Monday, September 7, 2015

Do you have to rely on social media?

I get questions all the time about what problems people are having and how to improve in their business.

Here's one inquiry I received last month that I'm just getting around to. Enjoy.

“Ironically enough , I truly don't want to rely on social media , my hard work goes into my paperwork , logistics , labor , I don't and can't understand how social media gets a big part of recognition for who you are , or who's to say "social media warrants your good work" , yes there's reviews , yes there's a buzz , but I just don't have the time and at the end of the day , the energy , and to hire someone to do strictly that , seems a long way away.”

No one said you have to 'rely' on social media. It's just a tool some people use to advance their business reach or brand awareness. Some just know how to use it better than others. Social media is great with presenting social proof.  Social proof is a way of gaining attention from people because “others” are doing it or participating. You’ve probably looked up a video on YouTube before, am I right? You’ve probably encountered a situation where the same exact video was displayed twice. Most people look at the 'number of viewers' statistic displayed near the video to determine something. I’ll give you the choice. 

For example: 
  • Let’s say the first video was viewed over 1,000,000 times and the second video was viewed a little over 40,000 times. Which one do you choose? When I give this example, a high majority of people would have chosen the 1 million plus video, but why? It’s because of social proof. Our minds have been wired to think that if everyone else has viewed this one video, then it must be the quality. It must be better than the other, we presume. That's of many reasons of what it could be? 
  • If you were driving across the country and you wanted to get something to eat and nearby were two diners next door to each other. One has 7 cars in the parking lot in front of the diner and the other had none. Which one would you eat at? Again social proof would have the majority choose the diner with the most people eating there.

I say all this to say, social media is about the use of how it benefits your business not on reliance. Many consider social media to be their only level of marketing but why do we use social media? We use social media because it gives us a global connection. It provides the ability to be seen and heard without ever leaving your home, neighborhood, city or country. It presents the opportunity to share with others and take a view of other activities around the world. 

The bottomline is this, it's marketing. But what is marketing? Wikipedia describes Marketing as communicating the value of a product, service or brand to customers or consumers for the purpose of promoting or selling that product, service, or brand.

All in all you do not have to ‘rely’ on social media but it is a medium of usage that can benefit a brand in how it’s seen and represented in the eyes of someone that has never heard of you. The likes, comments, retweets, shares etc are just statistics you can measure to how well you’re delivering your message, how well it's spreading and engaging your target audience. Talking and being social are not the same. You can talk until you’re blue in the face but being social means you are engaging with others that have a similar interest. The wonders you could do with knowing a network of people agree with your ideas, products and values of your business.

Personal social media accounts are another story but as for business, you’ll either see if social media can improve your business or not improve your business. You don’t have to be on all social media platforms either. Just on the ones where your target audience or engaged network congregates the most. So many people don’t check their emails unless it involves work. Many others barely reply to phone calls or texts but millions of people check their social media accounts when they wake up, several times throughout the day and even before going to sleep at night. Social media is an opportunity to be seen by those paying attention and your business can be just that, an opportunity to solve a problem they may have. If and how you use this tool is up to you and to this day the oldest – and perhaps simplest and most natural form of marketing – is 'word of mouth' (WOM) marketing, in which consumers convey their experiences of a product, service or brand in their day-to-day communications with others. It's all up to you.


Have a great week. :)

Regards
Shaheim

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