Getting The Most Out of Social Media

The two biggest mistakes that most businesses make on Social Media are
1. Not doing ANY.
2. Doing too much.
For a lot of business owners it's difficult to navigate the waters of social media.  Many decide, it's too much work and not worth the effort so they skip it all together.
​Others feel that there are millions of customers on social media, and they try to do everything out there.  

We believe both approaches are wrong.  Not doing any is wrong for obvious reasons.. Facebook alone has over 1 BILLION monthly users.  You simply cannot ignore a potential audience that is that big.  However, trying to do every social media option out there will dilute your efforts and you'll never be able to keep up, basically guaranteeing your failure.  

​We recommend that our clients do no more than 4 different social media platforms.
1. Facebook, personal and business
2. Twitter
3. Linkedin
4. Pinterest or Instagram. 

​If your business is the type that allows you to generate "before" and "after" photos or if you have a large variety of products then move Pinterest or Instagram up a notch and move Linkedin down. If you are B2B then Linkedin should be #2 in your priorities. 

The Good News.
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Instagram are all FREE.  You can set up accounts on all those platforms for free. Just because they're free, don't mistake that for valueless. There is great value in Social Media when it's done correctly.

The Next Challenge.
Once you have 2-4 of those set-up the next big challenge is what to post and when to post it. You will need to find great content and time to post it and you should be consistent. Don't post 10 articles in one day and then nothing for the next six weeks.  Although we advise our clients to post at least once per day, you must post a minimum of 3-5 strong, quality posts per week.   So, how do we define, "great content".. that's easy, or at least it sounds easy.  GREAT CONTENT IS ANYTHING THAT YOUR AUDIENCE WILL FIND INTERESTING AND WILL SHARE. 

​Many businesses think that, for example, if they're a jewelry store, they can only post photos of their jewelry, or a restaurant might think they can only post photos or posts about their food and specials.  Nobody really wants to be SOLD to on social media.  If your audience sees your posts as self-serving they will stop following you.  I handle marketing and advertising for a variety of clients in multiple types of businesses.  I post articles on marketing, advertising and being an entrepreneur.  Those articles are not recommending that people hire me, they are not promotional for my company but they are VERY useful to my audience and they help me build a bigger and bigger audience daily.  

​People buy from people they like and trust.  When your prospects realize that you are interested in them, that you care about providing great information to them, they will begin to like and trust you more.  Then, when they're ready to purchase your goods or services, you are much more likely to be in the best position to sell to them.  

​Social media marketing is a courtship, not a one night stand.  Don't try to force people to buy from you.  Build the relationship and the sales will come.  

If you need help with your social media marketing we use this tool to find great stories and to brand every post with an banner.  It normally it costs $199 per month. This "reader" special allows you to pay only $299 per year.  
 https://mysocialmediausa.com/page/special