Business-Building Action from Terry Brock
Social media gives you the opportunity to get your message out to the world. It is one of the best tools that thought leaders and small businesses can use today.
However, you want to avoid the mistakes that many are making in social media. Here, I list five key mistakes that are often made in social media. Do you know anyone who is making these mistakes?
- Broadcasting vs. Engaging. Social media is about connecting with people. We don’t call it spam media. We don’t call it selling media. It is called social media. That means it is about, well, social interaction. It’s about being human. Too many people have a mindset that comes from an earlier era where they would buy mass advertising to blast their message out, hoping that a some people would hear it and a few might come by their store and make a purchase. This old “spray and pray” approach is not effective today. Social media is quite different. Social media is about engaging with people so that you can form connections and bonds at a human to human level even more than at a business level. Mess this up and you are in big trouble!
- Inconsistency. This can kill you. If you are posting a blog (which is a really good idea!), then you need to do it on a regular basis. If you’re sending out information via a podcast, make sure that it is done on a regular, consistent basis. Whatever you do in social media, make sure that you’re doing it on a regular, consistent basis. This way your audience can develop reliable expectations, They feel that you are reliable. Somehow at a subconscious level, if you’re reliable in sending your messages out into social media, it says something about your reliability in the real world.
- Inauthentic Presence. Today’s marketplace can spot a fake a mile away. We know when someone is not genuine and when they’re doing something for ulterior motives. Remember that social media is about being human first. If you try to be someone that you’re not, people will see right through it and choose not to be involved with you.
- Selling vs. Helping. In the past we would learn about selling and how it was important to use techniques and little “tricks” to sell your products. Today social media focuses on helping others first. As you build a relationship, people will be interested in knowing what you do that can help them as they make a purchase. Even after the sale it’s critical to remain in help mode versus selling mode. Today it could be said that helping is the new selling. However, when you think about it, helping has always been the way that the most effective sales people operate anyway.
- Posting about “The Unmentionables.” This is a most dangerous – and tempting mistake. Avoid it at all costs. What am I talking about? The areas that your mother told you to avoid in polite conversation – politics and religion. As my co-author Gina Carr, says so well, “Avoid politics and religion unless you are a politician, a political consultant, a minister, a rabbi or a person of the cloth.” It is very tempting to get dragged into the interchange of various political and religious discussions on social media. We all have opinions, sometimes very strong ones, in these areas. However, there is a place to discuss these areas, and a place not to discuss them. If you were to discuss, for instance, a hotly contested political race in your area, you are sure to alienate those who would disagree with you. Why take that risk and lose valuable business? Even if you think you’re well-informed, it is best to avoid these types of discussions in the medium of social media. At best, you might “like” a comment or word art with which you agree. As soon as you cross the line and talk about your feelings of a political issue or a deeply held religious belief, you could alienate people and lose business. This is about business. Express your political and religious feelings in other venues, not in an area where people could see you and make judgments about whether to do business with you.
There are probably other mistakes that can be made in social media. We’re all learning as we go. Keeping these five in mind can save you a lot of grief and aggravation – and lost business!
What do you think? I’d love to hear from you. Send me a tweet on Twitter and I will look forward to hearing from you. You can reach me on Twitter – @TerryBrock. If you can think of some other mistakes that we should avoid, please share these to help out others. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Terry Brock, MBA, CSP, CPAE helps organizations leverage technology like social media and mobile devices to connect with customers and increase productivity. Visit his website for a free report on how Twitter can help you boost sales – http://tinyurl.com/twitter4sales. He can be reached through his website at www.TerryBrock.com or on Twitter – @TerryBrock or Facebook – www.Facebook.com/MarketerTerryBrock.
