Social media is a powerful technology but it’s often misunderstood and misused. In its simplest form, social media is to be a way to connect with old friends from childhood or college and a way to share snippets of your daily life. In its more complex form, social media is a unique way to market your business and products to the entire world in a short amount of time. While you can take months or years to study the intricacies of social media and craft business strategies, there are three common myths about social media that business owners can shatter today.
Myth #1: You must use every single social media platform.
Expanding your reach is certainly a goal for business owners as that yields more sales and personal clients, which equals increased income. However, the real question to ask before signing up for any platform is: where is my ideal client? Using Facebook just because it has over 1 billion users doesn’t mean those 1 billion users will find you and start purchasing. (We all know this is true based on the panic ensured when Facebook changes its algorithm.) First be clear on your ideal client and find out where they hang out. Then learn a little about the platform. Do you like it? Does it meet your goal of increased traffic, leads or sales? Once you have narrowed things down those are the platforms you should use.
Myth #2: Aim for every post to go viral.
It’s always fun to see a post go viral as they are usually entertaining or thought-provoking but of the viral campaigns you’ve noticed recently, could you say what company sponsored them? I can’t either. Aim to provide value in your posts mixed in with some of your personality as opposed to aiming for shock or entertainment value. Your ideal client wants to learn from you so your valuable lesson will be heard and remembered long after the latest viral video fades away.
Myth #3: Having a large number of followers equals increased profits.
It sure is an ego boost to see a large number of social media followers but are these followers interacting with you? Are they liking or sharing your posts? Are they leaving comments? If not, then chances are they are not your ideal client and chances are they will never purchase one of your packages. Evaluate your followers to see if they are your ideal clients? If they are, evaluate your posts; it’s quite possible they’re boring and that’s the reason for no response. Be more creative with your posts and monitor for audience interaction. Remember, you’re not appealing to everyone; you’re appealing to a small fraction of the world’s population. Pay attention to finding that demographic and the number of engaged audience members will follow, as will the profits.
Develop Your Personalized Action Plan
Dig deeper into your business and develop your unique social media plan by joining me on Saturday, April 7, 2018 for Social Media Marketing – Part 1 – Build An Engaged Audience on Social Media. In a series of three live mini-workshops, you’ll receive training that focuses on building the foundation of a strategic social media game plan. Invest in yourself by spending one hour a month with the Manifest Your Purpose Meetup Group in Connecticut. Your business will be transformed.
