… brands and small business wonder why social media doesn’t work for them … seriously?

Why doesn’t social media work? It’s not a platform to only send your sales message.

As someone with email marketing as my superpower, it’s funny to hear the marketing experts talk about why blasting your email list doesn’t work, and then blast their social media followers.

I don’t know about you, but when I log into my social media accounts I’m not sitting with my credit card in hand looking for endless streams of ads and buy my stuff posts. By looking at how some brands and small business use it, they clearly never got this memo.

I’ve heard Social Media defined as “connections”

I think I like the idea of an interpersonal relationship better – “a strong, deep, or close association or acquaintance between two or more people that may range in duration from brief to enduring”.

This will take more than one post and will take some time.

I posted this question on my Facebook page. Why doesn’t social media work? and the overwhelming answer I received back was “engagement”. I’d suggest dating a little first

I understand the engagement response. I’ve seen accounts with huge followings, no likes, no shares, no comments, and can only assume that also means no sales?

I heard John Lee Dumas a few years ago speaking and he said something that stuck in my mind “take action that’s not scalable”.  Here’s what I’ve learned from trying this technique.  Think “Pareto Law” 80/20 – most people don’t respond or DM you even if you ask to connect.  So, unless you’re Dwayne The Rock Johson with ninety-eight million followers, you’re not going to be overwhelmed with responses.

Three businesses that do it well.

1. A new taco restaurant opened in our area. Taps and Tacos I looked up their info on Yelp, then sent them a message via Instagram to see how busy they were. Off we went for dinner and posted a photo of our food and tagged them. They answered they said sorry we missed your message earlier and can see you have already been for dinner. Then asked me how everything was, and thanked me for dining with them.  Was their timing perfect, no, but they did respond? Now that’s social media – a two-way dialogue, a social conversation. You can connect with them on Taps and Tacos on Instagram
2. Two guys who are very responsive and personal on social media are Dai Manuel.  I interviewed him on the Real Marketing Real Fast Podcast titled “Built By Social Media – Int’l Speaker And Entrepreneur“
3. Jonathan Christian, listen here to another interview discussing Success With Social Media – Telling Your Story

How can you engage your audience, add value to their life, solve a problem, connect and say thank you? I’d bet that engaging with your existing connections will earn you more sales than just trying to grow your following.

Listen to this podcast  – WHY DOESN’T SOCIAL MEDIA WORK?

Why doesn’t social media work?

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