In Social Media Marketing, Do I Actually Need to Be Social?

Old habits die hard. We’ve all learned subconsciously how to respond to ads. That response guides our behavior and the decisions we make when advertising and marketing our business. When you introduce Social Media marketing into your strategy, there’s a tendency to place that same template of those learned behaviors over the top of it. That’s where people go awry – that’s where failure stops them from moving forward.

Advertising is part of the bedrock of American culture. We still today look forward to Superbowl ads and consider buying a certain type of whatever because we saw it in an ad. We can’t help ourselves, it’s part of our DNA.

Many of us grew up around TV shows that role-modeled exactly how great a career in advertising was. In some ways, we haven’t changed much from the days when characters like Larry Tate (from Bewitched) were what we aspired to do. Don Draper is loved by many today partly because we idolize his ability to convince people that buying a product makes us better somehow.

I meet people and talk to prospective clients everyday whose idea of Social Media marketing is to broadcast messages. They truly believe that’s all that there is to Social Media marketing. The mindset from the old days of “spray and pray” is so engrained that changing it could very possibly be the most difficult endeavor they’ll face as marketers.

What many don’t realized is that if they took a moment to ask themselves how they’d react to these types of messages, they’d understand why their Social Media marketing isn’t getting results.

If you honestly examine your methods of broadcasting incessant messages about your business, you might just say, “Oh, wow, I wouldn’t click on that!” Well, if you wouldn’t click on it or engage with it, why would you expect your customers to respond differently?

All the content you create – including blog posts, social updates and ads – isn’t worth the time and effort you put into it unless you’re willing to be social.

I’ve come across blogs lately that are clearly being written to serve search engines. Their headlines and content are “optimized” to “be found” on search but no human would ever read it or share it on Social Media.

Furthermore, a content marketing best practice is to syndicate your blog posts on Social Media with the intention that your posts will be clicked on, read on your site and shared through the reader’s social channels. When you blog about the “spectacular savings available right now!” and fill your post with search-engine-speak, NO ONE will take any of your intended actions!

Constant broadcasting on Social Media sends the message that you don’t care. You’re telling the world that you don’t want to socialize. From the consumer perspective, your “not being social” looks like this:

• You don’t care
• You’re not paying attention (which looks just like visiting your store and getting ignored)
• You’re not interested in gaining them as a client

“Silence is a lot quieter online than it is face-to-face.” ~Ted Rubin

When you’re silent online you’re actually screaming, “We don’t want to make the effort to build relationships or pay attention.”

Even though you’re saddled with the unconscious habit that broadcasting messages works, you can break free. And it’s not as difficult as you may think. Humans are social animals. Each of us has something to contribute and we crave connectedness.

Start building relationships now.

• Choose your platform and start engaging
• Be the first one in the relationship to provide value
• Be genuinely interested in what others are talking about
• Offer information that helps people
• Practice gratitude and appreciation with those you encounter
• Actively listen
• Ask questions, get answers and ask more questions
• Pay close attention to what your hearing or seeing and identify prospects as relationships grow

Social Media marketing encompasses PR, advertising, marketing, sales, networking and conversation. It won’t be easy to change your habits but all the signals are saying you must. Be Social. Be successful!