Jay Leonard
Zig Ziglar said it best with the quote above. You will get all you want out of life, if you help enough other people get what they want. Effective social media works similar to that quote. Give first, then receive.
Let me explain the title of this blog post…
You = Your business
Them = Your audience/customers/fans/potential customers/followers/subscribers
So it could read: It’s Not About Your Business, It’s About Your Audience. That’s not as catchy and it’s a bit long, so I shortened it. Writing catchy titles is half the battle in content marketing.
Gary Vaynerchuk talks about this in his new best-selling book – Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World. He uses a boxing analogy because boxing is known as a sweet science. There is a sweet science to social media being profitable, too. If you want 86 case studies, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Gary’s new book. It’s more of a “How To” book, unlike his first two.
Gary also uses metaphors in the title of his book as well (are you seeing the similarities between the 3x New York Times Best-Seller and myself? :)
Jab = Give
Right Hook = Ask
So Gary’s book could be called Give, give, give, ask! I love the title of the book. Although, it probably won’t sell many copies on the shelves of Barnes & Noble when people are looking in the business section. They’ll most likely assume the book is in the wrong section. Gary relies on word of mouth with his book sales and he is damn good at it, too.
How To Add Value on Social Media
Your audience comes first. This is so important and often times overlooked/forgotten. Like the quote from John C. Maxwell — People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Do you want to be constantly sold to? Do you want to constantly hear about them? Are you following them on Twitter to hear how great they think they are?
Probably not. Again, it’s not about you, it’s about them.
How can you add value to your community? There are several ways to add value, such as providing helpful information, solving problems, entertainment or just a place to escape for a bit. We all need that every once in awhile. Remember, value does not have to be all about business. Make it fun. Fun works on social media.
Nike vs. Converse
I stumbled upon a post while writing this article titled — Social Media Tips for Small Business: Don’t Sell. Add Value. Chris talks about the differences between Nike and Converse and how they are managing their Facebook fan pages. Now, I would assume that Nike would be the clear winner here. I was wrong. Nike is constantly selling on their page while Converse is posting about music, shoes and adding value to their community. Converse has more than twice the amount of fans (37M to 16M) as shoe powerhouse, Nike.
Here is something I find interesting…
Chris’ post was written in April of 2013. I wanted to see how both Facebook pages were doing so I looked them up. Nike has posted ONCE since October, while Converse is still posting about music, shoes (non-salesy way) and continuing to add value.
Maybe Nike ditched their Facebook strategy because it wasn’t working?
I wonder why.
Cinnabon’s Sweet Tweets
Here is another great example of a company that gets it. Cinnabon does a wonderful job on Twitter. I do not follow them on Facebook, but would assume they do a good job there, too. I would purchase their product more often if they were located outside of airports. That is the only time I eat Cinnabon, is when I am traveling. The sad thing is, I usually get one when I am departing and then again at the arrival airport :)
There last 14 tweets were @ replies, meaning their followers wrote something about them (or to them) and they were responding. See that? They are listening to their community.
Here are the 5 most recent tweets, with the last one being a jab (self-promotional). A good one as it is a reply to a follower, but also a slight pitch, with an amazing photo;
@RedSoxCraic Wly2
— Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) January 14, 2014
@tjhardwick Home sweet home :) — Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) January 14, 2014
@louberrrypie We love you too! — Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) January 14, 2014
@TropicalZiamx_ We sure do!
— Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) January 14, 2014
— Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) January 14, 2014
@maria_bigmac Like this? pic.twitter.com/8oD8UzToUs
— Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) January 13, 2014
Another Dealership that Misses the Boat
Now car dealerships usually aren’t that good at social media as they “push” a lot and post pictures of their inventory. Yes, some have just hundreds of pictures of cars. I could go to Auto Trader to see that. That is just so boring. People use the social channels to be entertained, not bored to tears with pictures of your inventory.
I saw this in my Facebook feed earlier and had to share.
Why would we care about their goals? Doesn’t that seem to self serving? I see a lot of dealers do this, wanting help to reach their goals. It’s about about their goals (money) and not about their community.
I love how they slide in the benefits at the end though…
$0 down
0% APR
Payments as low as $99
Are those really benefits though? Does anyone believe those anymore? The auto industry doesn’t have the best reputation as it is and I feel social is a great place to differentiate themselves. I see it as a great opportunity for the industry, but most dealerships are concerned about generating a ROI today, not in the future. Social is a long-term play, a big reason why businesses aren’t going “all in” with it.
The Word Test
When writing a status update how often do you use the words “We”, “us”, “we’re”, or your company name? Are those words in every post? Look back at your last 3-4 posts and count how many times you’ve used those words.
Now look at those same posts and see how many times you used the words ”You”, “your”, “you’re”. Hopefully these words outnumber the above words 3:1. If not, make the change.
This word test can be used on your website content as well. In fact, I encourage you to use this test on your website, especially on your home page. Same with blogging, try using ”you”, “your”, “you’re” more often and limit the “I”, “we”, “us” talk.
Conclusion
Like Chris said in his post, “Don’t sell. Add value”. It goes along with the Golden Rule, treat others how you want to be treated.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
Learn how to publish your content on B2C
Join our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage
Add B2C to your Google News Feed
Great read; it is so important to add value on social media for your readers, providing not only content on your brand, but value to your readers in the way of useful info to them and great reading. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Emma! i really appreciate that. Yes, it is about your audience, not about you. So many miss the boat on this.
I appreciate you reading the post and taking the time to leave your thoughts. If you have any questions, please let me know. I am more than happy to help.
GREAT information… love the Nike v. Converse story, really interesting. PLEASE go back and proofread for There v. Their and To v. Too… it’s killing me. :)
Thanks for leaving your thoughts Laurie! I admit, I am 32 and cannot grasp the there/their thing for whatever reason. I am usually good with to/too, but apparently not in this article.
I still have lot to learn :)