Expert Feature: Is Social Media the Best Marketing Platform For Your Business?
Social media is everywhere.
It’s embedded on our website with Twitter feeds, Facebook like and share buttons, it’s on our devices, and it’s in our face on TV, ads and just about anywhere we look.
So it seems that this is also the best place to market our business right?
If all our customers are following us on our social media feeds, then surely we must be able generate more leads and sales the more followers we have, right? We’re all little tiny fish screaming in a giant ocean.
Before we get into that, let’s look at some stats.
According to Statista as of March 2015, these social platforms have the following numbers of active users:
- Facebook: 1.4 billion
- LinkedIn: 347 million
- Google+: 300 million
- Twitter: 288 million
There are of course MANY more social media platforms like Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, yadda yadda, the list goes on. But let’s focus on the top four.
The Truth About Social Media
If 1/8 of the planet is on Facebook alone, and if only you could increase your followers to just 0.001% of those, that’s not too much to ask. If you were actually able to accomplish that feat, you’d have a whopping 14,000 followers and your sales would skyrocket, right?
Well maybe yes and maybe no.
The biggest problem with marketing on social media is that people are not in “buy” mode on their favorite system. It’s called “social media” because it’s social – people just want to talk, chat and share stuff with their friends (oh and look at silly cat videos).
When we’re looking on our feed, we don’t want to be marketed to. Anything that smells even vaguely like an ad will at best be ignored or marked “Hide”.
Social media is also the least engaged audience of all your platforms. It takes so little effort to “like” something (including your business page), that there’s no commitment or engagement.
Contrast that with your e-mail newsletter where people had to take more effort to sign up, give up their personal contact information, and then they had to open it, skim it, and maybe actually read it – taking time out of their day to consume it.
The other problem with these platforms is that your post doesn’t “live” very long. If it shows up in someone’s feed at all, it will last a very short time. On Twitter, you’ll be lucky if the post lasts 15 seconds before getting buried by the next 1000 posts.
Furthermore, on Facebook, last November they changed how they display your business page posts. When you put out a post, it does NOT show up on all your fan’s feeds. Far from it.
Let’s say you have 1000 “likes” on your page. When you publish a post, it will be displayed to 1% of your fans – a mere 10 people. If someone interacts with your post (likes it, comments on it, or shares it), then Facebook will show it to a few more people. The more your post gets interacted with the more people will see it. If no one interacts, it dies on the vine.
Side note: This is precisely why you NEVER buy likes. Those likes are actually worse than having fewer likes, because they are not engaged at all (they come from “click farms”), and they’ll NEVER like your post or comment. So it completely dilutes your ability to show your posts to your true audience.
So all this sounds pretty dismal, and therefore social media is NOT a good place to market your business.
Au contraire.
The more you’re interacting with your audience on ALL platforms, especially social media, people will see that you’re an engaged business owner who wants to help people. This builds trust and rapport, and it can tip someone over the edge of buying from you versus a competitor. Furthermore, they may not be in “buy” mode today, but will be reminded the next time they are ready to buy, and will give you a call.
On the other hand, if you post to your wall very infrequently or just try to “sell” people, never interacting on the comments or questions posted by your adoring fans, you’ll soon be relegated to the “ignore” bucket, hidden, or even unfollowed.
So managing your social media feeds properly can give you greater visibility and ultimately sales. But you have to nurture the relationships and build your audience organically over time. There’s just no quick fix.
Get Your Business Found Online in 30 Days or Less
If you want to learn to effectively and properly market your small business on Google, social media and e-mail, and be found by your ideal customers in 30 days or less, come to this two-day internet marketing class being held in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are located two blocks from the West Dublin BART station, so it’s easy to get to in the Bay Area:
- May 18-19 (2 days) – Hands On Workshop (HOW) – Learn the five easy steps you can take now to get your business found online.
- May 20 (1 day) – Internet Marketing Retreat – Put together the right plan for your business and walk away with your step-by-step online marketing plan that you can implement right away.
