Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Isn’t Social Media Just Shameless Self-Promotion – YES IT IS – That’s Why You Need to Be Using It to Shamelessly Self-Promote Your Business


We live in a very anti-social, social media world.

No, that’s not a typo – social media is anything BUT social.

Think about it – how many “friends” do you have on Twitter that you actually know? And by know, I’m not talking about sharing tweets.

Let’s put it this way, how many “friends” do you have on Twitter that you’d invite into your home for dinner? Not a coffee shop, not some sleazy bar, or worse – street corner – your own private residence.

Asking myself that same question, I currently have 4,376 followers on Twitter. Of those amazingly awesome folks following me, I’d guess I probably really only know a couple hundred, when you consider friends, family and business associates.

Of those 200 people, I really only know about 50 that I know well enough to invite into my own, personal, private, living space.

So, out of over 4,000 “friends” on Twitter, I really know about 50 of them. Do the math – I only really know 1.25 percent of my Twitter followers.
According to statistics, that’s about right. Studies show the average Twitter user only really knows between one to two percent of those who follow them.

One to two percent – that means, on average, 98 to 99 percent of those happy smiling faces that follow you on Twitter are complete strangers.

Doesn’t sound all that social at all.

Twitter is just like walking down a busy street, yelling: “look at me.”

BINGO!

Social media is just shameless self-promotion, that’s why you need to be using it to shamelessly self-promote your business.

If everyone is using Twitter, facebook, YouTube, Google Plus, Vimeo, Pinterest, Instagram, even Linkedin to shamelessly promote themselves – then you need to be doing that too.

I know – that’s not very social. Walking down a busy street, yelling: “look at me” is hardly the behavior that’ll win you long lasting friends you can count on when you really need them.

But that’s the new world order, thanks to smart phones, tablets, free WiFi, and coffee shops filled with people, none of whom talk to each other -- even at the same table!

Talking?

That’s old school.

Besides, no one cares about you.
They are too busy taking selfies to show off their new hat, tweeting about what they had for lunch, or posting a really nasty review about the waiter that kept putting his finger in everything he brought to the table.

No one cares about you.

They are busy shamelessly self-promoting their own self interest.

However, the smart social media entrepreneur knows that social media isn’t about making friends, fans and followers.

No.

It’s about doing something that gets you noticed by the most self-absorbed generation since – well okay – there never has been another generation so interested in themselves, that they will walk into on-coming traffic, because they were eyes-down, self-absorbed into their mobile device.


You have to use social media as a business person to get into the eyeballs of your customers, so in their own self-interest, they share your posts with their friends. And their friends share it with their friends, and so on, and . . .

That’s the real power of social media in business.

Despite it being wrongly named “social” – it really should be called “self interested media” or “anti social media” or anything but social.

Social media is just shameless self-promotion, but that’s why you need to be using it to shamelessly self-promote your business.

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