This Might Seem Obvious, But Don't Forget To Support Your Supporters
It can be easy to forget the social aspect of social media if you are in the groove and doing it well from the standpoint of creating content. I made a joke in my last post about having a little writer’s block, and when writer’s block isn’t a problem and the creative juices are flowing you might be posting, writing, creating at a furious pace and forgetting the most important rule - engagement. Yep that’s the rule. You have to engage - you really need to be social on social media.
But it goes beyond just being social for the sake of it.
Now listen, if I follow Jennifer Lopez on Twitter and I like 100 of her tweets in a row I don’t expect her to know who I am. JLo has 45.2 MILLION followers on Twitter, and she only follows 1831. She’s an extremely famous artist and she’s an extreme example I’m using to illustrate a point, and that is you generally should NOT take it personally when someone doesn’t follow you back. A follow for follow approach isn’t inherently beneficial and it’s generally a weak mindset. Be worthy of followers and you’ll get your own is the proper mindset - earn it. If I like JLo I should follow JLo - or not - that’s up to me. But I wouldn’t follow and then unfollow her if she didn’t follow me back or acknowledge me. That’s silly.
Now here’s where it gets a little trickier. I have to say that if I support someone with a modest following like a local business in my community and I like and share their stuff a lot they should notice. And if they get it they will. Pete at Chili Mustard Onions is a perfect example of this which I’ve written about. I didn’t set out to support Pete to get him to notice me, follow me back or support what I do. But he did all of those things, and I’ll always be a loyal fan of his restaurant as a result. If Pete hadn’t recognized me the way he did the very first time I walked into CMO (which he did) I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But if I was a regular contributor to his success over a long enough period of time and no one on his team ever acknowledged it? Hmmm… Maybe I’d start to get annoyed or at the very least be less motivated to continue following or go out of my way for them. Now, I don’t help people only to get reciprocated - that’s lame - but you do reach a point that it’s nice to feel a bit appreciated isn’t it? Gaining a real and loyal fan who takes real action on your behalf is gold. If you are too aloof to recognize that and support those people right back in some way you’ve got the wrong attitude and probably not just on social media. You might not be in business for long with that behavior.
So pay attention. Don’t just reply as an exercise - take note of who the regulars are. The people who are helping make it happen for you and your brand. Love on them. Find out what they do and support them back! Once again, do it sincerely and be intentional about it - DON’T just do it as an exercise. That’s how you build community - that’s how you build a business! SUPPORT YOUR SUPPORTERS.
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com.
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