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Iceni Magazine | March 25, 2024

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The Importance Of Being Social On Social Media

The Importance Of Being Social On Social Media

How many times have you been on Twitter or another social media platform and had someone drop in, shout about their own service or product and then just disappear?

It’s a bad trait sadly employed by a large number of people who don’t realise the importance of actually ‘being social’ on social media.

If you think of social media as networking but without actually physically meeting someone then you wouldn’t dream of barging into a crowded room, shouting about your product and then expect people to respond favourably. Of course you wouldn’t and the principles are no different on social media. However, this does not mean you do not have to consider issues surrounding free speech and libel, about which there is more here to read.

Being Social

Social media isn’t about hard sell, it’s about listening, discussing, sharing and generally building relationships through interacting with businesses and people. Always remember that all people on social media are potential customers and advocates of your product or service.

Being successful on social media is about building a voice for yourself, your business and your brand – that is trusted and respected. Social media may be ‘free’ but it takes time and dedication on your part to actually establish and maintain a presence and tone of voice on social media – there’s no ‘quick fix’.

Over time, through discussion and sharing content you will hopefully become seen as a recognised ‘voice’ in your specialist field by fellow tweeters. Sharing snippets of helpful information, giving advice or even showing people what you’ve been doing enhances their perception of you and you begin to build trust and recognition. Be honest and sincere and you will build a rapport with your followers – they are then more likely to trust you and then even more likely to recommend you to their friends and colleagues.

Social media is a great way to build a reputation for your business as it’s quick and easy to share and inform but it also gives your customers a chance to talk to you direct. Keep an eye on what other people, across all social media are saying about your name, company, or brand and if there’s a problem, get in touch and see if you can fix it or if they’re singing your praises – share it.

Promoting yourself

Earlier I said don’t shout about your product or service, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t promote what you do. Show people what you’ve been up to by including a photo directly in your tweet and ask people for feedback or tweet an interesting fact linked to what you offer. This initiates conversation in your work and can then lead to people favouriting, retweeting or even following you and is a much more acceptable way of promoting yourself than saying ‘I have this – buy it!’ and don’t forget if someone sings your praises, RT and credit them – make them feel good and important to your business – they then potentially become an ‘advocate’ for you – something that money can’t buy!

Specialist twitter hours

In addition to just tweeting to your followers during the day, groups of like-minded people have created a variety a ‘hours’ that enable you to chat with businesses or individuals in a form of ‘soft’ networking. There are a huge number of twitter ‘hours’ available and these are generally divided into two categories – those based on a specialist service like weddings for instance, and those that are based on geographical location. Our local geographical ‘hour’ is #NorfolkHour which takes place on Mondays’, Wednesdays’ and Fridays’ from 8:30pm – 9:30pm and has a wide range of interesting businesses and individuals to listen and engage with. Sometimes there’s even live meet-ups called #tweetups where groups who’ve spoken on Twitter can actually meet in person. There are obviously other local ‘hours’ like #GYhour and #KLHour, in addition to #NorfolkHour so it’s best to search and see which are best for you – everyone’s friendly and always open to new individuals or businesses joining in.

So remember don’t shout, but listen, engage and share content with fellow tweeters -from discussion and conversation comes recall of you as a person or business and hopefully recommendations. Happy tweeting!


Article by Paul Kirk – www.paulkirkdesign.co.uk

If you want help with any of your social media or you need help planning your social media strategy don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at http://paulkirkdesign.co.uk


 

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