I’ve been blogging a long time. So for the past several years, I have attended conferences and read everything I could about how to get followers and how to market myself on social media.
And now that I provide social media marketing services for clients, I read even more blog posts and ebooks about how to get more Twitter followers, when to post on Facebook, how to maximize email marketing, and the list goes on. I’ve joined LinkedIn groups and Google Plus and various membership sites. After awhile it gets to be information overload!
Some of my clients are simply overwhelmed. I am, too. At the end of the day, though, the one social media “expert” whose opinion matters most is . . . YOUR CUSTOMERS.
I’m not saying to ignore all the great tips and articles out there. It’s always good to be on top of trends and research. But the lens through which everything must be filtered is YOUR CUSTOMER.
One of my clients asked if I had come across any research that suggested what a business should put on their Facebook page. She was sure that a certain type of post would be popular, but it fell flat every time, no matter what time of day it was posted. To her surprise, though, photos of her suppliers turned out to get lots of comments and shares. I explained that no outside research would be as valuable as simply paying attention to what her actual customers were already telling her.
In short, my recommendation to busy people who already have too much on their plate and a limited amount of time to spend on their social media marketing is to spend most of the time listening to your customers (checking out Insights and other analytics tools . . . to be explained in later posts), not reading more about what “experts” have to say.
Have you learned anything surprising by listening to your customers?
