

If you’re lucky, you just might get them to buy something.

Give them content they want to share using social media

Consider that on your blog, your readership can include anyone from regular readers to first-timers who happened to stumble

upon your site. For either group, readers need to be able to take away something relevant and useful from your blog. They don’t want to read sales pitches that tell them to buy something right now, this very second, or else they’re going to miss out on the deal of a lifetime and quite possibly regret it for the rest of their lives.

Approach your blog as content marketing, not a hard sell. For instance, let’s say I’m writing a post about travel bags for my site, JetSetGarmentBags.com. I’m not going to start off the post with guns blazing, telling readers that they absolutely must buy my bags immediately.

Instead, I’ll give them information they can use on travel bags, such as the five mistakes to avoid when buying travel garment bags online, or the story behind Laga Designs whose travel bags are handmade by tsunami survivors. If you were in the market for a travel bag, which blog post would be more persuasive: the one screaming at you to buy now, or the one describing the “human” element behind buying a bag?

Chances are, you’d be attracted to the soft sell. You’d happily respond to my call to action inviting you to take advantage of a special offer, such as free shipping. And that’s what blogging and social media are all about. You’re creating a community, a readership of like-minded peers-not standing on a street corner wearing a sandwich board and hoping a few passers-by give in and buy something.

Let your social media fans tell your story

If you can make your blogs tell a story rather than sell a product or service, you’re much more likely to develop a community that trusts your brand, opts in for your emails and clicks over to your links when you invite them to take advantage of a special offer. They might even share your information and posts with friends on their favorite social networks, just because they like you that much.

So get yourself in the habit of putting yourself in your audience’s shoes. Think about how you like to be approached when you’re reading a blog post. I venture to say that doing so, you’ll attract exactly the kind of readership, and customers, you desire who communicate using social media.