Do you like being pitched to all the time? How do you feel about people coming to your door soliciting you for cleaning supplies or church events? What do you think of your neighbor who talks about how great he is all the time? If you are like most people, you are turned off by these behaviors. The same is true for social media!
• Friends, Connections and Followers are People Too!
Value their time just as you value yours. Just because they are on Twitter does not mean they are right for your target market or that you are for them. You will have much greater success connecting with like minded people.
If someone adds you to their network, check them out. Is there a relevant reason they may be interested in you and your business? Check out their profile. Many people have a rule that they do not follow anyone who doesn’t include a photo in their profile. Over time, you’ll have to set some boundaries about who you follow and who you let follow you. These boundaries will allow you to form greater, more meaningful connections with those you want to do business with.
For instance, if your business is centered around creating products that help parents keep their kids away from non-kid friendly sites online, then you obviously don’t want to be talking with (or associated with for that matter) someone who owns an adult-only website. Yes, that’s a bit extreme, but you get the point. You really should pay attention to (or hire someone who can monitor) who follows you and who you follow in return.
• Social Media is about connections NOT sales.
One of the surest ways, short of posting completely inappropriate content, to lose all credibility is to use your social media for selling yourself and your services exclusively. No one wants to be chased at a store by a sales clerk any more than they want to follow someone who is constantly selling something. It is okay to tell people about your products and services but this has to be a part of your interaction, not your only interaction.
• Having unrealistic expectations.
Please don’t expect that you are going to create a new account, start posting great content and immediately see your sales and traffic increase. It will happen, but it takes some time and effort. One of the amazing things about social media, is that your efforts are multiplied over and over when people who you are connecting with share your content. Social media is very powerful and can and will benefit your business, but Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will a list of thousands of followers all ready to purchase from you.
• Letting your social media involvement become a time drain.
You’ve probably heard that Facebook and Twitter can become time sucking endeavors. That it takes too long to check all of the sites and contribute to each one. You may even know some folks who have gotten involved, spent a huge amount of time and then decided that it took too much time and wasn’t worth it. Don’t let this happen to you. True, adding friends or writing comments on each site can be time consuming unless you set up a system and give yourself time limits.
If you’re still concerned about wasting too much time, then start with just one social media platform. Set up your Facebook profile and learn how to maneuver around that site first, finding and connecting with friends and colleagues. Once you have a system down, then move on and learn more about LinkedIn, Twitter or something else.
There is no right or wrong way to work social media into your schedule. However, be careful because if you spend too much time on these sites, you’ll get nothing else done in your day…yes they can be time suckers for sure.
I’ve found one of the best ways to make sure you’re getting seen and making connections without losing hours is to set a timer!
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Squidoo Lenses
Again as I mentioned before I have been through the learning curves. But now I check the persons website/blog and assure myself that the intentions are to the benefit of all. I then subscribe so I do not miss anything. If I am sure the blog/ger is everything I like then I make sure I tweet my connections of every post.
I have fallen prey to the dubious connections who retweet others posts only to find that I inadvertantly connected with them b4 realising what their real intentions were. ie to spam me with “not so good stuff” whatever that means to any individual.
On Twitter people can send you @replies even though they are not connected to you. They see your tweets via another connection. I am not saying this is such a bad thing. But before you reply with a thankyou or whatever… make sure you check them out first. The last thing you want is to be seen to be thanking or connected to someone with ulterior motives. It ‘s time well spent. Your connections are valuable and you need to develop a trusting relationship of quality.
And yes… learn to master one platform at a time. Find someone to trust and check who they are tweeting and why. Things will grow exponentially and beautifully.
Thanks for the post Paul
Karen
Great points! Social media is indeed about making lasting connections than selling products, because in the end you may end up winning them over if you’ve proven to be an outstanding connection. When you’ve fostered strong connections, their personal opinions about you might just also translate to stronger sales and brand recognition!