It’s not you, it’s me!
Sound familiar? Most people have either delivered the line or received it or both. Either way no one really likes to hear it. It conjures up feelings of insecurity, a lack of confidence and can set you back months or even years in the journey to find "the one". I am referring to the all-to-familiar, "It’s not you, it’s me". But we are not talking about romantic relationships here, we are talking about social media relationships. And in that context, it’s true. Social media is about them – all about them.
Traditional marketing is targeted to mass audiences through television, outdoor, print, radio. Obviously, you will do best if you can get choose a particular target market and ‘get inside their heads’, but you’re still not really interacting with individuals. The opportunity to direct your message to the right market is mostly static and limited to location, frequency and duration. This means that campaigns using any of the above channels pretty much need to be all about me – my brand, my offer, my call-to-action, my price, my brilliance, my, my, my… This approach is very much "it’s not you, it’s me", isn’t it?
Bring on social media – where we really need to turn this way of thinking on its head. Make it all about your audience, your followers and fans. You can’t make it all about yourself. Why? Continuing the dating game analogy, here are a few reasons:
- You will become annoying, unattractive and boring – Ever been out with someone who only speaks about themselves and how great they are? Need I say more? Social media is about building relationships and you do this through two-way conversations, not a monologue. Messaging should be open and inviting, this will make your recipients feel comfortable and willing to engage.
- You could harm your reputation – you want to safeguard your reputation and not create one that could turn away followers and fans and potential followers and fans.
- You will lose your audience – no second date then?! Again making it all about you will turn people off and send them away possibly – certainly not allowing the opportunity to build brand loyalty and repeat interactions.
When creating your content and thinking about your messaging always try to draw people into conversations and allow them to interact with you, not just listen to you. Be inclusive and engaging. Here are some tips to create the right tone and further drive comments, shares and likes so that your audience not only engages with you and hopefully drives your core objectives, but so they also do you the favour of (hopefully) growing your follower and fan bases:
- Using polls in Facebook, ask questions and then publish the right answer as well – people love hearing they are right and that you agree with them thus creating a ‘connection’.
- Post surveys, also using polls, set a few options and ask about product or service. You will learn a whole lot more and create a sense of openness.
- Re-engage with your status update, don’t post something and sit back hoping the shares and likes will grow. Get in there and talk to people!
- Share feedback (good and bad) by sharing scenarios with your audience. Tell them a customer fed-back x and you did y, and then ask if they have experienced anything similar. This will create an opportunity not only to get feedback, but to allow you to improve and let everyone see you are trying to do so.
Social media is not about you but about your audience. Look at your status updates. If they are all about you something is wrong. Start talking to your audience.
