I have figured out the key to success for social media marketing!
Sounds like some slimy sales pitch you’d hear on TV, right?
Well, maybe so, but after some years in this industry, the main key to any social success is simple.
It’s know your purpose, know your “why”.
Simple enough, right? Not really.
Knowing your “why” in using social media is the one crucial element that will make or break your social media marketing.
Knowing your “why” is knowing your purpose in using social media for your business.
Are you using social marketing for leads? Sales? Exposure? You cannot function without knowing your purpose in using this tool we’ve been blessed (or cursed) with. This is THE first step in formulating your business’ social media strategy.
To figure out your “why”, ask yourself these questions…
- What is motivating me to pursue social marketing for my business?
- Do I have a community online?
- What do I want to achieve most from social marketing – is it sales? leads? exposure? be famous?
- Am I using this for one event or promotion or to create an online community of raging fans?
After you’ve answered those (or other questions), write out your purpose. For example, it could be “My reason for using social media is to create an online presence to enhance the visibility of my business.” or “My reason for using social media is to drive traffic to my website.”
Writing this out will make it more official – it will be your social marketing mission statement.
Everything done on social media should be done with purpose. You should have a reason for every post you publish. Every picture your post. Everytime you type a single world. All of this needs to point back to your “why” statement. In fact, everything needs to go back to this.
If you never figure this out, then you’ll never be successful in your social marketing efforts.
Have you figured out your “why”?
I can see why a lot of people find social media mystifying and/or frustrating. They don’t really “get” it because they don’t really know why they should do it. When you’ve got that reason everything falls into focus.
I find that you get more out of it if your motivation for using it is quite specific. For example, a while ago I started a blog and website about comedy because I was heavily into it in the past and may get back into it again.
It’s basically a mix of content that would be of most interest to comedians themselves. I’ve hoping to make some money by using it to promote relevant affiliate programs.
I looked on various social networks to see which ones had the most comics pro and wannabe. Turned out that Twitter is jam packed with them. So I’ve been gradually building my network there in particular.
I’ve already sold an ebook on the website from traffic coming via Twitter. So this is clearly an engaged an interested audience that’s worth building.
I’m not sure if I would have kept going with this particular account if I had a less clear reason for creating it than I did.
Thank you so much for chiming in Matt! I agree – when you know why you are there, it will all work. Everything you do should circle back to that purpose. I’m glad you’ve seen success from it!!