Social Media marketing isn’t for the meek. At times, it can be a certified mad house that many small businesses are hesitant to walk into. It’s understandable. I mean, how can you stand out amongst the massive amount of content that is traveling around you 24-7? You can’t on your own.
You don’t have to be a twitter celebrity to have an effective social media presence. The Internet is huge, but it is also diverse. While celebrities try to ‘break the Internet’ with pictures of their bare behind, there are still those online who are interested in what you have to say. So say it.
Competing on twitter is akin to walking into high school as the new kid in town … and you’re a Freshman. In that situation, you have a few options for getting noticed. You can try making some strategic alliances with popular people; you can try doing something drastic that gets you noticed, or you can wait it out and build your popularity slowly. Eventually, you’ll be a senior, right?
Small businesses should focus on making strategic alliances with both other ‘freshmen’, as well as some of the influential ‘upperclassmen’. In Twitter-speak, I’m talking about influencers and followers.
Influencers are a powerful tool for becoming popular on twitter, and popularity on twitter is a sure fire way to grow your online presence. Think you can do it without social media? No; you need to be on twitter. You need to interact with the rest of the world- because somewhere in that world lies your next customer.
If the thought completely terrifies you, hire a social media manager or content specialist. They can help create sharable content that connects your business with potential and current fans. They can manage your brand’s image on social media- and keep you from tweeting things you’ll later regret.
So, don’t let the naked women intimidate you- get on out there and connect. But leave your clothes on, please. It’s not that kind of party.
I like your analogy to competing on Twitter with high school. You definitely need to become chummy with the ‘popular’ ones or else you won’t get noticed with the ‘no one’ crowd.
For me, I find that if I RT others’ tweets, mention certain people during Writer Wednesday and Follow Friday and promote others’ posts, then my following grows!
I’m totally new to Twitter, but I am learning as much as I can and I don’t mind taking my time to grow my social media profile!
Thanks for this insightful post!