You’re either a raving fan of social media as a viable strategy in moving your business forward or a hard-core skeptic.
There doesn't seem to be much in the way of straddling the fence. Sorta like liver and onions 🙂
According to social media expert Don Crowther (who we have been students of for years) you're working with a 95-5 rule:
95% of everything you do in social media only makes 5% of the profits. So you should only be doing the 5% that makes 95% of the profit.
Making social media a part of your marketing arsenal is risky business. If not done correctly, you can spend enormous amount of time (and expense if you're outsourcing these tasks) and get very little results.
On the other hand, if not included in your campaigns at all...you're leaving a lot on the table.
And because social media is part of the Internet marketing set, what's working now is constantly changing.
Case in point: We recently hired someone to focus on our social media needs in order to take those tasks off our plate...and after less than a month we had to fire him. And this person's strength was supposed to be social media!
In our testing and experience, we've targeted 3 of the worst mistakes that you can make in social media...and how to turn those mistakes into profit.
Early on we made the same mistake thinking, "Cool - we can save money by letting YouTube host all our videos for free."
Remember, YouTube is owned by Google - and Google is in the business of making money. So if this is your current strategy, you are very likely to be punished with your account being removed a real possibility.
YouTube wants to be viewed more as a social media site so here is one pro tip:
Build out a playlist for each of your videos. Add your video to the playlist as well as relevant videos from your competitors - that way when their videos are played, yours will be seen in the lineup when "Others" show up when their video ends. Finally subscribe to each of the videos you put into the playlist.
Using tools (like Hootsuite and WordPress plugins) that take your Tweet and automatically publish it to your Facebook account...or post your Facebook update to your Twitter account...or automatically post to Facebook and Twitter when a new blog post is published is counter-productive. Why?
Because social media platforms are completely different animals. To begin with, Twitter has 140 characters and doesn't allow you to post pictures like Facebook does.
When using auto-publishing tools, Facebook devalues the post along with the ability of the post to be seen by your audience. There's a good possibility that no one will see your post.
The average Facebook post is seen by 16% of your followers; by auto-publishing, it decreases your visibility to 3% at best.
So spend a bit more time and create a unique update/post for each account.
This is how the flow is supposed to go...
If you ignore this and go straight for the kill, you're guaranteed to fail at any social media marketing you are doing.
Don't be distracted by gurus telling you to focus on superficial conversation on Facebook are wrong. Friends do NOT buy.
With social media, focus on content NOT conversation. You will then only attract people who want to know more about what you're teaching. They're the buyers. (Talk about personal stuff on your personal Facebook page not your Facebook business page.)
Your goal should be to get people OFF your social media sites and ON to your blog by linking to specific blog posts. Your calls-to-action on your blog posts should go to your landing pages/sales pages/about us pages on your website.
Only one in every 100-200 social media posts should be directed to a sales page.
Here's a typical scenario of businesses trying to use social media...
Social Media Update 1: Buy my stuff!
Social Media Update 2: Have you bought my stuff yet?
Social Media Update 3: I'm willing to help you out - here's a coupon - buy my stuff!
Social Media Update 4: Why aren't you buying my stuff?
Conclusion: This stupid social media stuff doesn't work!!
Restaurants and similar niches aside...with social media, you can either make friends or make a fortune with your niche - you can't do both.
Focus on random conversation, and you'll end up with friends who like you but won't buy from you.
Focus on targeted content that will initiate targeted conversation, and you'll end up perceived as a trust-worthy expert.
And that positioning will lead to sales...which is what we all want.
Happy Posting!
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