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Social media has been pretty intriguing to me over the past few years. People, including myself were spending lots of time on social media sites trying to figure out how to use these platforms to help drive business.
Right now social media is a place for people to broadcast some type of news, have that news shared by others and then start this process over and over. Where is the value in this process? For me, I am trying to find ways to write content that actually “helps people” and keeps people coming back for more information to help them.
This process really requires companies to listen closely to client needs and wants. I know you’ve heard this phrase before, but it is so true. I used to chase after the viral content that would be shared over and over. I have since moved on. The analytics numbers have proven to me that if you understand your client needs, people will come back and the value of that content can have a much longer shelf life. In addition, you will be drawing in the right people, who are looking for an answer and willing to make a purchase with your company.
The blog is the best place for creating value. Here, people will learn about you and/or your company. If you keep your blog content focused on information that is valuable to your clients, you will succeed. If you share about other information, you will quickly lose your readers and you may actually confuse them.
Try spending less time on social media and invest that time in creating some valuable content to share. Take that content and start a discussion on social media. Here is where you will see how social media can help you create some marketing value for you and your company.
Adrian – you are right on. More value is needed. Rehashing news for the sake of rehashing is occurring more and more and it’s very discouraging and limiting.
Well said. We have a real problem in nomenclature. Forwarding around Malaysian Airline theories or gang-watching March Madness are not the same thing as creating helpful blog posts that solve business problems. But we use the same name for all these activities– social media.
We need a more useful distinction among (a) producing things that create value, (b) effectively distributing those things over networks, (c) using networks to discuss useful things and (d) using the networks to amuse ourselves.
I know all my Twitter followers aren’t sales leads– but the sales leads are in there with the people who just want to be amused. There is real work to be done on understanding which activities create value and which just are activity. As John Wooden said “Never confuse activity with achievement.”