I’m over in Sydney at the moment, and was having a meeting with someone the other day, who asked me if social media works for business. Well the short answer to that is No and the long answer is yes.

What do I mean by that?

Well, we are finally in a place where most businesses ae considering using social media, or already “DO” social media. And it doesn’t work. Why is that? Well, mostly because they don’t have a strategy for it, it is not part of their strategic plan, it is just something they do, and they don’t “do” it very well.

Most businesses social media is all “me,me,me” – look at me, buy my stuff. People, purlease! The clue is in the name. People do not go to social media to be sold to. They go to be entertained, inspired, informed, educated. Not, in fact NEVER ..sold to.

You need to be cleverer than that. You need to be THE goto place for your industry/geography. You need to create your brand on social media so that people know who YOU are. They don’t want to deal with faceless corporations, they want to KNOW the brands they associate with. And they want that to be worth their time.

There are 2 big things you need too think about for your social media in 2018. Firstly – if you aren’t doing video you are missing out big style on FB. Now don’t panic, if you are not someone who is comfortable in front of a camera then there are other ways you can achieve the same effect – and we will talk about that in a later blog.

Secondly – do you know when to post? Do you know what time of day your posts get seen the most, do you know when they get the most interaction – and which days of the week? The only way you can possibly know this is to post at all the different times and days of the week consistently for several weeks at least. You can look at ‘average’ stats of course, and that will help – but the only way to TRULY know is to use your own accounts as the evidence.

Do you have time to spend 4 weeks on social media posting at multiple times of day across 7 days and across all social media to find out? Do you have time to study the constant changes of algorithm to make sure you are on top of the changes and know you are implementing the right strategy ? Nope – didn’t think so. Which is why I say social media CAN be a waste of time for business.

However, if you know all of the above and can implement it, and react quickly to the changes, have a strategy which engages your audience and gives them real value, and if you are in it for the long term – and don’t expect miracles on day one – then yes. Social Media can be a big influencer and support your business development and customer acquisition and retention strategies.

It’s all change again in 2018. The strategies you used last year won’t work this year. We are currently working on implementing new strategies for all our clients to make 2018 their best year yet.

If you need some help with this and want a chat – reply to this email. I offer 3 free 30 min strategy sessions a month – so grab yours before they go.