Make Social Media About Opportunities Not Sales
Social media is about opportunities over sales. There I said it, it’s out in the open from the start. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying you can’t make sales from social media but if that’s all you’re focusing on you really are missing out on so much more and likely to get disheartened with your efforts.
Over the last 7 years I’ve met many business telling me they don’t have time for social media, it doesn’t work, they don’t make sales from it, they don’t get it but what I also invariably discover is that these businesses view networking events as beneficial. Now while this might seem like a random comparison to make bear with me. You see, if you attend a networking event with a view to making a sale you’re likely to come away disappointed. If you view it as an way to meet new people; create connections; help others; discover people who share similar passions (work or otherwise) and you’re genuinely interested in those you meet, then these relationships often fruitfully extend beyond that single networking event.
Social media is no different. The real world and social media are in fact not two different entities and what works in real life works just as well on social media.
Here’s 6 ways to use social to provide you with opportunities (and ideally sales in the long term):
1. Stop selling. People don’t log onto social media to be sold to, they log on to connect, be entertained, distracted, inspired or learn something new. Stop plugging your promotion constantly and give your audience the entertainment, information and meaningful engagement they crave. Connect with them.
2. Change Your Mindset. Think about the origins of the platforms, Facebook was created to bring Harvard students together, Twitter to be an SMS based status update, Instagram to find like minded people using photos. The platforms were created to bring people together and while it may sound counter intuitive to stop promoting your business it works. When businesses change their mind set and stop chasing the sales that’s when the magic happens.
3. Go deep rather than wide. Stop focusing on the vanity metrics and focus on meaningful moments, it is better to have 40 engaged people you can truly call your community and advocates than an 1000 disengaged followers.
4. Be proactive. Spend more time on other people’s pages and profiles than your own; don’t just like but reply, comment or direct message in abundance. You cannot expect masses of engagement if you are not prepared to give yourself. Be proactive, connect meaningfully and watch the opportunities arrive.
5. Be helpful. Whether you connect people, offer advice and tips, promote others or a mix of all of these the more you assist people the more inclined they will be to help you.
6. Seek to create a community. An engaged social media community is integral to your success, aim to build strong relationships and friendships that last. The people in your community will help promote you on and offline, support you when you need them to and become your biggest advocates.
These 6 tips have been my main approach on social media for the last 7 years and here’s just some of the opportunities that have arisen as a result:
- Invited to be a guest on the Being Freelance podcast
- Guest blogged 15 times mainly about social media but also about being a freelancer
- Published twice in a magazine
- Asked to speak at the first Cambridge Social Media Day alongside marketing superheroes Andrew and Pete
- Hosted 2 tweetchats
- Appeared as a guest on 2 Facebook lives
- Joined part of the MarketedLive conference team
- Started holding Instagram workshops in Hitchin in collaboration with another local business
- Asked to take this workshop to Cambridge
- Invited to be an expert panellist in a closed business group
- Requested to mentor other social media experts on a paid basis
- Advised my favourite author, John Marrs on his latest published book The Passengers, yes I’m mentioned in the acknowledgements!
This is not intended to be a ‘bragging’ list but to demonstrate the opportunities that are awaiting you on social media when you stop focussing on selling and start focussing on the human to human. What opportunities have ‘found you’ on social media. Do tweet me, message me on here or Instagram and let me know.