Last week I had a conversation with a friend on Facebook. He was considering just giving up on it. I completely understand his anxiety. He talked about how the people that he was “friends” with didn’t really interact with his posts (which this thread actually got a lot of interaction). He also said family didn’t really post pictures, either. I really wanted to know exactly what his plan was for his page. So I asked him. Here’s my conversation with him:
Facebook Problem
Mason falls into, what I believe, to be the core problem with why people only dabble in social media and never really move past that.
- – They join with no plan
- – They join because everyone else joined
- – They then end up “friending” people they really don’t talk to in real life
- – This causes people to then feel like they are being fake and authenticity (the core of successful social media) goes out the window
This can also be said for those who start Facebook Pages. I’ve seen time and time again, Pages that have no vision and no clear definition of who their target audience is. In turn they post a lot of stuff at the beginning and then fade away from it after a couple weeks to months. They have no plan. They don’t know what their posting, the best time to post it, why they’re posting it, and who they are posting to.
I actually use to be just like this. I would post about everything. Where I’m eating, what I’m eating, who I’m eating with, where I’m going, political rants, scripture, pictures of my drums, pictures of flowers, pictures of just random stuff and on and on and on. I remember the day that all that changed for me. Someone told me that they had unfriended my on Facebook because their timeline was just filled full of everything!
An Answer
So here are somethings I told Mason in some private messages and have told many of my clients.
- – You have a voice and there are people out there that actually want to hear it (Read Tuesday’s post). The problem is few spend the time finding those people.
- – A plan should tell you why your posting, what your posting, and who you’re posting to. Work that plan and the right people will follow and interact with you. You don’t just walk around the streets and just start talking hoping someone will talk to you. You’d get locked up in a crazy house for that. But that’s the logic people apply to social networks
- – Understand that network then find the people. You won’t have same people following you on all of the social platforms. You’ll have a few like that but the major of people that listen to your voice will be different across the platforms. Spend the time getting to know those people. And then talk with them. Social Media is suppose to be media that is social. I’m know. Novel idea, eh?! But this is where so many people fail at hitting their target audience on if they are a business. The days of marketing being all about information and propaganda of your brand are over! You HAVE TO get to know your customer and you HAVE TO talk to them.
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