Birds Of A Feather - How Social Gathering Works In Your Favor
What a magnificent era in human history we live in now. In now other time have you been able to find so many people with either like or diverse beliefs then you. I’m talking about social media and the internet of course.
I think about my grandparents and even my parents and the likelihood of them knowing people outside of their circle of influence at home and it’s staggering how many people that we’re able to communicate with and get to know unlike any other time in history.
Even in the infancy of the internet it was nothing like this. Yes, we had forums and email and chat rooms, but we didn’t have a way to communicate and see people’s lives as clearly as we can see them now. It wasn’t until social media became popular with my space and then Facebook and twitter, etc., that we were really able to see into someone’s life with a glimpse of clarity.
How The Social Realm Helps Your Business
Glimpses into people’s lives that can allow your business to flourish or falter
Probably one of the biggest advantages that social media has for any business is your ability to find people in virtually any niche. Think about it. Before social media, a business could advertise in trade publications and that was considered targeted advertising. Many times though, their prospects weren’t even looking at the trade publications and they were missed all together. Now, because of the advances in technology, all someone has to do is just show some slight interest in something and you can laser target them on Facebook or any number of different venues.
I’m sure you’ve heard the idiom, “Birds of a feather, flock together.” I’ll bet what you don’t know is that the idiom has changed over the years. The roots of this idiom trace back to 1545 when William Turner wrote in The Rescuing of Romish Fox: “Byrdes of on kynde and color flok and flye allwayes together.” Which in today’s English is loosely translated, “Birds of the same feather, flock together. Now let’s think about this and how it relates to your business, marketing and social media.
If people have the same interests aren’t they birds of the same feather? Where do people with the same interests go? In like groups, don’t they? Look, if your interests lie in French tart baking, would you join a group that was interested in 1967 Corvette’s? Of course not! In fact, I think that you don’t even have to find a group that’s interested in French baking and can actually find a group that’s primary interest is in exactly what you want which is French tart baking. The point is that people tend to flock to the same groups that their interests lead them to.
With social media now we can use advertising to broaden our reach and scope and communicate better with our prospects then we’ve ever been able to before. We can ask them questions directly and have them interact with us, and us with them in ways that just weren’t possible in the past. We can increase brand recognition and loyalty. We have more opportunities to actually be a part of the community of interest giving the customer a richer experience which ultimately leads to more conversions and sales.
"We have more opportunities to actually be a part of the community of interest giving the customer a richer experience which ultimately leads to more conversions and sales"
OMG! Can you think of anything better than having this type of an opportunity available to you? I don’t think so. As a business your primary goal is to have a larger customer base with lower marketing costs and higher conversions and sales. Booooyah Baby! Ok, so I’m a little overclept by the possibilities here.
9 Must Haves When Dealing With Social Media
What you can do to make sure that you’re going to get all that you expect from social media without being disappointed?
1) Be Patient – It takes time to build an audience and show them how you want them to engage with you and learn how to engage with them. This is a relationship that you’re building.
2) Be Highly Focused – People still love individuals and companies who specialize in a certain area and social media is no different. Let’s say you sell kitchen components. Is it better to always challenge people with the latest greatest in kitchen components, or are you better off looking for people in focused niches? I’ve always gone with the niche argument here because we want to be telling people about something that they’re interested in. If I’m in a kitchen component group and I hear about a dishwasher it doesn’t mean that I’m interested in a dishwasher. If I’m in a dishwasher group though, you can be pretty sure that I’m going to be interested in a dishwasher.
3) Find the Influencers – Every market has them. Spend time trying to find them in your niche and build a quality relationship with them.
4) Always listen – Don’t think just because you’re in social media that you have to be this megaphone blasting away all the time. You can be blasting a message to your potential clients, but if it’s the wrong message then you’re going to be hurting yourself more than helping. Instead, listen to what your customers have to say. Read their posts and join in discussions to learn what’s important to them.
5) Quality trumps quantity – In the online world it’s always better to have 1000 people who can’t wait to hear from you and engage with you rather than 10k people who never open your emails or engage in any way.Find the Influencers – Every market has them. Spend time trying to find them in your niche and build a quality relationship with them.
6) Be available – The internet is this vast sea and people want to see you publishing content and participating in conversations or they’ll leave you for someone who does.
7) Acknowledge people – If someone knocks on your door or calls you the polite and professional thing to do is open the door and answer the phone. Online it’s no different. Build relationships with people and you’ll go much further when they read a post and make a decision to reshare the content.
8) Create Value – While there’s no set equation for marketing to your list or social media, less is always more when it comes to making offers and pitching products. What people want from you is real value and until they see that they may not respond to you at all.
9) Be a good steward – It’s not all about you. You need to let your subscribers know that you care about them and one of the ways to do that is by sharing and commenting on other people’s content.
Follow these guidelines and I think you’re going to see that people see your business in a different light and respond to you more favorably. When done right, there’s an unintended result in social media that works in your favor. Some people call it the law of compounding, but I just call it cause and effect of social media.
If you publish really great content then people tend to share that content with their own followers and on other mediums. If your initial reach in your niche was let’s say 1000 people, a viral post could build itself to 10’s of thousands and eventually millions of people seeing it. It’s hard to put a price on what all of this can mean for your business, but in the end the possibilities should really excite you.