Social media isn’t some wonderful magic tool that will suddenly increase your sales and make you popular. It takes a lot of work and time. Social media provides a relatively inexpensive (in terms of $) way to reach a wider audience than was possible previously. In order for social media to work, it requires a commitment to regularly spending time engaging with your customers and potential customers.
Time vs. Money
Social media, or the social web, does allow just about anyone to connect and have conversations on a scale that has never before been possible. Social media is relatively cheap in terms of money investment. But the tradeoff is that it requires time. In order to get the most out of social media, you need to regularly listen and engage with your customers. You need to monitor what’s being said about your brand and in your industry and you need to respond. If you want people to read your blog, you need to regularly (daily) post content and it takes quite awhile (at least a year) to really gain any traction.
Patience
Even with regularly committing time to social media, it takes awhile for people to begin to respond and engage with you. You may be tweeting and blogging and responding to people, but not getting any response. Be patient. It takes awhile for people to get to know you — even longer online than offline. Eventually you’ll find that there are people who regularly share what you’ve posted or comment or respond. Followup with these people (your influencers) — thank them, follow and monitor what they’re doing so you can help share their posts.
Engagement
If all you’re doing is posting sales or promotions or your latest blog post, no one cares. Engagement means listening and having conversations as well. Listen to what others in your industry are saying. Add your own thoughts and comments. Be personable and interesting, just as you would at an in-person networking event.
Magic for the Taking
While social media may not provide a magical wand to instantly increase your sales, it does have the magic to connect you with a far wider audience at a cheaper dollar cost than any other media. There’s magic for the taking if you’re willing to study and learn — after all, no wizard becomes all powerful over night either.
Thoughts?
(photo by aleca 99)