I hate social media! Is this you?

Rather surprisingly, a few of my customers start out really disliking social media.  They may initially see the likes of Facebook and Twitter as a waste of time.  With so much noise on social media, you can forgive small business owners for wondering what the benefit to starting a Facebook page or twitter account may be.

I don’t have time for social media!

It is not uncommon to come across small business owners that feel social media is a waste of time, or have a view that it’s a passing fad.  Certainly when I first started training small businesses on social media a few years ago that was very much the case.

Another complaint which is there is so much to learn to get started and maintain social media accounts, small businesses just don’t have the time.

I take my customers on a journey when I begin working for them.  My role is not to convince anyone that social media is enjoyable and has benefits that far outweigh making a sale.  It is a real joy when my customers experience this for themselves.

The romance begins…

So a typical customer journey begins with ensuring my customers profiles on the social media platforms that suit their particular business are set up correctly. 

For example, the choice of platform a business may use (e.g. twitter, facebook, pinterest) depends on what the goods or services are and importantly, identifying where their customers are.

I often start by working with a business owner to develop and post their content, and grow their following. 

When a business begins to see the engagement they get from people through social media - that is when the magic happens 

Quite quickly a business will want to be in charge of posting content, engage and begin to develop relationships with their customers, other business owners and other people they may or may not already know in the ‘real’ world. 

Just be yourself

Networking online is very similar to networking in ‘real life’.  You would never go into a networking event and scream ‘buy this’ to the people you meet – the same principle exists online.  They say effective social media marketing is 80% non sales content and the remaining 20% is of course to sell your goods or services.

My ultimate objective when working for customers is to get them started and comfortable in what can be an overwhelming market place.  The perfect customer is one which, by virtue of having worked with me for a while, no longer needs me quite as much as they have taken control of their social media and for them it has become ‘business as usual’.

So if you find yourself hating social media, you may benefit from one of my Social Media Marketing training courses or perhaps a chat over a coffee may be the first step on a brand new adventure for your business.