Craig Sutton
In my last social media training sessions, I asked people using social media for business if their plunge into Social Media began with signing up for accounts on Twitter or Facebook. Most respond that it was. After all, what better way to start than by gathering up the tools?
After signing up for these tools, they have come to my classes to learn how to use these tools. Many are looking for advanced ideas of using Twitter and Facebook as they are savvy with the functionality and are no longer bound by the beginner label.
I will challenge these users, though, that if they don’t have a PLAN OF ENGAGEMENT, they have not truly started harnessing the power of these social media tools.
You might be thinking, “I have lots of followers! I talk to them and they talk to me; we share ideas. Isn’t this engagement?”
Well, first tell me what you are trying to achieve!
You often see people in social media “call for followers.” I believe this is the single most overrated statistic in all of social media. Why? Because it’s just a number that doesn’t truly define your level of engagement.
If you have 3,000 followers, how many of them are really following what you have to say? How many are following you because they just want a follow-back? How many are following you because you’re their competition and they want to keep an eye on you?
If we put those 3,000 followers in a room with you, how many of them would know who you are? If they are there for a follow-back, they don’t know you. If they are there for competition, they aren’t your audience. If they are there to increase their popularity, they don’t care what you have to say. Translation – they don’t know or care who you are.
These followers’ might recognize your name and perhaps even your face, but that isn’t actual engagement. A truly engaged following will not only recognize you, but will understand who you are and what you represent. Without this sort of relationship, there is no business.
How often do you re-Tweet information that came from an untrusted source without checking for more details? I do re-Tweet information from followers, but only those who are trusted sources, someone I actually have a relationship with.
Would you recognize your followers in this same room? All of them?
If you are planning on building business using Social Media, the relevancy of your followership and the relevancy of those you follow is important. In order to build a relevant followership, you have to have an action plan… it doesn’t happen by accident.
About a year ago, I was pushing the 5,000 follower mark and was following almost all of them back. I wanted to test the theory that many of my followers were only there for a follow-back. I started to mass unfollow the people I didn’t recognize or those I had no need or desire to engage with. I love to chat in social media, so the group I unfollowed was largely those with whom discussion never formed.
My theory was right… as soon as I wasn’t following them, they unfollowed me. I was left with a lot fewer followers but A LOT more engaged conversations with the group I had remaining. These are the people who can help grow my business. They are interested in me, and I am interested in them.
What I am suggesting is that if you spend your time developing an audience who is actually listening, your chances of growing your business will increase dramatically. After all, what do the people who are not engaged really bring to you?
Tags: engagement, followers
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What Good Are 3,000 Followers And No Relationship? « Social Media « Craig Sutton…
Social media is the new black in marketing. But how can we really make our social media activities make a difference and have an impact on our business? Read about how you can increase the effectiveness of your social media actions and build a better f…
Brilliant observation about how number of Twitter followers doesn’t really equate to good use of social media. I find it amusing to see someone with 100,000 followers and they claim to follow 100,000 people. Even with amazing lists and other sorting tools no one can go through that many tweets.
Social Media is saturated with sales people. If you were a salesman in a room with 30 other salesmen nevermind 3,000, how many sales would you make?! Zero. How many sales would the other 30 salemen make? Zero. The problem with social media is that everyone is using it to SELL. Very few are using it to BUY.
Seems like the only people making money out of social media right now are those who run courses and seminars on…. yep….you guessed it…. Social Media!
Martin,
I do agree that there are a lot of people selling in Social Media, but commerce is also a very important way of life and marketing allows many of us to thrive. Social Media is not strictly a marketing tool, but you cannot ignore the fact that it is one.
You are right about salespeople surrounded by salespeople. But I don’t agree with the comment that they do not sell to each other. Some of the best business relationships I have built were done so with companies whose services I also need and value.
There are more people using it to buy than you think, because if sales did not occur in the social space, no one would be out here trying to sell.
As for the products and services be sold, the buyer still needs to do due diligence, “buyer beware” will always apply, right or wrong. I can tell you that I am proud of the services I offer and also share my thoughts freely in many cases. In this manner, people have choice.
What more could you ask for?
Craig, Nice blog. More businesses should take heed of your advice and I will remember it every time I see a tweet about getting extra followers by x-day. I’m sure most of those who do will quickly find numbers aren’t as important as they thought.
I think Martin makes a great point, too.
I can’t tell if his perspective is from a business owners or marketing standpoint, but I’ll offer my own as just the average Joe social media user (the non marketer).
At 25 years old, I consider myself and fellow Gen-Yers to be the first strong, generational-wide adopters of social media as a replacement for classic media avenues. We are a busy generation – we can’t be bothered to flip through a newspaper when we can have our news sorted for us through our RSS feeds or social media sites. Even the television we watch is on our own time, via DVR, and we fast forward through the commercials. We are relatively unreachable by the “old” methods and, with technology and adoption of it changing so rapidly (remember MySpace…anyone?), social media marketing companies like Ikon and people like Craig who can keep a pulse in the world of social media are going to be essential to most any business wanting to attract new customers. And who wouldn’t want that?
Speaking personally, social media has influenced my purchasing in a number of ways. I’ve eaten at restaurants, attended events, and used services I would have never known about otherwise. Could I put a dollar on it? Probably going through 2 years of receipts, but for example: a new restaurant opened near my house recently. I am one of those people who says, “I should check that place out.” But it never happens. Because of a number of local, NON MARKETING (average) users raving about it, I went. Three times so far. And it’s a burger joint and I’m (mostly) a vegetarian. This business doesn’t even have a presence on Twitter (I don’t think), but because of local media putting the word out there (via Twitter) and through these average conversational users, they got my business (and kept it due to their great food and service).
Sorry, this turned into a tangent. My point was, I’m very PRO social media, but I do get what Martin is saying and I’ve experienced my own social media burnout. Too many voices all going on at once, all screaming, “Come use my service” and “Come by my product.” They were not only drowning one another out, but it got annoying to the point where I didn’t want to use their service or buy their product. They ceased to be a person that I could trust as genuine and merely a 24/7 ad campaign.
So, Martin, there ARE buyers out there on social media. Give us a chance and interact with us, we won’t bite (well, some people may say otherwise about me. Haha). But we need to know more than what a business has to sell, we need to know who that business is and why they care about us. As Craig said, interaction is key.
Wendy,
That you for the kind words! You used a referenced to MySpace that is right on. I talk about focusing less on tools and more on concepts because the tools tend to change so damn fast! And I also appreciate you sharing with the audience another important point about the social shift, how information is delivered to people your age.
Facts are, your behavior is not going to change dramatically as you get older (until another major shift in technology dictates it, anyway), so it is important for businesses to understand this paradigm to continue to grow.
I do understand that what happens too often is an all out assault on the senses in the space, whether its an overload of SPAMmy tweets with links to a service, or in some cases your local marketing fellow trying to engage and educate himself and others on wine with a Tweet Chat (ok, I am guilty of this), it will always be there. It’s a communication tool with no ‘real’ rules, just rules many of us early adopters helped mold and sometimes break ourselves. (Not one of the early adopters I know hasn’t broken the fundamental “rules”, and more often than not it was for some form of self promotion)
I cannot fault them for that, we all have to be on guard, but we are also in competition for business. In some cases against one another, and also in the “good fight” against those who would promote there understanding of this space as almost an ownership of it. Noone owns this space, most people selling it have no real idea of the importance of focus and they spend time teaching ‘tricks’ for things like follower growth. We all know what I think of that now… :)
Martin provided a valuable service with his response, a reminder to many of us that the overload is pushing away potential customers. But we have the all important ‘unfollow’ option when needed. It’s the best, and only, true method of control a person has out here!
Many Regards…
Hi Craig,
Thank you for your thoughtful assessment on the use of social media tools. It’s an area I’ve delved into a bit, too, and couldn’t agree more. I had the same experience of people dropping me when I did a mass unfollowing. Frankly, I felt a weight lift. (By the way, I find the tool http://www.thetwitcleaner.com really helpful in assessing your Twitter network. I have no affiliation with them. I’m just a happy user.)
I’ve recently written about the dilemma of total strangers wanting to connect with me on LinkedIn. The comments have been incredibly telling. In the article I promote the LinkedIn policy of only connecting with people you know and trust. While many people have agreed with me, I’ve also had a fair bit of vitriol, name calling and consistent feedback I don’t understand how to network. As you will appreciate, those comments have only strengthened my position.
Great post, good job!
Great posts! Being new to social media I’m continually amazed by the intricacies. I just wanted a way to educate people about what I offer and why it’s important but to do it in a way that isn’t pushy.
@Craig Thanks for sharing the amazing advice for social media junkies.
I am agree with your advice that we should follow those people if they are known to us or those who can keep in touch through social discussion.But I have seen, lot of newbie or professional social media users try to make a large group of followers by following them back whether they know to each other or not.
WE should only follow the person who can trust on us or help to build are business strong.