What Social Media is NOT!

It seems that nowadays everyone and their grandmother has caught the Social Media bug, but what their not realizing is that most of the time they are doing themselves more harm than good.

Signing up for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn is so easy my granny can do it and she has, its obviously a no brainer considering the fact that everyone else seems to be doing it. However, without goals, targets, a strategy and method of execution, your bound for failure.

I see people do the expected all the time, and that’s hopping on as many social platforms as possible and then just disappearing. Social Media is a form of media, reaching out to your current audience and connecting with your potential audience. This isn’t a competition to see how many profiles you can set up. Managing and leveraging social media is no easy task, you have to really be passionate about building relationships and you must know where to draw the line between selling and being of service. You wouldn’t open up shop, turn on all the lights, and then just check out for the day with out letting anyone know you were closing up early would ya? So don’t do it on the web.

Running a business and maintaining a great social presence is basically 2 full time jobs, but there are tons of ways to make it all work for you and your business. We can't all put out fresh content all day everyday and we understand that, but at least make it part of your daily activities to get on these major platforms and converse with these people who have taken the time out to follow your business. Keep them engaged with something of value. Everyone knows of the whole Cocktail Party analogy, if ya don’t here it is again for the umpteenth time.

Think of the social sphere as a cocktail party, you wouldn’t walk into a party, shake someone’s hand and then just hand them your business card would you? Would you start up a conversation where all you did was talk about you, your business and how it could benefit that person your speaking to? NO! You wouldn’t, and if you would or have, then, there’s the door and don’t let the knob hit ya on the rump shaka on the way out. Keep things genuine, learn to listen before you speak, that’s why you have 2 ears and one mouth, you should be listening twice as much as you talk, and trust me, I hear way too much talking going on. Thank god for List’s, Circles, and Groups on these social networks otherwise my home feed would look like MySpace, all junk.

Social Media has given us an opportunity to build relationships with people and with honesty, transparency, and great content, the ability to turn followers, and fans into brand ambassadors and life long customers. This isn’t the 90s anymore people, you cant just keep pushing your products and services at us, it’s a two way convo now and just because you tell us what you have or offer is what we need, it really isn’t. There are very few people who market the right way anymore but those that do are easy to spot out in this digital cocktail party. Its not about you and your business anymore, its about the people that you interact with, what they tell others your brand is, and how they help you build your community.

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” - Scott Cook

Word of mouth marketing is very much alive and well. Look at how facebook has created the recommend feature when you like a page. Its always been about referrals and that’s where were at now as consumers. Brands need to look at this from the consumer’s eyes. I’m tired of hearing the word ENGAGE, because since Brian Solis came out with the book, people have been throwing out this term as if they actually do it. I don’t see you engaging your audience, I see a whole lot of automated tweets and status updates that refer me back to your personal website where I am bombarded with pop ups pertaining to purchasing something. 

Act like a human being, for the first time in history people have the chance of winning over anyone on the web. Start giving a crap about these current and potential clients, stop going in for the kill, listen, ask questions, listen again, and let the conversation happen. You’ll see that sales will happen organically when you just learn to be of service, become a friend and ditch the old sales habits. This aint the boiler room anymore, all ya have to do is get out there and listen.

I'd love to hear your input, different strokes for different folks, so this bit is just my opinion.