It is shocking how bad people can be at social media. I recently wrote a bit about social media here and how to use it as a natural health practitioner, but this is different — this is more of a rant. I don’t claim to be a guru or a professional marketer, but there are a few things that drive me nuts with social media and since I want us to be friends (at least on Facebook), I want to share one of them with you.
Think about the name of the medium: social media. It means to be social, to share and be friendly. If you were at a dinner party and constantly kept shouting out, “I use _________ everyday to stay fit!” “_________ is the best product for weight loss!” “Ask me how you can make money from your computer with ________!”, how long would it be before you were left alone in a corner with no-one to talk to? Would you ever be invited back?
Because we can’t always see the people we are reaching with social media, it is easy to forget that they are actual people who want to be treated as such. No-one wants to feel like they are being shouted at or talked down to. They want to be heard. People use social media to check out a company or practitioner sometimes — to get a feel for who you are and what you stand for. If you want to be known as someone personable and empathetic then that needs to come across in your posts, tweets, blog, etc.
Yes it is OK to use social media to promote your business, but you want to do this in the same way that you would face to face; with an open dialog, responding to questions, asking your own and offering opinions and information. You can branch out from your own business and promote fun local events or businesses that would be of interest to your followers, or even just share something that makes you think or makes you laugh.
This is what friends do.
We’re all in this together.
Alexis
Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Leave them below!
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