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There is a lot of talk about advances social media tips and techniques. Some people think there is some magic that is out there that they have not discovered yet. Today, I want to talk about a transition step in your social media marketing initiatives. If you are just starting or relatively new to platforms like Linkedin, Twitter , Facebook and Google Plus, your goal should be all about “Getting”. If you have been on social media and you maintain a company blog or website and you are incorporating social media channels into your marketing mix, you are looking to grow in the “Giving” area.
Let’s talk about “Getting”
A few years ago, I was all about getting.
- Getting followers
- Getting the latest tools to help me add followers quickly.
- Getting more and more information about how to grow quickly.
I had a nice number of followers. I was familiar with some tools that would help me attract more people. I had over 3,000 friends on Facebook.
Then I came to the hard conclusion that a number of these followers and friends were just that, they were numbers. Yes I might engage with some of them, but I was also being followed by some other people who I couldn’t see because I wasn’t following them back and I was more concerned about watching my numbers grow each day.
Most advanced social media users have gong through a process similar to this one.. Some people realize the value of their followers a lot sooner than others and adjust. Others, consider themselves experts just based on the numbers. (Be careful with this last point! )
This leads to “Giving”
Once you go through the phase listed above, you realize that people/readers are hungry for great content. You also realize that there are many people like yourself who are engaging and posting information on social media sites and you want to stand out from the crowd in a good way!
If you want to grow, you need to first, find people who are interested in you and your message and make sure you are taking care of these people by providing great content and engaging in regular communication.
If you are using social media for your business, make sure you are sharing information that is somehow tied to your core business. By doing this, you will keep your clients aware of news and information that may be affecting them.
This second part is much harder than the first part. In addition, you may/may not see numbers of followers jump as much as you did in the “Get” section, but the benefits you will receive are the following:
- Connection with the right people for you and your company.
- Increased brand awareness
- More searchable content, if you spend your time creating content and not trying to discover the latest software to get new users.
- More client inquiries and phone calls regarding your products and services
- More new accounts
- Stronger connections with current accounts
When you are giving more than you are getting, you definitely know that social media is more about people and less about numbers.
