Five Tips to Keep Social Media from Driving You Insane

Social Media is one part of your marketing strategy. It’s the top of your funnel and can help you reach new clients. But don't expect too much from it and don't take it too seriously. Here are 5 tips for strategically using social media in your business.

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Here are our top five tips for Using Social Media Effectively in Your Marketing Plan

#1 Use Social Media to Generate Interest, Not Sell

People aren't on social media to shop. Do they like seeing pretty things? Yes. Can you turn social media posts into sales opportunities? Yes. But don't expect social posts to turn into $$€€￡.

Use social media to create leads. You then nurture those leads, build trust, and then ask them to buy something they need. Social media can be great for brand awareness, engagement, and building community, but all of these need a strategy and eventually ad money behind them.

Bottom line: Don’t expect your posts to turn into sales. Sales happen when you ask someone directly to buy something. Social posts are part of your overall marketing strategy.

#2 Don't be afraid to play around with boosting and ads.

Today, social media audiences rarely grow organically. Social media companies are businesses selling a product. They get paid by selling ads using customer data. This is great news for your business. It means you can utilize social media to reach your ideal customer - but don’t expect this to be free.

If you are spending lots of time crafting amazing content and posts and then not putting some ad money behind your social media strategy, you are missing out on a huge opportunity and likely running yourself ragged.

Bottom line: Put some ad money behind your social media strategy. More people will see your amazing content and you’ll get more followers (leads!)

​#3: Use social media to get permission to directly reach your clients.

Use social media to gain access to people’s inboxes, dm's or sms, or even home addresses. You want to own your leads' contact information.

You can effectively use social media to offer something in exchange for their contact information. Encourage people who want to engage with you to dm or sign up for something that allows you to reach out to them directly.

You have no control over the social algorithms and who they show your stuff to or what content they choose to promote. When you have permission to email someone they are much more likely to turn into a customer.

Bottom line: Emailing, phone, text, or physical post are the best ways to reach your customer directly. Use social media to gather leads.

#4. Good enough is exactly what you need

Most people will only see your post for a split second. Your post is a blip in their daily life. You are lucky if you even break through the endless chatter in their mind and their scrolling.

Don’t take it so seriously. It’s fine if you haven’t posted in a while. People are thinking about themselves, not you. Posts don’t need to be perfect. They don’t need to be crafted on a perfect content scheduler. Breathe. It’s fine. Remember, social is only one part of your marketing strategy.

Take breaks when you need to so you can create systems, plan, or improve your ads. Post with ease don’t worry too much about making it look like the professional influencers out there, authentic can get you a long way. When you have more money than time you can justify hiring a team to make things more polished.

Bottom line: Your posts do not need to be perfect and consistent. Only when your social pays for itself should you consider making your social more polished.

#5 Don’t talk about yourself and your products. Show you understand your customer and offer value

Use social media to talk to your ideal customer about what they care about. What are they interested in (even if not related to your business)? What problems can you help them with via social?

So, let’s say you have an awesome new product you want to share with ‘the world’. Think about what problem this is solving in your customer's life. Why should they care? Why will they love it? What is the value or result for your customer in looking at this post for even 2 seconds? What action do you want them to take, why should they, what’s in it for them?

Make your posts about them.

Bottom line: Focus on what the customer needs and how your product will solve that for them. Think "you" instead of "me, we, & I".

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For Example:

Below, BetterUp shares a great tool called The 5 Whys. But, they start the post talking about how they (BetterUp) love it.

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We'd suggest replacing the first line with something more personal and focused on the audience.

Compare the opening of the two captions and see how simply tweaking language to be customer-centric can make a big change.

Laura & Sarah's suggested text:

Feeling overwhelmed and unhappy? 
Use the 5 Whys to get to the root of any problem - from personal feelings to work conflicts. The 5 whys will give you insightful, vulnerable, and actionable insight.

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