These days we all live on social media. Every day of our lives is documented, shared and commented on. This, understandably, can lead to the mistaken belief that we’re all good at it.
It’s easy to take it for granted but social media presents a unique opportunity to talk directly to clients in a place where they’re receptive to listening.
Done properly social media can be a unique space to generate leads, foster online engagement and bring your message to life. Done poorly and you just become the bore at the party that everyone’s doing their best to avoid.
Leave the humble-brag to the politicians
Any social media post that begins “We’re delighted…”, or “We are proud to have worked on…” is at best wallpaper, and at worst damaging to the business. And that’s the problem - it’s a bit like enduring an uncomfortable silence - people feel duty bound to fill it with something. Anything. So you get a stream of posts from businesses boasting of how proud/honoured/privileged they are, how responsible they are, or just how nice they are. All the kinds of posts that are a waste of time and effort.
Why?
Because everybody leads busy lives. Your clients aren’t interested in wasting their valuable time with things that look like they’ve been created by someone trying to fill space for the sake of it. However, just like you, me and the rest of the planet, they’re quite happy to spend time on things that interest them and that they can see some value in - whether that’s information, knowledge, or help.
Here’s the thing, organic’s better for you!
Obviously. But leaving aside muck-covered vegetables, let me introduce you to the wonders of organic content. Which is what exactly? It’s really a nice name for the type of content that your clients or potential clients want to engage with. There’s no hard sell. You’re not shouting at people. You’re simply creating and sharing content that’s useful. Content that helps your audience find actual solutions to their actual problems - because that’s what you have to offer. This type of organic content gives you the opportunity to cultivate trust as well, to become the type of business whose social media people seek out rather than skipping over. And here’s the other thing, all social media is algorithm based. So the more your content is seen and shared the more your content is seen and shared.
Don’t be content with just content
The term ‘organic’ suggests that content has naturally occurred - which is like thinking that organic food is just left to grow. In both cases it takes a real effort and care to make sure that the outcome is what you hoped. I’ll park the food analogies there and talk a little more about content!
It’s not a question of popping out the occasional post whenever something takes your fancy - it’s about careful planning. That planning means that each post builds on the previous one, everything is clear, helpful and above all strategic. You need to know where you want to get to before you set off.
And along the way it’s vital that you engage with your followers. Listen to them, have conversations, admit when you’re wrong, be magnanimous when you’re right. Build a sense of community, because with that comes a sense of trust and that’s the most valuable commodity in business. It may be that the people you’re talking to don’t have any immediate need for your services, but they may in the future, or, even better, they may recommend you to an associate.
Key takeaways
Throwing something up on social media might feel like a better idea than having nothing up there, but in reality it’s probably not. So you have two choices:
- Get yourself comfortable with the uncomfortable silence.
- Embrace the possibilities of a well thought out, strategic and well executed organic content campaign.
If leaning towards option 1, best of luck, you’ll at least not be doing any harm to the business. However, if you’re interested in the potential of option 2, well I can recommend somebody that you should talk to.
That would be me!
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