When Facebook first started there was much less noise, ads, promotion and certainly the “fan page” was totally different. over the past 5 years the innocent business or public figure fan page became the world’s biggest popularity contest driven by who had the most likes.
It got ugly, and uglier until purchasing fake people for your social media profile is a million dollar a year racket. One would only want to ask this question; How do you do “social” with unreal people? Businesses took to the pages as if it were their sole source of advertising. It did not matter anymore who clicked like to the product you had on sale or who commented about your company’s latest sale. Engagement was worthless and the almighty Facebook page like became Internet currency.
This statistic taken from Mashable, A Facebook fan is worth $174 to a brand, up 28% since 2010, according to Syncapse, a social media marketing firm. Syncapse worked with research firm Hotspex on a survey based on data collected from more than 2,000 U.S. panelists in late January and early February. The study compared Facebook fans and non-fans based and their corresponding product spending, brand loyalty, propensity to recommend, media value, cost of acquisition and brand affinity to arrive at the figure. Though $174 is an average figure, the value varies from brand to brand.
So now we have a dollar amount placed on a fake profile, not even a real person…just a like.
The more the numbers of likes on pages grew so did the efforts of self-promotion. Business and brands voices were not longer heard unless they could see who could spam the loudest. The Facebook newsfeed became a content spamming match seeing who could post the most amount of links to their business.
Slowly over the past five years social media on all fronts took on the same identity and now paying for your advertising is the way to go. Still, regardless of the cost businesses are determined to self promote.
Promoting yourself and your business is likely part of why you’re on social media to begin with. While you can and should share your experiences and the value of your business, products and services, your self promotion should be balanced by promoting and helping others, sharing inspiration, humor and a little reality of your business. This will make your friends and followers much more receptive to your promotional posts, and your followers may be more likely to pass your promotions on to their own networks.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of different ways to use social media, and there are a ton of rules about what you should and shouldn’t do. There are some best practices you can follow if you want to create thriving and engaged communities on social media sites. And avoiding these seven activities will get you moving on the right path.
Here are a few practical practices every business should put into action in their social media marketing.
1. Never buy likes, followers or fans from any business that sells this service. This only hurts your business integrity in the long run. Many a zealous business owner participated in this latest craze in haste only to end up shutting down their page and starting over. A number of likes is not the revenue make on social media, it’s the quality of the REAL people engaging.
2. Accept that you do not have to self promote in every post. I had a client tell us that we posted a piece of lawn furniture and it had nothing whatsoever to do with their business, and asked if we couldn’t have added that they provide building materials for the patio. Sometimes the best reaction or engagement comes from a very innocent simple post that has nothing to do with your business. What will happen to businesses that are drowning in the self promotion trap is that people can hide them from the newsfeed.
3. Understand that “social” involves people and communicating with people. This means it’s a two way conversation. This is why the thought of paying to use a robotic third party posting serve to get all of your self-promotion us a certain time on a regular basis goes against the word “social.” Businesses that do the best are those who have gone back to the way Facebook was a few years ago and they go to the platform each time they have something to say and they say it. They share authentically and with excitement. We have a client with over 27K real fans. Every single post gets 200-300 likes and 50-100 shares. Only one post a week goes to their website or promotes the business. The rest of the content is videos, images, humor and fun. Again the cash is in the bank when your business or brand can successfully identify the type of conversation that will get your followers to talk back, like or share your content. Content may be King, but engagement is Queen.
4. Realize that social media is not a screaming spamming match. The one with the most links and ads is not the winner. It is time to stop selling and try to be a little more social if you want to see some ROI and engagement across your social media channels. There is nothing more anti-social than a business or brand that has multiple posts promoting their business running day and night from automated posting systems. Want to really succeed. DISCONNECT from 3rd party automation sites and get real. You will have people falling in love with you all over again with authenticity.
5. And last, but not least it’s not about just throw it out there. It’s about the message you put out there. Does each post really have a message or is it just to take up space to be visible? Spontaneity will get more results. The message should be one that invites your followers to participate in your brand. Ask questions, ask for their opinions. They will love you for it. People love to be asked their opinion. I can go out to my Facebook page on any given day and ask a sincere question and get 20-50 comments and 20-40 likes. That’s because I have a balance of promoting myself, sharing my pets and family, talking about where I eat and what I do for leisure activities. People have just taken an interest in my brand. My business is booming.
I hope these practical practices make sense and that you will implement them into your social media strategy, which every business should have. If you do not have you should outsource. You can check our affordable packages starting at $99 mo for continuous marketing 6 days per week.
–Shelley Costello