Social Media: Engage Don’t Promote

Social Media is a trending environment right now.  Even before social distancing, social media was becoming a dominate landscape for individuals and businesses alike.  From finding customers and promoting products, the rise of the influencer has become the norm.  One always had to wonder if the lack of social interaction from social media was hurting society as a whole.  

From Time Waster to Time Saver

Today, most people have been doing work and communicating remotely for months now and yes, people are starved for social interaction, but we have overcome  the lack of physical interactions and  have become very familiar with online platforms like Zoom and Slack for all our work needs.  

Just like Zoom is a conversation and communicating tool.  Social media platforms are by default, social as well.  It is in the name Social and Media.  So treating platforms like Instagram and Facebook as a conversational and community building tool is key to its success.  Facebook groups are very popular for this reason and Instagram has so many ways to react and share content as well.  Social is meant to be interactive.   

In the business and marketing world it was always about product promotion and putting up signs and billboards.  Now it’s about connecting to the company, the people and  the why.  Social platform that are filled with promote, promote, promote content get scrolled past one after the other.  If you want to have a successful social strategy then you have to connect with customers online.  Interact with them, show them behind the scenes of what you do, and be open and real.  So much of the world’s content is created to only show the best, but being real and letting people know why you do what you do is key.  Getting to know your customers helps you market better service and products in the future and creating content that they like to see gets them to not only view it but also share it with friends bringing more customers in the future.  

Stop promoting and start listening and engaging

In summary, social media is not a promotional platform, it is a social engagement platform.  Stop promoting and start listening and engaging with your audience.