by Karla Peppas
I grew up in Mississippi, where the women are Southern Belles with good manners and know how to shoot a shotgun. The other thing Southern women know how to do is spread the news. Word spreads fast if someone has a new love interest, knows about a special sale or has a juicy piece of gossip!
All over the world, since the start of mankind, we’ve been communicating with one another through drawings, body movements and verbal stories passed on from one generation to the next. We’re relationship beings; socialization and communication are a part of our DNA.
Social media takes our interactions and magnifies them online. Basically, social media is word-of-mouth on speed! With traditional media, it takes a large input to have a small output. With social media, you can have a small input (with the right person!) and have a large output.
To get the most out of social media, you’ll want to focus on quality over quantity. Creating engaging content that people will share and comment on is a large goal with social media marketing.
When creating content for your social media channels, keep this in mind: the same type of information and conversations that interest people offline will also interest them online. If we went to lunch together and all I did was talk about myself, I doubt you would ever want to have lunch with me again anytime soon. The same is true with your business’ social media presence. You don’t want to make it all about you. Instead, create valuable, interesting content and then sprinkle in specials or information specific to your business.
If you’re still not sure about social media, here are several good reasons that might change your mind:
- Social media allows you to build a loyal following
- Communicate information to your customers/fans
- A place to listen to what the online community is saying about you
- Maintain top-of-mind awareness
- Deepen customer relationships through engagement
- Improve search marketing results – your social presence now plays a large role in SEO!
If you’re not currently using social media for your business, what are you waiting for? It’s not going away and it can have a lasting impact on your business. As long as there are darlins and hearts being blessed in the South, there will be a need to promote your business in your community – it just so happens that your community is online!
