Making Social Media Sing for You

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You have been using social media channels for your business for quite a while now and in the beginning it seemed exciting and progressive. Now, you are feeling like it is getting stale. You need to make it sing again.

You are connecting with people but lately you feel that those are not really the right people for you and your business. Sometimes, you feel as though there is nobody on the other end of the computer. As much as you would like it, there aren’t a great deal of interactions taking place.  There are many possible reasons why  your social media activities are not working the way that you would like them to work or even the way that you think they should work.

You update too often

It is very important to keep in mind that you should update your status on the various social media channels when you have something important to share with other people. To merely update for the sake of updating doesn’t really hold any value. If you share too much information, you will be inundate the people with whom you are connected online. That is the last thing that anyone wants. If you aren’t positive about how often you should be updating your status, you may want to look at the status updates of some of the companies that you follow. If the update schedules for those companies seem to be working, it is a good idea to mimic them.

You don’t update often enough

Considering that your objective is to get people to connect with you and to interact with you, it is critical that you make your online presence known on a consistent and regular basis. Whichever schedule you feel is appropriate for your business is what  you should stick to. People need to get a good sense of what you are doing and what you are offering them. The only way to make that happen is to really have a strong online presence. If  you are having difficulty sticking to a regular schedule, it can’t hurt to draw up a regimented schedule. Of course, it is very important for you to commit to that schedule every week. Your accountability when it comes to social media is just as critical as your accountability with any other aspect of your work or your life. You will find (after you have gotten into your social media routine) that it will feel less like a chore and will go relatively smoothly and quickly.

You are not responsive to others

The success of social media is based on relationships. Because of that, when people reach out to you, you must respond to them. The idea behind social media is being social. You should make the effort to connect with people who are kind enough to talk about your brand and your offerings. It is also important for  you to keep a close eye on your keywords. If people are interested enough in your business to ask a question or leave a comment, you have an absolute obligation to respond to them (and to respond quickly).

You are not giving enough

First of all, you need to remember never to update your social media status simply for the sake of updating. Going through the motions is never a good idea. It is extremely important for you to provide actual value to your online connections. You want to give people information that they can actually use. The type of content that you write and share with others should be well thought out in advance. You should leave nothing to chance. Of course, you can provide valuable content in many different forms (deals and promotions, links, articles, etc) and mixing up the variety will hold the interest of other people. It is important to clearly understand why you want to connect with other people and to understand clearly what you want to share with them.

You sound too much like a salesperson

Nobody wants to be sold. The hard sell can be offensive and even obnoxious at times. Social media is certainly not the vehicle to use when it comes to the hard sell. What you should do is build a relationship with them. Let them get to know you as a person and show them how much knowledge you have. What you are doing is building trust and credibility. That is the way to get people to eventually trust you enough to buy from you. People don’t buy anything from a person whom they don’t trust.

You are making yourself unavailable

Are you making your social media connections transparent to other people? Do they know where to find you? If not, you are doing yourself and your business a tremendous disservice. People will not find you by chance. You need to make it as easy for them as possible. There will be no way for anyone to connect with you if they can’t find you.

Conclusion

Now that you are connected to all of the appropriate social media channels, you need to make social media sing for you. You need to work it in a way that gives you the most value for the least amount of effort. You also need to make sure that it is simple and effective and enthusiastic and extremely exciting. If you can achieve that, your business will flourish and you will have more work than you can handle.

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Author

  • Carolyn Cohn

    Carolyn Cohn is the Co-Founder & Chief Creative Services of CompuKol Communications. Carolyn manages CompuKol’s creative and editorial department, which consists of writers and editors. Her weekly blogs are syndicated globally. She has decades of editorial experience in online editing, and editing books, journal articles, abstracts, and promotional and educational materials. Carolyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.

6 Responses

  1. Jeff Sable says:

    Carolyn, I like the article you wrote, with one exception.  Consumers DO like B2C pages on Facebook because they DO want to hear about shopping promotions, new products, closeouts, etc.  So for B2C companies, it's perfectly ok to sound like a salesperson, but shopping cannot be the only topic of conversation.

    • Carolyn Cohn says:

      Jeff,
      First of all thank you for reading the article. Regarding what you said about sales, it is well known that people ar not receptive to sales pitches in this medium. Sales pitches has a definite place where they are expected and appropriate. People read online content to be educated and to find a solution to their problems.

  2. Ryan Biddulph says:

    Great points Carolyn. I do see a real block develop with #1 though, and it's directly related to #4. If you get real good at #4, and you give other people credit for your updates, you forget about #1(provided each updates is value-packed). Meaning, you offer so much value and offer so many connections, any person who feels inundated releases you, and 10 people line up to take their place. 
    This has been my experience. Be SO CLEAR on what you want, that you forget about what you don't want(ie, overloading folks). Few possess this clarity and confidence, but if you can generate it, your business grows like wild-fire.
    Thanks for sharing!
    RB 

  3. dawn says:

    Hi Carolyn,
    As usual, this article is short, specific, and useful. Thanks for consistently producing work that's actually worth reading. No small feat.
    I'll tweet it.
    Best., Dawn 

  4. Ankit says:

    Social Media is a great way to stay in touch with emergency situations even when you are away from you local area. And the ability to use social media from mobile devices can help you recieve important information even if you are in the middle of an emergency situation, without power, or away from other forms of communication.

  5. Yorlanda Fisher says:

    Thank you for the insight! I am struggling with social media marketing, so your article proved invaluable to me. I do not have alot of time and the fact that the article was brief, direct and current made realize not only did I learn from the article itself but the presentation of the article as well.