So over the last three months or so I’ve come across a bit of a theme in terms of social media in terms of marketing a business. The question of does size matter in social media following terms seems like the answer is very obvious, of course it does. Right?
Social Media has become such a part of everyones daily life that it seems to many that it is the clear place to direct marketing efforts for every business. I would argue this is far from correct.
In social media marketing generally the conventional thinking is simply the more followers you have, the easier it is to get your message out there and subsequently, the more people who see your product or service, the more chance they have of buying from you. It’s a completely logical argument.
Problem with logic is that in social media terms it doesn’t always work logically. Facebook and Instagram both curtail organic post reach now so much that unless you have a truly gargantuan following organic post reach is having less and less value.
YouTube is the worlds second biggest search engine behind its owner Google, many people don’t see YouTube as such, but many of the same rules largely apply to YouTube as they do on Google. One thing that comes loud and clear about YouTube is subscriber numbers are helpful, but by no means the only factor in getting a video large numbers of views.
Twitter in my view is a very particular avenue and only useful in certain circumstances for certain businesses, often more in the service industry. Twitter is the realm of information sharing in bite size chunks. I never understood Twitter’s value until I came across Gary Vaynerchuk and his excellent book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. No matter what social media you think works for you, I would recommend anyone in business to read that book!
My number one message on building social media for business (and almost every other aspect) is that the underlying strategy behind what you do as a whole has to be the driver in every marketing action. It is very easy to flounder strategically, especially over a longer period of time, but a lack of strategic thinking when building social media following will result in little more than a major waste of energy, time and potentially money.
A recent visit to some business networking groups on Facebook exposed a way of thinking which demonstrated a very clear lack of understanding of any real business strategy. The idea which was being followed essentially consisted of many people requesting follow for follow, where members followed each others accounts to boost their following.
I could write a whole article on why this firstly won’t work, and secondly could actually harm their performance, but the major thing it illustrates is lack of knowledge and a lack of any form of overall strategy for their marketing efforts.
This blog is literally designed to be a commentary, for an in depth look into any particular area of marketing strategy please see my YouTube channel Round3TV
So here are my top tips for Social Media Strategy:
- Identify the social media channels where your customers have the most density
- Be aware of how the platform works, investigate it, research methods for best outcome
- Look at the geography of your reach. Does the platform make sense for your business?
- Be aware of the differences between organic and paid reach, be clear about the benefits of both
- Build a clear strategy before you start marketing, get help if you feel you need it.
If you feel you need more help, then you can always connect with me by email. alex@anarchist-entrepreneur.com
The Anarchist Entrepreneur 