Is your social social or is it spammy? This is a topic many business owners struggle with, and to be honest where the greatest areas for improvement can be for social media. As an agency that handles social clients nationally and internationally (both paid and organic), we understand that there are times and places for both types of social media. In this article, we are strictly covering organic social media (non-paid social).
A few weeks ago, a friend invited us to like their business page, and as social media managers who understand the importance of getting page likes, especially when you are starting your business, we liked their page. Within moments of liking the page, we were getting hammered with their posts, which were all sales pitches. There was no value to the end user, nor was there any regard for the end user. Now, don’t take this as us knocking their page. We understand that business owners must maximize their time and their return on their investment, and drive business. We get it. Here is the problem, though. When all you do is sell, you lose your audience and the algorithm.
Think Before Posting
Before you do anything on social media, take a moment and think “If this was in person, would I do this/say this/etc. in person?” If the answer is no, then we would recommend taking a moment to think about WHY you are doing it on your social media platforms. All content that you put out needs to be authentic and genuine, but mostly, it also needs to provide value to your audience. That value can be informational, enlightening, inspirational, humorous, or newsworthy, but it needs to provide value.
Because, when you are in person with someone, you aren’t always trying to sell them. Rather you are building a relationship with them. There is already so much noise on social media, don’t create more. Offer value to your audience. When you take the time to provide value to your audience, it helps build trust, rapport, and most importantly your brand authority. Once you build those, sales will come.
Another wonderful thing about social media is that you can also leverage it to humanize your brand. Every single person reading this article has a competitor. We all do. Our competitors might be cheaper, or they may even be better. However, people still want to do business with people, and helping create a more humanized or personable brand than your competitors will encourage brand loyalty and authority, which, in turn, build your bottom line.
How to Provide Value
If you are wondering, “Ok, I get it, I need to provide value… how do I do that?” Here is an example of how we help one of our least social media “friendly” clients (their industry, NOT their personality). They are a pest control company and as such, have a TON of competitors. Some types of posts that we craft for them are about seasonal pest issues and we use outside resources (nationally known and respected resources) to build their brand authority. We offer advice on things homeowners or property owners should be looking for or doing to prevent these issues. We then invite them to ask any questions below as they are probably not the only one with that question. These types of posts build a human relationship between our clients and their audience, and we’ve had several times where their clients have said that being able to engage with their page made them feel like the company cared about their business.
That is just one example, but think back to brands you have engaged with online… have you felt a greater affinity for them if they have taken the time to like or comment upon your interactions with them? We would be willing to bet yes.
Use Sales Pitches Wisely
As a note, there are times and places where sales pitches are not only appropriate, but they are needed, we just encourage you to pay attention to those times. Social media can often be like running a marathon. You would not run the entire race at a sprint. Rather, you pace yourself, you sprint when is necessary to accomplish your end objective – Finishing the race. Or in business, having a successful month, a successful quarter, or a successful year.
So, when thinking about content to go out on your social media platforms, if all you do is do sales pitches, people are going to tune you out. Then worse, the algorithms will tune you out. You never want to upset the algorithm as it is then so much harder to get your audience back. So… be social, provide value, and build relationships. Please don’t spam your already overwhelmed audience, they are already getting so much noise. Give them value so that they will want to come back and learn more!