Everyone uses social media differently. I tell each of my students that they will all have their own social media swing. I like to use a baseball analogy when I discuss social media. It helps to illustrate my many points. Here’s the bottom line: they have to find out what works for them and their business and follow that course of action.
When someone steps up to the plate to bat, I am referring to baseball, they need to find their own sweet spot to hit a home run. No one can tell them what that will be. It has to be discovered. It’s like that with social media to. There are various social networks that can be used. But to use social media effectively for business, one has to discover the right applications and the right mix that will work.
So what is the right mix? That depends on the goals and outcomes that one wants to achieve. Each social network can connect one to a different group of people. Each social network can be used to achieve different results.
Take Twitter for example. It can be used to gather news. It can be used to connect to others. It can be used as a micro message system. It can be used to drive traffic to a certain website. At 140 characters or less, Twitter may be limited in the amount of text that can be included; but what it lacks in size, it makes up in usefulness and viral ability. Your reason for using Twitter can be very different than someone else.
How you use Facebook might be very different than how I use Facebook. You may just want to use Facebook to help your clients feel better about doing business with you. You might just want to use Facebook to connect with other businesses and form strategic alliances. Or you might want to use Facebook to market your products or services to your customers.
There are many ways that these social media applications can be used. How people use these social media applications is as different as the people who use them. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to do it a certain way. What works for me might not work for you. You have to find your own swing.
I tell my clients that it can take them a year or more to get really good at using social media for their businesses. Now don’t get me wrong, I make sure that they have a great understanding of the basics, but it is up to them to discover and determine what will work for their business. They can still learn a lot by looking around at others are doing. But in the end, they have to see what works for them and make their own way.
Furthermore, I encourage my clients to try to be different so that they will stand out from the crowd. If they do their social media just like everyone else, they won’t stand out and see different results. So if you see someone do something that really works and it falls flat for you when you do it, don’t feel bad. Try something else. You may discover that this other way is a better fit for you. There is no one size fits all in social media. Discover your sweet spot and hit your own home runs.
