Do you remember the first time you tried to use social media to promote your business? I do. My first time was long before the days of Facebook, and it didn’t go well.
I vividly remember creating my first account on a social network, eagerly sharing several of my blog posts, and then hitting refresh over and over hoping to see the number of shares and comments skyrocket. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. Instead, I was greeted by a deafening silence.
Today, I see countless business owners make the exact same mistakes I did all those years ago, and as a result, they don’t get any results from social media. They’ll often tell themselves some kind of excuse like “social media doesn’t work for my industry,” or “my customers aren’t on social media,” so that they don’t feel bad about giving up. The truth is that when executed properly, social media works for all industries and audiences if you can make them see and care about your message.
Tell a Story People Care About
It’s tempting to log into Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and passionately tell everyone how awesome your products or services are. Unfortunately, that’s a terrible strategy because it’s all about you and that turns off potential customers. Instead, make it about your customers.
Focus on sharing information that they can use even if they never become a customer. GoPro does this by highlighting the cool ways people are using their cameras. Construction software giant, Procore, also does with webinars featuring industry experts sharing their knowledge. The idea is to tell stories about your industry and the people in it rather than just shouting for people to buy your products or services.
Let Your Personality Shine
Far too often, I’ll meet someone with a magnetic personality who becomes boring and dry the instant they start posting for their company.
A lot of people are afraid to let their personality shine because they think they need to appeal to everyone. The problem with that thinking is that when you try to appeal to everyone, you don’t give your audience anything to be passionate about and your brand becomes easy to ignore.
The fast food restaurant, Wendy’s, gets it right. I encourage you to check out their profile on Twitter sometime. You may not need to go quite as far as they do, but don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone and show a little more of your personality.
And don’t worry about turning some people off. That’s absolutely going to happen if you’re doing things right.
Publish Prolifically
Success with social media depends on maintaining brand awareness. Unfortunately, between the algorithms that limit your organic exposure and the noise from countless other brands, it’s difficult to get your message in front of your audience today.
Because many people treat social media as an afterthought, it often gets pushed to the back burner while other tasks are prioritized. It pretty easy to fall behind, and before long, you’ll realize you haven’t published a post in weeks or even months.
The key is to consistently publish great content on social media to increase the likelihood of a potential customer seeing it at the right time. It’s a simple equation really—the more content you publish, the more chances you have that a particular post will be seen by and resonate with someone in your audience.
It’s important not prioritize quantity over quality though. If you’re not publishing amazing and original posts, your audience will quickly start ignoring them, so publish amazing content often.
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