When people jump on the “online marketing train”, they often hear the basics of what the gurus tell them to do, yet don’t carry out the entire plan. In many cases, online marketing isn’t something they have thought much about before, so they hone in on a couple of thing they learned in class, and make that their focus for a few weeks. Then the wondering begins … “Why isn’t this stuff working?”
Its easy to pick up a basic concept in a class, only to completely misunderstand the entire concept and look at it the wrong way once you’re back in your office.
Like the numbers.
If one guru says its all about how many friends, followers or likes you have, they’ll hear they need more friends. So they run out and hire someone to get them as many friends, followers or likes as possible. Yes, you can purchase friends and followers by the dozen. Want to add a few hundred extra to your account? No problem.
So does that number really tell you anything? Nope. 1,000 followers are great if they all pay attention to what you have to say. But if they are all vegans and you’re promoting buffalo steaks, there probably won’t be much connection.
Next.
Maybe you should focus in on how many times you post. The more you post, the more your business will grow, right?
Think again. I can find all kinds of people that have tweeted 10,000 times, or have posted a dozen times a day to their Facebook feed. Is that good? Maybe … maybe not. What if they have 16 followers, and only 2 ever see what’s flowing through? Not good, especially if one of those people is you.
Hmmm…
So if the numbers don’t matter when it comes to how many followers you have, and the numbers don’t matter how many times you post if no one is listening, do numbers matter at all?
Yes, actually they do. But you have to know what numbers to focus on in each of the social media tools you use.
On a blog – Pay attention to your daily visitors. When you release a blog post, how many read it? If you share it on Facebook or Twitter, how many click over and share it? From your post, how many click to another page on your site? Its all about interaction and getting people to realize you have great content out there, and be willing to read it and share it with the people they know.
On LinkedIn – LinkedIn is about connections. Are you sharing content regularly? Do people communicate with you? Do you interact in the groups you join? I know I’ve done things the right way when I get people interacting with me, sending me personal messages, and asking to connect with me too.
On Facebook – Likes are good, shares are better. Likes indicate someone likes what you have to say, but shares will tell you they think enough of your content to share it with their friends as well.
On Twitter – Twitters magic comes from retweets and the amount of lists you are placed on to. When people retweet what you have to say, they find value in your content. And when you are added to a list, its means they’ve taken the time to place you with other Twitter users producing similar content. Both show that you have connected with the end user.
Does all of this make sense to you? Do you focus on numbers in a different way? I’d love to hear your take on what social numbers really mean to you.