Social Media: How Much is Too Much
The dust has begun to settle on Social Media sites. The majority of the world is familiar with Facebook, Blogging, YouTube and Twitter. A few extra geeky people know how to use Google+ too. The dust has also settled on Social Media Marketing. How’s that? What I mean is that the pace is slowing and the online culture is maturing. Most consumers are familiar with the common social sites, and have a certain taste regarding what they want to see on their wall, their Twitter feed or their search results. Often people like to engage their preferred businesses online, but fickle opinions can turn quickly to annoyance and frustration if the company is doing too much social media marketing. Keeping it Social and Real We have all done some form of networking in our life. We begin a casual conversation, chat a bit about what each person does, and end by exchanging contact information. Sound familiar? The people that achieve success through networking are those who keep it real and are genuine. They are considered good social networkers. They know how to engage and talk to people. Who are the ones who fail at social networking? Those who talk too much and don’t have the permission to keep talking! We all know people who are just annoying. They try so hard to get their marketing message out that it actually turns people away. At a networking event, we try to avoid this type of person like the plague – we just can’t stand listening to him toot his own horn. This same annoying person exists today online. Folks have taken their same social struggles with them online. They think the ticket to more business is posting more often, sharing more videos, liking other people’s post, and so on. I’ve watched numerous businesses who have hundreds (or thousands) of followers, yet have almost no two-way engagement. In other words, they are posting, liking, and sharing, but not getting any real response from the audience. That word, “audience,” is the problem. We need to invite them to be participants. I once listened in on a webinar where a social media expert on Facebook told her listeners that Facebook engagement really won’t take off until you have at least 500 fans (likes). What she didn’t say is what type of fans. How about real fans: people who really like your service or product. This is known as permission marketing. It makes perfect sense. You use social media marketing carefully, and to those who really are followers. Then you use common sense to know how much sharing is too much. I personally don’t think a service company should be posting more than 1 – 2 times a week. The companies that really do well posting more often with good engagement are those who have a very unique product or service. For example, I’ve seen a startup brewery get a lot of new likes and engagement when it posted pictures or a status update. Why? Because it is a very unique and new business. People are excited to be part of something new. Now that business owner will need to keep up with being real and engaging with his audience. He will have to make sure he never becomes the annoying social outcast (yes, it can happen even to a brewery). A Quick Review: Be a common sense business owner, keeping your marketing real, unique and engaging. Don’t embarrass your product or service with multiple annoying posts a day, thinking you’ll reach more people.