You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry, You Better Not Pout, I am Telling You Why Your Social Media Marketing is Causing Santa to find Another Chimney.

    Psychology is what I study, teach, and speak about. Particularly psychology as it applies to business and the internet/social media world. I am a consumer behaviorist who gleans through the research to help businesses understand the trends and behavior of consumers and why they may or may not be attracted to your business. One area that particularly fascinates me and I a passionate about is social media marketing and its effects consumer behavior.

    Being an avid Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube user I have ample opportunity to do my own research and see what people are responding to and what they are not responding to in regard to what people “post”, “tweet” or “update”. I have even noticed my own behavior of what “turns me on” to want to respond to someone and what “turns me off”. So much so, that I either “unfriend”, “unsubscribe”, “unfollow” or “disconnect”. Let me just say that just because you have large numbers of people that does not mean they are paying attention to you. In fact, the greatest danger I believe for a business is when they believe that by having a large number of friends, followers, and connections that their company is truly “reaching” those people. The sad truth is you may actually have a large number, you may be talking, but no one is paying attention. To be part of the holiday spirit…here are just a few reasons why Santa is avoiding you and your business.

    The Prescriptions:

    1. No one, including Santa really cares about your product or service.

    The truth is buyers do not really care what your product is. They are not interested in all the “hype”. They are a little more interested in the “what’s in it for me”. It is an old cliché’, but even holds more true in today’s social media marketing world. It also goes back to the old business adage, “don’t bring me problems bring me solutions”. At the same time don’t bring a solution to a problem I don’t have, because as a consumer, I just don’t care. Help me first. Your product or service doesn’t do that. Find out what your potential customer really wants and give that to them.

    2. If you use social media as a billboard Santa and the rest of us will find another chimney

    This is probably the biggest mistake businesses make in their social media marketing. They want to make sure that their product or business is seen so they use their “status update” as a billboard to promote their business product or service. Certain industries seem to abuse this more than others. Real Estate agents tend to be the biggest offenders. Consumers do not care about your freaking open house! They don’t care that you are taking on ‘new’ clients! As a matter of fact it is irritating to most consumers. The other industry is the health product industry. Folks we don’t care that you have found a berry from some remote island off the coast of southwest Africa that is suppose to change my sex life. Seriously, do not use the customer space to tell your customers about it. They hate it, and anything we hate we will avoid like the plague. Let’s face it if you become a social media plague you will be unfollowed or worse yet unsubscribed and completely ignored and these people will not return.

    3. If people are too small to talk to, then you are too big to do business with, and that makes you naughty not nice.

    Social media is about ‘talking’ to people. It is the “social” part of social media. If you feel that people are too small or insignificant to have conversations with because you don’t want to lower yourself to talking about other things beside your high and mighty precious business then you evidently are too big for us to do business with. The honest truth is people like doing business with people they believe they can relate to and have conversations with. When you shut your consumer down by either ignoring them or believe their conversations are beneath you the consumer closes the door on your business and walks away.

    4. Religion, politics, negativity, and rants separate us, and you get coal in your stocking.

    Do I really need to say anything here? You are connected to your business, whether you like it or not. You have no personal life. You cannot separate the two, and your consumer does not separate them either. You cannot afford in any economy to alienate people because of your strong beliefs. You are in business now. Everyone is potentially your customer. Unless your business is politics or religion or stirring up controversy, it’s not your job to discuss it…period.

    These are not the only “no-no’s” when it comes to social media marketing, but these are the critical ones. Remember, just because someone does not “unfriend”, “unfollow”, or “disconnect” with you does not mean that they are reading your message. You may just be hidden, which may be actually worse, because you will never know your message is not being seen. If that happens it comes down to this thought: “if a business writes a status update and no one reads it, have they really written anything?”

    To Your Success,

    Jay

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