It’s the single biggest mistake that businesses make in social media: their posts are full of “Sell Sell Sell” and very little sharing, giving or engaging with their followers.
We know, we know. When you’ve amassed 5,000 (or 5 million) followers in social media, it’s tempting to simply assume that they have signed up to follow you because they want to hear about your new products and your special deals.
And sure, they do, but not all the time.
“The Cluetrain Manifesto” summed up the situation pretty well, way back in 1999:
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.
These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.
Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humourless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.
A bit harsh, perhaps, but sometimes straight talking is needed to get through to many marketers.
If all your posts do is say “look at me, look at me” then a couple of things will happen:
1 The social networks won’t share your posts with many of your followers — in fact, your followers won’t see more than about 2-5% of your posts.
2 The posts that do get through will get ignored.
For example, take a look at this post, by a US car dealer (we deliberately looked offshore so as not to offend any Kiwi companies, but there are plenty of examples around from New Zealand organisations as well).
Yes, it’s a purely commercial post. Note that the post has attracted 2 likes, which is less than impressive when you learn that CompareFord has 67,618 followers.
In fairness, around half of CompareFord’s posts are self-promotional. The rest, by and large, tend to promote Ford Motor Company corporate good works initiatives such as this:
Unfortunately, even more worthy posts don’t attract much attention because CompareFord hasn’t been building much of a relationship with those 67,618 followers.
On the other hand, if you want to see a social media marketer who does a good job, take a look at a couple of New Zealand car dealers that are doing well.
The first, Ted Traceys LMVD, scores good engagement (on a Facebook page with just 4,242 followers), simply by thanking a customer.
The second example, Just Muscle Cars LMVD, shows the levels of engagement that can happen when you have a really passionate follower base (23,932 strong):
Inspiring examples!
—
So what should YOU do in social media, to build an effective relationship with your followers?
If your primary social networks are Facebook and Instagram, allow us to point you towards our course dealing with effective use of those networks for marketing purposes:
By far the most powerful social media channels for NZ marketers these days are Facebook and Instagram.
You’ll find more information about this 13-part course here: https://socialmedia.org.nz/ecourses/mastering-facebook-and-instagram-marketing/
—
On the other hand, if you want to learn more about Facebook and Instagram AND other social media (including Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat and TikTok), you should check out this course:
The Principles & Practice of Social Media Marketing
This is a thirteen-part online training course providing a comprehensive introduction to Social Media Marketing, from the Basics to detailed instructions on how to build and run a Social Media Marketing programme.
For more details of the Social Media Marketing online course, please click here.
