Too many dealerships, too many business, too many people try to force old world advertising models into the Social Media box. They are using a medium that runs on social interaction to run commercials. I’m here to beg you, please stop! Tradition advertising is a one way pitch that takes being social out of the equation. If you are a business and want the most out of your social media efforts, build relationships, earn the right to tell people about your product and reap the benefits.
Too many times I see a screen full of tweets about nothing but inventory and Facebook fan pages full of commercials. Where are YOU in all of this? Who are YOU? I don’t see you interacting with your fans or followers, how do you know what THEY want if you don’t first listen.
Relationships are much easier to build in the world of social media than they are in real life because everybody likes to talk about what they are doing, they like to put their lives on display, take advantage! Take a look at what people are saying and comment, ask questions and show interest. If you see one of your followers/fans/friends talking about cycling and you run across an article about cycling online send them a link, its just that easy!
I hear it all the time, “social media doesn’t work for me.” After looking at their social networks and how they are interacting I almost always see nothing but self promotion. People do not care about what you have to sell unless they care about you as a person. That’s the way it is with social media, give people a reason to want to do business with you, build a relationship based on trust and mutual respect and you will start to see your market share sky rocket.
I know I have taken a no nonsense approach in this post whereas most of my other posts take on the voice of teacher but sometimes we ALL need to hear it just like it is. Take a look at your approach to social media, do you see more self-promotion than friend-promotion? If so you are going about it all wrong and you need to reevaluate your approach before it does ANY MORE harm. That’s right I said any more. I say that because each time you spam (which is the way most people view it) you are doing yourself more harm than good. I hope you have taken what I said to heart, learn from your mistakes, better yet the mistakes of others.
I would love to hear your comments, tell me what you think!!
If you would like to be alerted of future posts just put in your email address below, don’t worry I HATE spam too.
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Thank you for getting straight to the point and being blunt – just what was needed!
I fully agree with what you have said. This part is something that everyone should try and stick to.
"Do you see more self-promotion than friend-promotion? If so you are going about it all wrong"
Everyone I have met who has used SM well and generated a return is a people person – they love talking with people. Everything that I have got out of SM has been through a genuine conversation – a spam post has not worked once on me yet!
Anyway, it was a good read and if you fancy chatting on Twitter my details are below.
Thanks
Rob – http://www.twitter.com/robertpickstone
I'm glad you enjoyed the post! I wouldn't go as far to say that I was frustrated while writing that but I would say that I was a little peeved with all the ads people are posting on twitter, they have even gotten so lazy as to tweet the same 10-15 or so over and over again.
It's not even the idea of spam that peeved me, I'm use to that, heck we all are use to it. It's the fact that these people don't get it. If they would work just a little harder and create positive relationships they would be rewarded 100 fold.
Anyway that's for another rant! lol
Oh, and I'm already following you!