The Biggest Misunderstanding in Social Media

Marketing cosmetic surgery and cosmetic dentistry over social media has reached a point of maturity. Know how I know that?   Most practices have tried and failed with a content-based approach.  That means a lot of people would like a solution that creates a social network for them but they realize that making Facebook and Twitter...

Marketing cosmetic surgery and cosmetic dentistry over social media has reached a point of maturity. Know how I know that?   Most practices have tried and failed with a content-based approach.  That means a lot of people would like a solution that creates a social network for them but they realize that making Facebook and Twitter posts is the slow... actually extremely slow way to build a network. There is a breakaway group that is beginning to understand that the parent concept in social media is User Generated Content. That group is using strategies to actively network online.  Here’s a brief explanation.

One of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People is “Seek First to Understand, then Be Understood.”  It’s Habit 5. Old Dog Star Media clients easily will recall me telling them that media communicates one way. Two-way communication results in relationship building.  This is why two-way communication is the basis of sales. Put in social media terms, posts do not build relationships; exchanges build relationships. This can be a sales relationship or a networking relationship.  So, why was there such a land rush to post more Facebook and Twitter content? The answer: a misunderstanding of Habit 5. 

In sales talk, we say there are features and benefits. I always describe theses terms like this: Features are what is important to you.  Benefits are what what are important to the buyer.  You have to talk in terms of benefits to keep a person’s attention. You can’t assume what is important to someone. You have to engage them to find out. Engage in two-way communication. Apply this to social media and you realize that, in order to connect with someone (ie: network) you must be guided by their direct interest. So how do you know what that is? How about... they typed it? They wrote it! They generated the content in the form of a question or a comment.  So, to follow this line of thinking, to become involved in two-way conversations based on benefits that interest them, you need only follow the keyword.

The biggest misunderstanding in Social Media is that content leads to relationships. In a very low percentage of cases under special circumstances it does but in most cases it does not. The focus on using Social Media for productive marketing lies in user generated content.  Using keywords to profile that user generated content, no  matter where it is: comments on news stories, blogs, forums, social mediums and more... wherever people ask/answer questions or express opinions... THAT is where the networking potential lies.

It’s a big change to understand but this will be your experience will look like this if you don‘t adopt this thinking: You will become frustrated that all the Facebook and Twitter posts seem to get you nowhere. You will wonder how all this connectedness is happening and you feel left out. This is the equivalent of being at a big networking event and standing in the corner with a small group of people you already know. To connect, you need to mingle, listen for openings in conversations where you can be interesting and introduce yourself. That is what a keyword strategy will do for you.

Dog Star Media offers such a strategy with our Social Media Manager. Want to move past automated Facebook posts that get you no new friends into conversations located all over the web by keyword? Just email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com for more details.