What People Aren’t Saying About Social Media
By Jennifer Horowitz
YNOT – Social media, social networking, leveraging Web 2.0 … it’s known by many names and it’s all the rage.
Let me start by saying I am a fan of social media. I personally choose to participate in social media. However, when you read about social media, you often only hear one side of things, and the message is clear: Participate or miss out! While I do believe that is true, it’s not always that simple.
There is so much to read; so many different opinions. Trying to keep up and make sense of everything can be overwhelming. First, you must decide on which sites to participate, and then you have to create an account and learn how to participate. The process very often is confusing.
I am not trying to give you an excuse not to participate. In fact, I wrote this column to provide some helpful tips and demystify things just a bit so you can participate. Attention to details is important, so I want to cover a few of the small items that people aren’t talking much about.
Facebook: I started on Facebook as a way to connect with old friends. My first page included all kinds of games and the crazy applications Facebook offers. When I started networking for business, I realized all my business connections were going to have access to all kinds of unnecessary — and sometimes downright embarrassing, in a professional sense — personal information like photos, wall posts, which Sex and the City character I was most like and other details they didn’t want or need to know. (If you’ve spent any time on Facebook, you’ve likely seen more about some of your friends than you thought prudent.)
I understand that opening up a window into “the real you” in order to connect with others you ordinarily might never meet is one of the benefits of using social media. Allowing prospective clients to get to know you helps build trust and relationships.
But do I really want people to see every silly little app I mess around with? Do I want them to see the crazy pics from high school?
Ultimately, I decided to dispose of some of the silliness that wasn’t important to me, although I left things other users might find intriguing. I figured if I’m opening the door and letting people peek in, there is no point in censoring anything — but there’s also no point in getting carried away. After I pared down my profile to the items I didn’t mind professional contacts seeing, then I jumped in and started adding “Friends” who were business connections.
Of course, if you only use Facebook for business, then you don’t have to worry about issues like these. If you do plan to use it for both business and personal connections, just spend a few minutes thinking about what you do and don’t want to share.
Twitter: Make sure you give considerable thought to what name is best for you. I chose EcomBuffet (my company name) but have realized people are searching for me by my full name and not finding me. I would have been better off using my name. This is not a major issue, but something to consider if you haven’t picked your Twitter “handle” yet.
There are varying opinions about how often you can tweet (i.e., post micro-messages to Twitter) before your chatter begins to annoy other users. Some people suggest once per hour; others say once a day. There is no hard rule about this. You do want to consider frequency carefully though. If you tweet too often, people may stop following you altogether. That means when you have important information and occasionally need to deliver rapid-fire updates, people won’t get your messages. On the other hand, if you don’t tweet often enough, people may stop following you because you never have anything to say. You want to find a balance.
I have been tweeting about once a day, which works for me. On some days when I have more to share, I may tweet a few times in 24 hours. Each time you tweet, ask yourself if what you wish to convey is information people really will want to know. If you are sure every tweet is useful and serves a purpose, then you can tweet a little more often. If what you post is fluff and obviously self-promotional, then you probably should tweet less (or not all, some say).
Social bookmarking buttons: There are many, many buttons you can add to your websites and blogs that allow visitors to bookmark or vote for your content: Digg, StumbleUpon, RSS feeds, TwitThis, Google Buzz, etc. My concern is that we are adding so many different options that people become accustomed to seeing them and ignore them. In addition, the number of sharing services available causes rampant confusion. I haven’t come up with a solution yet. Previously, I used no buttons at all, but I’ve come to realize I was missing out on potential traffic by holding out. I don’t have a perfect plan in mind to find the middle ground, but I am going to play with some of the more popular sharing services and see what happens.
In the final analysis, that’s usually the best way for anyone to determine what works best for him or her.
MySpace versus Facebook: Quite a bit of confusion surrounds the MySpace versus Facebook issue. The consensus seems to be that MySpace has been trashed and isn’t worth the effort. That isn’t entirely true. There are still people making money off MySpace. The key to remember is that MySpace harbors a younger crowd with a lower income, and Facebook attracts a more mature audience with a higher income. The best thing you can do is study both. Observe what others in your industry are doing, see how you see yourself fitting in, and most importantly, come up with a plan. So many people jump in to one or both and set up a profile, and then they realize they don’t know what to do next.
Just being a member of any social network doesn’t mean the money is going to pour in. You need to engage people. You need to come up with something that people will want to see, hear or read.
Is it too late if I’m not already involved? Absolutely not! Studies indicate that most of the social media sites are growing in popularity, and traffic and participation continue to increase month over month. Just remember: The rules change as social networks evolve, so be sure you stay up-to-date about what is and isn’t acceptable participation.
Above all, if you’re new to social networking you must constantly remind yourself that it’s not all about how you will benefit. If you don’t have something to offer (information, resources, insights, news, etc.), then people aren’t going to be interested in you.
How does all of this help me make money? Consumers are much more educated and demand much more than they did even two or three years ago. All of us are hit with so many sales messages daily, we’ve become experts at tuning them out. What used to work no longer does (or at least not as well). In order for your business to succeed and grow, you need to adapt.
People are looking for more information and companies they can trust. Selling has become more about creating trust and building relationships than about offering whiz-bang products (although whiz-bang products certainly help).
Social media can help you connect with potential new customers and establish trust. Conversely, missteps in the field can destroy your reputation — and your company’s — in an instant. Any one social media activity may not lead directly to a sale in any given moment, but the combination of several can help you establish a presence online and in the minds of prospects. If you get yourself out there and share information, you will increase your following and have a base of people who trust you. Those are the people who will be most open to your marketing message.
Jennifer Horowitz is the director of marketing for EcomBuffet.com. She is the author of an e-book about search engine optimization and serves as the editor of the “Spotlight on Success: SEO and Marketing” newsletter. This article originally appeared at MainstreamWebmasters.com. It was revised and reprinted with permission.