10 Things You Need to Know About Social Media
 |
It seems that everywhere you turn these days someone else is shouting the benefits of using social media in order to grow your business. They'll tell you it works. They'll tell you it's free. They'll convince you it's time to get on board.
You'll hear a lot of things when it comes to social media but here are 10 things they won't tell you. Here are ten things you need to know about social media that very few people will be willing to share!
1. It's Not FREE
Although sites like Twitter and Facebook don't charge you to create an account, there definitely are costs involved. Your time is valuable and every minute you spend networking has a cost associated with it. Building a business costs money and networking is a part of that cost. In addition there are valuable tools you can use to save yourself time and improve your results. Tools like HootSuite, TweetSpinner and SproutSocial are all very valuable tools that many choose to use. And they all have a cost associated with them. Very often in business the costs are well worth the return. But don't forget that there definitely are costs involved if you participate in business networking!
2. It's Time Consuming
It takes time to network. If you want results then you've got to put in the work. Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and all the rest of these sites are simply tools available that will allow you to network with a more diverse and wide spread audience. If you want to get in front of that audience then you need to put in the time it takes to find them, connect with them and reach out to them! Social media tends to work about as much as you do!!
3. It Doesn't Guarantee Success
Having a Facebook page doesn't guarantee that people will buy. If you build it they will NOT necessarily come!! Getting your social acounts set up is a great start but it takes more than that to produce sales. A great site, quality content, good syndication efforts and a solid networking strategy are all necessary if you want to be successful online. Add consistency, persistence, the right expectations and a positive attitude and your chance of success improves drastically!
4. It Won't Fix All Your Problems
Social media will not fix a bad website, lack of content, poor follow through or a weak product. Many people talk about social media as though it's the magic bullet we've all been waiting for. It isn't. The reality is that it does a great job doing what it's supposed to do! Social media tools provide many wonderful opportunities to get in front of a widespread target market but the opportunity is all it gives you. It's not a quick fix and it's definitely not the cure for all that ails you!
5. You Probably Won't Go Viral
Creating content that goes viral involves creating something so funny, heartwarming, sad, touching, unique, bad or unbelievable that others can't wait to send it to their friends and share it repeatedly. It relies on individuals outside your control having the desire to share your content. There have been many blog posts and videos created trying to explain how to make content go viral. Although you certainly can follow any sound advice and work very hard to get your content to this place, very few things actually achieve this status. The good news is that many people make a lot of money online without ever actually having a piece of content go viral. The bad news is that lots of people who had a piece of content go viral, never made a penny of money. Viral is certainly a goal to shoot for but while you're aiming for that goal, don't forget to consistently create content your target market is going to actively be looking for and find valuable.
6. It Does Require That You Be Popular
Social media is a popularity contest. It just is. You have to be liked. People must want to connect with you! In fact you need to be so desirable that they are willing to follow you, read your content, share your content, engage with you online and then purchase from you! To some extent marketing has always been a numbers game. You've got to get in front of enough of the right people on a regular basis in order to produce results. If you aren't popular your chances of getting in front of enough of those people to make a difference in your business will diminish greatly.
7. There Are No Experts
Social media is a fast paced moving target that spans an extremely wide variety of tools, tactics and strategies. There are many quality social media strategists who work with a large variety of these tools, tactics and strategies. They are intelligent,creative, cutting edge and you'll be fortunte to find one of them to work with. Many are Twitter experts, video experts, Facebook experts, etc but there are no true experts that completely span the field of social media.
8. You Still Need a Website
Your website is your home, your hub and the place that belongs solely to you. You build it. You own it. You make the rules. You make the decisions. Your website should tell the world who you are and what you do. It should house your content, products, services and should be a place where your audience can find a lot of great information about you. Social sites are a wonderful way to get in front of your target market on their terms. Use them to find your target market and take your message to them! Don't be fooled into thinking these sites are every truly yours. Facebook could shut down your account tomorrow. Good luck getting it back. Once it's gone, so are the friends, fans and connections you've worked so hard to grow. Make an investment in a quality website. Use your site and your content to grow your mailing lists and use Facebook and all the other social tools to encourage traffic back to your own website.
9. You Still Need Other Forms of Marketing
Social media is a phenomenal method of growing your business but it's not the only method. Don't neglect your PR, internet marketing or offline efforts in favor of only utilizing social media. Very often a variety of methods can work together in a well rounded fashion to provide better results than any one method could alone! Need more visibility via interviews and getting your content published? PR and social media can go hand in hand to get you in front of all the right people who can help promote your business! Do you have products to sell online? There are tons of great internet marketing and SEO tactics that will support your efforts! Syndicate your content and build relationships via social media but use it in support of a well rounded and well planned overall online marketing strategy.
10. Success Doesn't Happen Overnight
Ever wonder how long it takes to be successful with your social media strategy? It can take time. Relationships aren't developed overnight. And you can't create a need when there isn't one. What you can do is set yourself up on the right sites and create quality profiles that let your target market get to know you. Create quality content and syndicate that content out to your market across a variety of channels. It takes time to build credibility. It takes time to establish rapport with your audience and create brand advocates. There are ways to speed up the process a bit but nothing will guarantee you success in advance of the hard work involved in networking for your business. It may not happen overnight but if you do it correctly it definitely will happen.
The raw truth is that like everthing else, social media isn't perfect. If you want to know more about social media then take a class, find a quality strategist or ask a reputable strategist about coaching services . Get started with the right tools, expectations and an understanding of what you can realistically accomplish and you won't be disappointed.
Janice Clark is the owner of BizMSolutions, a full service virtual solutions provider & social strategy firm. Her team of experienced virtual assistants include marketing VAs, copywriters, graphic designers, web designers, Public Relations professionals & more. Together they help businesses across the globe leverage their social media efforts in order to increase their social and financial net worth.
Towards the middle of 2010 BizMSolutions launched a special report entitled "Hiring Out Social Media Tasks: How to Get Help Without Losing Control". The strategies used to launch this report resulted in an additional 25% in revenue for BizMSolutions. This report, created by one of the top copywriters in the US, also gained recognition among white paper experts within the industry and was featured in a case study in the White Paper Results newsletter. She continues to use the same systems she created for the BizMSolutions launch to help her own clients gain recognition and bottom line results using social media.
If you've ever considered outsourcing even a small portion of your social media marketing then this report is a MUST read! You can sign up for it here http://bit.ly/HOSMT1
