social media
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Are you talking to me?
“I hate Facebook.”
These words are music to my ears. These are the words of a potential client – someone who is on Facebook, knows it takes a lot of time, and hasn’t seen a return on the time they spend there on their business. With a small tweak to their strategy, I can usually turn their experience around.
Or let them forget that they have a Facebook page at all, except when someone comes in and tell them about something they posted.
The reason that Facebook takes so much time if a business wants to see a return is that you have to use it like the users do. You have to look at everyone else’s posts. You have to join in conversations on those posts. You have to care about others. Then, and ONLY then, should you post on your own page.
You have to talk with people, not at them.
Here are a couple samples. Even on previously successful pages you can see where the page stopped talking “at” and started talking “with” the fans.
Remember that the people who see your posts on Facebook have taken the time to “like” you. They are fans. They’ve allowed you to invade their precious newsfeed space and take up part of their day. Are you going to repay that trust by talking about yourself without regard for their interests? This is your chance to make your business stronger by focusing on them.
Your customer.
This isn’t hard to do, but it does take time. If you’re interested in getting this task off your desk while connecting on a more personal level with your customers, let’s talk. About you.
Beware the Social Media Expert
Check any of my six email addresses and you’ll find articles written about the latest trend in social media, marketing, tourism or design. I’ve got no problem at all with learning on a daily basis. I spend a lot of my working day trying to stay up to date.
Trying.
The problem with social media “experts” is that they profess a level of knowledge that just isn’t possible within the industry. It isn’t old enough. The changes happen to quickly. And you have to question just to what, exactly, their expertise pertains. Is it the technology? Because knowing how to post and share and disseminate doesn’t do anything for your consumer.
The only person who is an expert on your customer is…your customer. And, maybe if you’ve been paying close attention, you.
For social media success it is important to be an expert on your community of consumers and a student of the technology that connects you.
The Problem with Gurus
It has been said, and I believe this is true, that every social media professional secretly longs to be called a guru. I myself have been called one and it made me smile inside. But a guru is the wrong choice for implementing your social media strategy.
When you think of a guru you probably think of a man at the top of a mountain or on the other side of the world. He is removed from all distractions so he can think heavily on issues and impart his knowledge to only those who make the journey to learn from him.
Going back to our pal, Wikipedia: A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others (teacher).
But social media isn’t something you can master from afar. You have to be in it every day, getting your hands dirty and making mistakes, to really know it. You’ve got to be in the fray, reaching out to your specific community. There’s nothing you can learn about your customers from the outside.
Learn from a guru. But don’t have one sitting on the outside telling you what your community wants. You’ll need an inside man for that.
What do you mean, no ninjas?
I get it. I do.
The big thing in new media is to break free of traditional job titles and pick something that shows you’re edgy and cool. And ninjas are cool. They also happen to be completely wrong for the social environment. In fact, a ninja is actually a throwback to the worst of old school advertising.
From the ultimate social book of knowledge, Wikipedia:
The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations.
So…what part of this is good for your customer? If you are still thinking of your customer as the “other” – someone to be tricked and conquered – it’s time for you to reconsider. Especially if you are working in the social realm.
Ninjas are great for Halloween and video games. Keep them out of your community strategy.
D5 Creation