Social Media Could I Be Bothered

Social media is easy to ignore.  If you are a busy business person, working hard on a day to day basis to keep your head above water and trying to make a buck and struggling to get by  in a new or existing business then it easy to grimace when you hear people speak of the benefits of social media for your business.  The grimace is understandable, the new age of social media is often perceived as gimmicky and just a fad.  But this is not the case.  Next time you are out in a pub look around you and observe (sip your drink as well).  Most of the people will either be clutching their phones or if not holding them will glance at them 2-3 times per half hour.  If you were in an airport lounge recently nearly everyone was on their laptops and they weren’t crunching Excel or Word documents they were on Twitter, Facebook or surfing the web.

Invariably these people will have smart phones of Android or iPhone variety.  When something happens they take a photo and within minutes it is up on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr or one of the many social media sharing sites.  The video above is about a year old and it is a grainy iPhone video of my son’s rugby team celebrating a win in one of their league games (season imploded later but this was a good win). I videoed this and uploaded this in minutes.  You could be doing this for your product demo,  conference stand or even a short interview with a valued client.  All you now need is a phone.

So What ?

What social media is doing at its most basic level is giving people a richer picture of who you or your business is, what it does and what you stand for.  You don’t have to share every waking moment, nor do you have to  live on it every hour of the day.  But when you are active on these mediums you are exposing you, your business and your brand to an audience that you are more than not likely not reaching through your bricks and mortar business, networking or normal advertising channels.

Social media is a slow burn often without tangible direct results.  A tweet on Twitter could generate an email, followed by a coffee followed by a pause and then a contact for business.   A Facebook post with an interesting article could be a lead to someone who connects you with someone else

Yeah Right Prove It

I primarily use Twitter and Google + for my social interaction and over the past 3 years it has helped me with the following

• I have established at least 8-10 face to face solid ongoing business contacts that I now work with regularly
• Get a regular stream of business contacts for website design
• Learn so much from an expert group of topics.

All of the above has been done without very little promotion of my website design business.  I rarely if ever mention Grange Web Design.  People who interact with me know from my name what I do and check my profile.  I rarely tweet my link (this is one example where I have).  I do not spend hours on social media – perhaps an hour a day.

Harumph – OK What’s The Secret?

There is no secret.  If you want to get fit you train regularly in short sessions.  The same applies to social media.  Make it part of your online workout.  Be patient.  Converse with people. Make good contacts.  Enjoy the experience.  Learn how to use the tools. Make it fun.  Don’t look for measurable metric driven results.  A result may be a contact, email, or even a cup of coffee.  The rest is then up to you.

Related posts:

1. Social Media – Lift
2. Social Media – The Phone Call
3. Two Great Goals – Burp!
4. Get Tooled up For The Big Fight