Post This, Like That, How Does Social Media Work Anyway?
You may have a Twitter or LinkedIn profile,
but do you know to use it as a marketing tool?
The other day I overheard my husband, James, talking with one of our newest clients. This particular client mentioned that she’s had a LinkedIn and Twitter account but honestly, had no idea how to use it, let alone know how to use it as a marketing tool for her company.
As they continued their conversation it made me think back to another client who was trying to understand why he needed to use Social Media. “Do people really want to know what I had for lunch?”, he asked.
As you’re reading this, you may be thinking the same thing. In fact, most advisors that we talk with have question marks above their head when it comes to how to use social media as a marketing tool. The bottom line, it’s not about the lunch. It’s about interacting with your audience of clients, prospects and centers of influence so they can get to know, like and trust you enough to use what you have to offer when the time is right.
Let me give you a scenario of what posting a picture of your lunch can do for you:
Let’s say you’re having lunch with some colleagues at an industry conference. You snap a photo of your colleagues and you sitting around a delicious plate full of food. You upload the photo and type in a caption, “Enjoying a great lunch in Florida with @TomSmith and @JoeSmo at the #T32016 Conference”.
While you may not think this post with the photo of you having lunch will do much for your marketing, it actually is doing a lot. First, your followers will not only enjoy seeing a photo of you outside the office, the post also hints that you are keeping up with your industry and learning new things. By tagging your colleagues with the @ symbol, the post will show up on their profile, increasing engagement and awareness for everyone. By hash tagging the conference phrase #T32016 , your post will connect with and engage other social media users who are interested in what is happening at the T3 Conference. As you reach people outside your own followers list, they will become aware of you, like what they see and become a new follower. The use of both the @ and the # symbols will increase your exposure so that you reach those that might not have otherwise been aware that you or your company exist. In turn, your follower list will grow. The more people that follow you, the more exposure you get! The more exposure you get, increases your chances of finding prospects that will turn into clients and your business will GROW!
Each time you post something on your profile, whether it’s a picture, a quote, a news article, a comment back to someone, it’s creating a picture in the minds of your followers of who you are. It answers the question, “Is this the type of person that I want to do business with or refer them to others?”. There’s no other type of marketing that can give this much information. Social Media closes the gap in a world where people seldom talk on the phone or meet in person. This is the new way to market your business and if you aren’t participating, you could be losing out on growing your business and increasing your profits.
The more followers you get, the chances your company will get more exposure and more exposure means more chances that a prospect will take interest and contact you. It’s one way to get people to your website, find out more about you, signup for your mailing list (because don’t want a visitor to leave without capturing their information!) so you can drip content to them – which is a whole other subject that I’ll talked to you about later.
If you’re still confused, check out an article I wrote for The Digital FA, “ What My Dad Taught Me About Social Media” or better yet, send me an email, read my blog or follow me on social media.
©2016 Sherry Carnahan
