Using Social Media The Right Way

social media

Social media is the new black—everyone’s doing it (apparently), even the Queen’s now on Facebook.

But just because you’ve set up a Facebook fan page or a Twitter account doesn’t mean you’ll automatically attract followers and fans.

How you use social media tools will determine how effective they are. As a freelance copywriter I use social media a lot (especially Twitter – @sallyormond) which also means I come across a lot of people who are ‘using’ the tools albeit not very effectively.

In this post I want to run through 5 elements that may be causing you to repel more people than you attract.

1. Social Media

Social media is about conversations—2 way conversations. You are supposed to be communicating with people rather than broadcasting to them.

Remember, Twitter isn’t radio. You haven’t booked an air slot for your advertisements. If you constantly tweet about your products, services and offers people won’t want to follow you. Why should they?

2. Self promotion

On all forms of social media you have the option to put together a short biography. The purpose of this is so that potential fans or followers can find out who you are and whether they think you’ll be an interest person to engage with.

If your profile is blatant promotion and quite robotic it won’t inspire them to want to get to know you better. Write it from the heart and inject your personality—be human.

3. ‘Social’

It is called ‘social media’ for a reason—because it’s meant to be social. If you use Twitter for pure business how will people get to know you? They certainly won’t want to start a conversation with you.

By all means tweet about your business but intersperse them with chatty updates and engage others in conversation.

4. Follow me!

On Twitter don’t try and grow too quickly. If you suddenly amass 1000 people you’re following and you only have 46 followers, you’re just playing the numbers game.

Follow people you want to follow.  Don’t be seduced into believing you have to have thousands of followers. It’s more important to have quality followers who are actually interested in you.

5. Don’t be a wallflower

Once you’ve set up your Twitter account, don’t just sit back and wait for someone to say hello.

Find people you want to follow and then engage them in conversation. Gradually you’ll gather more followers, have more conversations, gather more followers, have more conversations….

If you want to be part of the party you have to participate.

Social media is a great tool for business but it can also be fun. In fact it should be fun. It gives you the opportunity to chat and interact with people you would never normally meet. So give it a go.

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1 comment so far ↓

#1 Jonathan Everitt on 01.21.11 at 4:19 am

Great tips! One of my favorite Twitter tools is Lists. I use them to segment people I follow into a few categories, such as designers and photographers and media trends, so that I can see more specific updates and follow people by topic. Lets me keep track of many more people than I could otherwise manage.

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