Soical Media has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years, and is often the subject of much discussion when we talk with clients. Businesses know social media needs to be part of their overall strategy, but often struggle with how to best manage social media, especially when it comes to content.
Many professionals are turning to social media these days, but many are realizing that social media can be a challenging space. In my article, How to use Twitter for Business, I explain some of the tricks to making Twitter work for your business. Twitter makes it incredibly easy to share your content with the world, which is wonderful, but what if you don't know what content to share? This is where I see businesses abuse their followers. Instead of creating high quality, engaging content, they instead turn to tools that completely automate content, and bombard their followers with so many useless Tweets that they are turning off their followers.
In this article, I want to profile one of my customers, Andrea Nierenberg, that "gets it". She has an loyal base of followers on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, blog reader, and newsletter subscribers. There is a lot that goes on behind the sceens, but her basic strategy works, and can work for anybody, because at it's root her content IS social.
Writer's Block? No more!
Blog writing is an essential marketing function for small business and big business alike. Blogs work for business on so many fronts. Blogging is a great way to inform your customers about your business, products, goals, hopes and dreams. A blog is a communication tool, is rapidly updated, and opens a dialog with customers. Additionally, a blog is great for SEO, generating lots of fresh content (which search engines love), which can be keyword rich. Blogs can be a great way to establish your expertise and position as a leader in your industry.
But blog writing can be laborious, tedious, and boring. Many of us sit down to write a blog, and have no idea what to write. We don't want to be boring, too technical, or otherwise turn off our readers.
Instead of sitting down and writing five or more paragraphs about yourself, write about the people you meet and who makes an impact on your life. Not seft promotion, but the promoting of others.
Self Pomotion is Boring
We've all seen blogs that go on and on about how great they and their company are. There is no shortage of self-promotion on the Web. Bloggers often times take to the medium because they love to talk about themselves. We are proud of what we do, and want to share our stories with others. We know that one of the reasons for blogging is to demonstrate our authority of our subject area. But, let's face it, self promotion makes for a boring read.
There are many benefits to writing about and promoting others: you never run out of topics, it makes for an interesting read, people love to see their name. Human interest is one of the things everyone loves to read about, from the unlikely local hero, to the success story that almost never happened, we love stories about people. By tapping into this love of human stories, Andrea has developed a devoted audience who read and comment on her posts regularly.
Your Businesss is a BORING Read
You got into your business because it is exciting and interesting to you. You excel at your business because you are great at what you do. But let's face it, if you aren't in that line of business, it's probably boring to read about.
So many professionals blog about their industry. Insurance agents, mortgage broker, lawyers, investment bankers. Do I really want to read about the latest change in the mortgage regulation? Unless I am shopping for a mortgage, and it might affect me, no. If that is all you right about, then I am tuning you out. Don't get me wrong, there is value in professional writing. Establishing credibility, authority of subject matter. But this kind of inside-baseball writing does not generate loyalty, and is easily ignored in social media.
Promoting others IS self promotion
When someone sees that you've written a post about them, they have a sense of pride and are much more likely to share the story with their network, which means you get free exposure and the good will from that audience.
The Oprah Effect
Think about Oprah. She is a master of promotion. With her "Favorite Things", she can single handledly make millionaires out of the businesses she recommends.. She certainly doesn't need to do this, but the fact that she does makes herself even more influential, and her fans even more loyal.
A Great Example
A client and good friend, Andrea Nierenberg, author, speaker, and president of the Nierenberg Consulting Group, provides an example we can all learn from. She is a best selling author and world traveler. She has written four books on networking in the business and social environment. Her experiences are vast, and travels to interesting places, and has a very successful blog. She could write "How to" blogs all day, and they would be full of valuable information and insights. But that might get boring, for her and her readers.
Instead, Andrea writes about the people she meets each day. Some are powerful movers and shakers of industry, others are lowly cab drivers and patrons of the local coffee shop. But each time, she tells the story of how they have affected her, and offers a lesson of what we can learn from them.
By promoting others, Andrea promotes herself, only, it doesn't feel like self promotion. And by writing about other people, she never runs out of content. She never struggles with her next blog topic. And her readers reward her by coming back, post after post.
Even boring business has interesting stories
Business is about people, not products and services. In your daily activities, you meet and interact with people from all walks of life. Even the pencil pushing accountant meets interesting people. Tell their story. Perhaps you just met with someone who runs a charity helping sick children. Maybe you sold a house to someone who fosters children from 3rd world countries. Did you just meet a bagger at the grocery store who is a World War II vet? Tell us their story.
Your next blog post
So when you sit down to write your daily, weekly, or monthly blog post, consider the people you've recently met. Who could benefit from your promotion? Who would we like to read about? If it made an impression on you, it will matter to us.
And be sure to share on your social networks!