If you not doing social media marketing then you not that relevant. Social platforms like facebook, instagram and Linkedin is where your customers congregate. You may say that you ‘don’t do social media’ or that you ‘don’t understand it’ but it does not matter what you do or don’t understand because your customers understand it.

You need to take a step back and forget about the technology for a second and think about the purpose of social platforms. It is all about connecting people, it is where you share images, comments and conversations. You do this all the time in the real world, doing it on social is basically the same thing, accept people don’t have to pretend to care.

When you say you don’t understand social what you really saying is that you don’t know how to pitch your business on social platforms that will get everybody to like and share it and then buy from you. What you really saying is that you don’t know how to sell your business when there is a two way stream of communication, this is why you probably defaulting to print and traditional advertising. Social media is the great equalizer and game changer that will give you instant honest feedback. If people don’t like your shit, don’t expect them to share it. You need to ask yourself before you post anything is: “If someone else shared this would I share it if I saw it?” If you do not have an instant yes for what you about to share then you need to stop, put more effort into your work and try again until it is shareable.

Each platform has its own technical nuisance but if I teach you that you will be executing it poorly. Strategy trickles down if you put in the hard work. Hard work is the next point i want to make, social media marketing is not easy, doing it right requires you to both lead and be part of the conversation and not just yell at your friends to share you new e-book.

Social media marketing is common sense. You do not ask your friends and family to share your post with their friends if they are not the ideal prospects for your product. You want to target the right people so that you business can grow. People is everything, if you love cars do not talk to people are in cooking class. You want to talk to people who love cars as well. This is where you spend all your time online. You need to talk to your audience, don’t try and create an audience from people who don’t care enough about you or what you do.

The direction that social platforms are moving with respect to business is transparency. Are you being transparent with your business? You should try sharing what you do may it before or after, or if you sell cars take a picture of the new owner with their new car. You want to share your customer’s happiness and the difference that you make. This will form part of your story.
The good news about social media is that your competition is probably not doing it right as they are taken a transactional approach to social media.

If you take a transactional approach to social media you will approach it wrong and lose any community that you may have built. Social media is all about people and building relationships, these relationships don’t get measured by ROI but by happiness and feeling connecting. Gary Vaynerchuck famously said “What’s the ROI of your mother?” What he was trying to say was that you can’t measure your impact on social if you thinking of it in a transactional way. Will you business grow because of a good social media strategy? The answer is yes, but you may not be able to measure it.

My final thoughts about social media marketing is that don’t think of it as a business, please stop your transactional mindset and try to have fun with it. Think of it as a way to connect with people and make friends. It is an opportunity for you to share with your friends what you up to and how you do things. You need to be a marathon runner and not someone doing a 100 yard sprint, have a long term game plan and then execute.
book recommendations:
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook – Gary Vaynerchuck
#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media and self awareness – Gary Vaynerchuck
The Thank You Economy – Gary Vaynerchuck