05 Apr Using Social Media and ROI

Once upon a time . . . that’s how most fairy tales start off . . . you could be using social media, talk about anything, and get results. Seems there was critical mass reached – too many, too much, too common. The days are past of business social media being about sticking up a few details about your business and then tweeting pictures of your dog showing its belly. The results don’t just roll in anymore when using social media just any way. What is social media after memes are no longer memes? It takes more than an angry cat with a caption about a bath to convert someone to a customer. But you can’t be spending so much time on social media that you mis-apply your efforts. Time is the main investment one makes in social media.
Business Social Media Now
First, don’t give up. Second, don’t make business social media all about your business. The critical mass of too many, too much, too common means only that you need to be more aggressive, more selective in your business social media approach. Back during the slightly smaller days of only tens of millions of Twitter users (Twitterers? – nah), an artist who does excellent musician portraits on vinyl records found it wonderfully easy to sell his art just by using Twitter and his social media blog. As Twitter grew he got lost among so many other artists who did similar work that he found it hard to just sit back and collect the customers. So he began being more personal, especially with his previous customers. He traded guest blogging, began a newsletter that combined his art with the things going on in his personal life – a move, a new baby, a new home. He ran a contest. This created a higher interactivity, more mentions and retweets. During this time of social media reinvention, he ended up getting his art displayed in the VH1 offices in New York.
Make sure you mix the everyday and interesting with information about your business, and promotion of other businesses that compliment yours. For example, if you look at the Social Calling and our Twitter account, you’ll see about four or five everyday things mixed in with information about social media and marketing. Now many of those everyday things relate to our business in one way or another, some are just for fun. The best kind of social media happens when it’s hard to tell the difference.
For more information check out this great article called “Of Course ROI is Tricky. You’re not Selling.”