I caught someone talking on Instagram recently and, while there was a good bit of swearing, he had a strong point. Winning at social media isn’t about going viral, it isn’t about thousands (or even millions) of connections. But that seems to be what everyone is chasing.
What is it that works?
Being authentic.
Being transparent.
And most importantly, being the expert that people immediately think of in your genre, in other words, an Authority.
Being successful isn’t about being everywhere and all things to all people. You need to decide who you really want to talk to and then find out where they hang out and get involved.
Choose a platform, the one where your ideal clients are most active, and then be present, be visible and engage.
Social media isn’t a one way street and commenting genuinely on other people’s posts often gets you more noticed than your own posts! Most platforms will tell you what time of day your followers are most active, so make some time in your diary to be live on the platform at that time and be visible.
This isn’t an opportunity to sales pitch everyone. That’s the fastest way to turn people off. You just need to be visible, helpful and engaged.
Being interested is more important than being interesting. There’s an old cliché, ‘People are interested in people who are interested in them’, and, while it is a cliché, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true! So be interested – visibly.
What to post
Share you wisdom, but be you. What are the biggest challenges your ideal clients face? How could you help with that? Share your wisdom and, if you have clients you’ve helped with the exact same problem, use their testimonial and results to underline what’s possible.
Personally, I hate making videos, but I find they get good engagement and they don’t have to be very long. I often tell stories about how I learned key lessons in my skill area as well as sharing ‘how to’ information.
By all means be quirky – it attracts eyes. On a recent LinkedIn masterclass (run by The HoLT, thank you Alex Thompson) the suggestion was to kick off with what you don’t do – the overall message was something like ‘Don’t ask me to fix your car, but I can fix your copy’, but in a longer form.
There’s no rule that can be reliably applied, but try some different approaches. Next week the algorithms will probably have changed again, but quality and authenticity will win out.
