Social media marketing is very important for a small business – well any business. We’ve all heard that so many times…
but why is social media marketing rather like going to nursery school?
Well when we go to nursery school we are told to play nicely, share our toys, not be selfish, use our manners, be helpful, be kind.
And that advice is true from that day forward. And guess what? It also applies to our virtual world. The internet and social media has provided us with the easy opportunity of joining groups with people from all over the world. But those rules still apply. And each group has been set up for a different reason and will have its own rules.
Social media marketing is where you harness the power and flexibility of social media to gently make people aware of how you help people with your products and services. The oft touted advice of join groups where your target customer hangs out is useful but there is certainly a right way and definitely a wrong way to behave when you join those groups.
Make sure you follow the nursery school advice when you join a group on Facebook or LinkedIn or anything.
Play nicely, share your toys, do not be selfish, use your manners, be helpful, be kind.
‘Fast Forward’ to today and real-life….
OK so this post may sound like a bit of a rant and to be honest it was prompted by a situation that just happened in a group I am an active member of. It’s a real-life group, of supportive real-life lady business owners, we meet in a real-life pub here in East Yorkshire, and talk about our real-life business challenges. It’s lovely. This group was known for a long time as Women In Enterprise & Business. It has now evolved into The Sparkling Business Club.
This group also has a Facebook Group where our real-life members share advice, information and so on. Occasionally we might share something about our businesses.
Anyway we have a rule that you have to attend for 3 meetings in a year to be considered a member and when you are considered a member then you are allowed to make posts about your business, special offers, events etc. We don’t do it a lot, so the atmosphere in the group is one of supportive friends rather than strangers blasting each other with posts about what they are doing. I am sure we have all been in (and left) groups like that – groups where in effect everyone is shouting and no-one is listening. Waste of time and bandwidth!
It’s clear what the group rules are. They are pinned at the top of the group. New starters are reminded of them. The group is reminded occasionally too.
As a group member I find it is VERY annoying when someone applies to join the facebook group, then immediately posts about their business, or an event, or special offer. Its very rude of them. It is NOT good social media marketing either. Invariably these people never share any advice or help, or support others. Its always about them and you buying off them. Boring! They typically don’t bother to come to the real-life meetings either.
So today a lady yet again posted a post in the group promoting her business.
She hasn’t been to any of the meetings. She has been reminded before about doing this. Today was the third time she had flouted the rules of the group. She was informed that her post had been deleted (again) and the reason why (again).
Her response?
To send a rude message to the person who gives time and effort to running the group.
I was cross at what had happened, so went to check out this person. Her personal facebook profile picture is all about her business. She promotes her business through her personal profile, and does not appear to understand the ‘nursery school’ rules of using social media to market her business. She has been asked to stop doing something, and continued. I could go on. Several social media ‘faux pas’ some of which can get you shut down by Facebook.
And what was my biggest surprise? One of her main business services is social media marketing.