Social Media Managers love signing new clients. Well, who doesn’t love a new client? New clients mean a bump in the paycheck and the opportunity of helping the business grow. With every new client, comes a whole new set of stressed out nerves for the social media mixologist. These fears make the social media managers wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night screaming. “NOOOOOOO…take your hand off of your phone and leave the twitter alone!”
Business owners, if you don’t want to jeopardize the progress your social media manager is making, or cause her drop you like a bad habit, then you need live by a whole new set of social media rules:
(1) Don’t try to help us grow your following. Here is the deal: you hired us. You didn’t hire us because you just wanted to spend another $500-$2,000 a month, but, instead, you hired us for our skills. We don’t need your help unless we ask you; and we will require your help when we ask questions about your business on a regular basis. Please, don’t try to increase your following by tweeting your favorite celebrity (or anyone) with a request that they follow you. Remember that 42 year old woman you saw last Friday night, drunk and dressed like a 22 year old, throwing herself on a much younger man? Yeah, your “Hey @johnstamos please follow me because I loved you in Full House days, Uncle Jessie” just made you that 42 year old! Rule of thumb with social following: Equate social media to dating — NEVER BEG! It is a real turn off.
(2) Don’t tweet. We don’t make strategic decisions about where you should open your next store, do we? Then refrain from making unilateral decisions about your digital media strategy! Yes, we care about your clients, but we know what mix of self –promoting tweets vs. other tweets work best with your demographic. No, you are not Conan O’Brian….your fans obsess over the latest celebrity fashion trends, not the clothes you have in your store. They will find out what you have available to buy soon enough. Big request from this Twitter goddess: don’t talk….let ME talk for you!
(3) Social content share strategy. Yes…you do need to tweet the latest wedding fashions, if you’re in the fashion industry. Social content strategy is about creating value in all that you say with your fans, followers and customers. If you are a mobile coffee catering business then share pertinent information to event planners and wedding planners –- share to your bread and butter audience. Don’t share about a college football team half way across the country and, rest assured, you will lose your audience if you share about car shows all weekend long. Share content that your target audience finds meaningful and relevant. It takes us, the mixologists, a long time to build your audience and we will drop you in a blink if you consistently do things to jeopardize the strength in the community we have built.
(4) Give me the tools to do my job. When my team sits down with you to strategize on dominating the socialverse, we will bring our list of “requirements” — the things that will make you shine on social. That list might include a bi-weekly blog posts, high-resolution images, a fresh new website. Our team has extensive experience with helping small businesses grow their business, but we are only successful when our clients do as we advise. Follow our direction and you will see your exposure growing and customer list expanding alongside your bottom line. Social media isn’t just about the tweets, but all of the tools and content that goes into making it successful. If you don’t give us what we need, then there really is no reason to pay us because the strategy just won’t work like you want it to.
(5) Unrealistic expectations. No, Brittany Spears is not going to follow you on twitter and you aren’t going to increase sales by $100K on the first 3 weeks on twitter. In fact, even if you have someone actively engaging online 24/7/365 the first year, you still won’t increase your sales by a $100K all due to social media. It’s about REASONABLE expectations. It will take 3 months before you start to see a SLIGHT increase on your web traffic due to social media; 6 months before you start to really experience people talking about your business publically; and 9 months before you start to see a big impact. It is what it is. Digital marketing is a long term commitment, not a one night stand.
PS. You might just get Anthony Weiner to follow you on twitter…never know if you don’t try.
