The Only Social Media Strategy that Works

Let me tell you about a woman I know who is an aspiring speaker. She also is quite involved in ministry to teens and the hurting.

I follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and occasionally look at her blog. And this professional woman, who is listed as “in a relationship” on Facebook, with no other information, spends 60% of her tweets replying to another male professional in the town where she lives. I have no idea what their relationship is, but I don’t think he’s the one she’s “in a relationship” with.

I don’t think there’s anything bad going on. It’s just odd.

And if I were a women’s ministry leader, and I were investigating her for a possible speaking engagement, and I took a look at her Twitter feed, I would have no idea that this was a woman who wanted to teach other women. And, by the way, I’d be very leery about this guy that she keeps talking to (even though it probably is innocent).

I know she is trying to build a speaking business, and a ministry, but she isn’t going to do it with that social media strategy.

We seem to think that the correct social media strategy is: If you build it, they will come.

In other words, if you’re tweeting, if you’re on Facebook, if you’re constantly updating your blog, you’re doing all the right things.

Nope. That’s not how it works.

If you want to become known in a certain sphere, and if you want people to take you seriously in your area of expertise, then you must actually tweet and update about that area of expertise. And pretty much ONLY that area of expertise.

That may not sound radical, but it is amazing how few people actually follow this advice. If you want to be known as someone who can minister to people recovering from cancer, for instance, then make sure most of your tweets have to do with inspirational quotes, cancer studies, links to inspirational stories or videos, posts on your own journey with cancer, and things like that. Do not talk about what you had for breakfast. Don’t throw in too many tweets about your kids’ soccer games (though the occasional one is okay). Don’t confuse people.

There is so much noise in the social media world that if people don’t know who you are, and can’t figure out what your brand is, they will tune you out. But if you can consistently talk on one main topic, you’ll get “listed” on Twitter (people can organize the people they follow into lists, so that they can keep better track of the people they find interesting. I’ve been listed almost 300 times now, because I tweet primarily about marriage). People will pay more attention to you. They’ll make sure not to miss your updates. They’ll interact with you on Facebook, and thus keep your Facebook updates in higher profile on their Facebook feeds.

I’m going to write a follow-up post on how to use Facebook appropriately so you don’t annoy your personal friends by posting too much about your business, but you also don’t annoy your “internet” friends by posting too much about your kids. So look for it!

But right now, do this experiment: take a look at the last fifteen updates on your Twitter feed (for those of you on Twitter) or your LinkedIn feed, or your Facebook feed, and ask yourself, “If I didn’t know who this person was, and just came across them, could I tell, based on only these updates, what their brand is? What their primary focus is?”

If you can’t answer yes to that, then you have a social media problem.

Social media can go far to define you as an expert in a field, but only if you consistently post about that field. So instead of thinking of “updates” as “updating people on what I am doing”, start thinking of updates as “updating people on something they would find interesting that has to do with my niche.” Don’t think about you would find interesting. Don’t start typing about what’s predominantly on your mind, or what you’re thinking about. Make the starting point what your target audience would find interesting, and then update them on that. They are the starting point, not you.

Refocus your strategy that way, and you’ll find a lot more people listening to what you say, because they know what it will be about and they’re interested in it. Keep updating people about your grocery purchases, or about your aunt who is sick, and you’ll lose them.

Coming soon: how to handle Facebook to find that balance between personal friends and fans!

If you want to learn more about managing an online community, my webinar and my e-course are tremendously helpful! They’ll direct you on how to focus your energies and be more strategic in what you do. Check them out!

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