Social media successIt’s time to check in: How is your social media marketing doing across the channels that your business is active in?

Are your videos getting the views you want on YouTube? Is your Twitter following increasing every day? Are you getting comments on your blog? And are your Facebook posts being shared frequently so your Facebook Insights are mostly “green” and look like this:

Facebook Insights

For most SMB’s, answering these questions can be a reality check. Their social media results are not what they expected. But for a smaller – yet growing number of SMBs – the answers are good.

Every day you hear more business success stories on social media, about hot leads found on LinkedIn or people directly calling a company after checking out their Facebook Page.

But why doesn’t social media seem to work for you? The answer lies in re-thinking your approach to social media.

Defining Social Media

Search the web and you’ll find near endless definitions of what is meant by “social media”. To develop your own understanding, it helps to get literal:

social adjective

  1. pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations;
  2. living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community
  3. of or pertaining to human society

media noun

1. Plural of medium –

(a) a middle state or condition;

(b) an intervening substance, as air, through which a force acts or an effect is produced.

2. the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely

(dictionary.com)

What Does it All Mean for Your Business?

Social media literally are the means by which your business can relate to, exist in and influence human communities.

In short: social media is human interaction.

Taking Part in Social Media

If social media means human interaction, it also means your business must become more human to be more successful.

Luckily, doing so is a lot easier than you think. Yes, you already KNOW HOW! Think about your own personal interactions with other people, like at family gatherings, business meetings or cocktail parties. Interacting on social media is really no different than doing so in any of those situations.

What you do and don’t do in those face-to-face meetings are your guidelines for what you do on social media.

  • Express your personality. Imagine going to a party and everyone looked, spoke and acted exactly the same. Unfortunately that happens far too often on social media. But you get attention in a gathering or community by being different, by being unique, by being what only you can be: yourself.
  • Show an interest. Imagine at the same party someone shows up and all he does is talk about himself, incessantly. Interaction is a two-way street and, on social media, you need to find communities and conversations in which you are interested and can better interact.
  • Contribute meaningfully. Imagine another person only makes the simplest, almost meaningless responses to what’s being said. It’s like she’s not really there; robotic. You have great thoughts and ideas. When you present them on social media, you move the conversation and community forward. And that gets noticed.

What’s in it for you? Your customers don’t buy from you because you are exactly the same as your competition. They buy from you because they perceive a difference. Social media is your chance to express yourself, to interact with your customers and potential customers and to show what makes you unique.

I can’t express how important this is, and how this will impact your social media results.

Vive la difference!

As usual, I would love your comments – share your thoughts with us!

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