3 Things You Must Know If You Want to Market Your Business on Social Media

I can’t count the number of people who have said to me, “I tried posting for a while and nothing happened, social media marketing doesn’t work.” My ego wants to reply “well then you’re not doing it right, if it didn’t work I wouldn’t have made a successful business out of it”, but my mama taught me to be polite so instead I ask questions like “how long did you try it for” and “what type of content did you post”?

You see, many people think they can just post about their product or service over and over and people will magically come riding in on unicorns with bags full cash to make a purchase. That’s just not reality. Unicorns aren’t REAL! And I don’t know anyone with bags of money laying around. Oh, and that marketing strategy doesn’t work in real life. It’s a self-serving strategy and social media is about building community.

I’ve narrowed down my knowledge to 3 things I’d like every business owner to know about marketing on social media, in hopes that it’ll clear up some of the myths, prove the nay sayers wrong (because that’s what’s really important, lol) and actually help some business owners get their message out.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS NOT A ONE NIGHT STAND

Social media marketing is like a long-term romantic relationship, you can’t just take it out for dinner and expect the world. It needs your time and attention to nurture it and love it and most importantly PAY SOME DAMN ATTENTION TO ITS NEEDS.

If you want to use social media as a tool to market your business, you need to commit for the long haul. You’re building relationships of trust with your followers, so they turn into lifelong customers who refer their friends and family to you, and that takes time. People do business with people they trust. Posting once a month or maybe 6 times one month and then not for a few months shows you’re inconsistent. That doesn’t build trust.

Get to know your followers: what things do they love, what do they find funny, when are they online? Then carefully curate your posts to their needs.

2. SERVE BEFORE YOU SELL

Why do you open Facebook? What are you looking for when you’re scrolling Instagram? It ain’t to be sold some random product or service, I know that. I imagine you’re not like “hey, I wanna spend some money on something I wasn’t expecting to right now, I’ll hit up Facebook.” People are on social media to connect with other people, if you want to connect with them too you need to provide them with VALUE.

What does that mean, you ask? You educate them on something interesting about your product or service, you inspire them with how tos and posts that make them feel good, and you connect with them through the things you have in COMMON with them. For example, I’m all about being mindful to live my best life and help other people live theirs, so you’ll find posts on my profiles where I’m talking about the things I do to take care of me, while I build my business. I’m connecting with the people who this information resonates with. Maybe you have grandkids that help you in your shop and you post about that and it resonates with your customers who also have grandkids. Or perhaps your fav hobby is kayaking and you post about taking a break from your work day to explore the lake and outdoorsy people connect with you. You see, these things make you human and that makes you more relatable than being just another business trying to sell something.

Educate and inspire your followers on why your product or service will make their lives better and feather in your sales posts.

Side note: there is definitely a balance to be found in not posting ONLY about your commonalities and also not over sharing your personal baggage.

3. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

I feel like I need to say it again, KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE, for crying out loud. You have about 3 seconds to catch your viewers’ attention as they scroll their feed or tap their way through stories. Are you gonna waste it on something that isn’t directly relevant to their life?! (I hope you said no). “But everyone needs my product/service” you say. “THAT’S BANANAS”, I say back to you. Every business needs social media marketing, but every business owner is not my ideal client. I post directly to one audience, they’re captive, so why waste that chance?

It’s not like a billboard where you have no control over who drives by and may or may not see it. They may see it once and drive passed it every day and never notice it again. You get to tell the story of your business and add your personality to connect with awesome people who want to give you MONEY! The better you know who it is that you want to target the more specific your conversation with them can be. The more specific you are, the louder they hear you. The louder they hear you the more likely you are to make an impact on them.

As you can see, social media marketing takes time and commitment. But how freakin cool is it that YOU get to be in charge of marketing your own business? YOU get to tell the story of what makes you unique and you get to see how you’re impacting the lives of the people around you.

Join my Facebook Group "The Mindful Marketers Society", made for awesome people just like you to ask questions about social media marketing and gain insightful tips to grow your brand online.