Adopting Social Media – Julian Summerhayes

Social media is replete with words like guru, authentic, expert, passion, art (not with a capital ‘A’) and science.

But when it comes to the usefulness of the material produced, so much of it has a self-serving story:

the blog that is nothing more than a channel for selling;

the Twitter feed that is like a broken record;

a plethora of emails with only one message;

and when you throw in an unlimited parade of social media platforms, you soon begin to see the problem in all its (un)rich glory.

Social media is not about social media.

Social media is there to help you or your business become more successful. It might take time – doesn’t everything in the current market – but, if you are prepared to show up every day, produce remarkable content and help your followers, then the money will follow the passion.

One of the problems for business is that social media has come out of the blue, and many have not had time to think through how they might incorporate some of the tools. Also, it feels like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights where the shock has resulted in practically everyone climbing atop the same platforms but not understanding what they are doing.

Stop, and focus.

What problem is social media meant to solve?

If you haven’t yet worked it out, then sit down and think through your web/on-line presence, the people that are likely to have the inclination to engage and the extent of the financial budget that you are willing to set aside.

And then once you have your internal ducks in a row, you can then consider how you are going to engage externally in a way that enables your fans and followers to do all the work for you.

The thing is, if you deliver the most amazing experience possible by dint of your service or product, then, apart from a gentle nudge from time to time, your fans will do all the heavy lifting (but please make it easy for them…).

If you have to dive off the deep end to get started then trust to your extincts as much as the experts. Yes, you can mess things up but you can also allow your curiosity to drive home your passion for the enterprise. If there’s one thing that social media loves is those people who love what they do.

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