Posted by Cynthia Boris
Social media can be a marvelous tool for not only keeping in touch with your current customers but for finding new customers as well. I say “can be”, because like all things on the internet it takes time, effort and a bit of luck.
If you’re just getting started, social media is not as easy to crack as it used to be. There are more people using social (which is good) but there’s also a lot more noise (which is bad). To keep spammers from taking advantage of the system, some social media networks control who sees what. Other networks are simply so flooded, you only have a narrow posting window before your content is off the page and gone forever.
So why bother? Because in 2016, every business needs a social media presence. A Facebook page says you’re serious about what you’re doing and that makes customers feel more confident. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? But a recent survey showed that 48% of shoppers check a brand’s social media pages before committing to buy a product.
Most people look at social to see if a company is popular. They also look to see how they interact with customers and if they update regularly.
You could argue that these statistics only apply to big brands, not to solo creatives but where’s the breaking point? They might not look at your Facebook page when you’re selling a couple of bars of handmade soap per month, but they’ll for sure look after a well-known blogger mentions how great your product is. Do you really want to wait until people are actively looking for you to start building out your social media pages? How would it look if you only started Tweeting two days before versus two months, or two years? Which scenario sounds like the work of a confident business owner and creator?
Before we go any further, you need to answer one question and you have to answer it as honestly as possible. Here it is:
How far do you want to take your business?
- Do you want it to become your only means of support?
- Do you want to become a nationally known brand name?
Or
- Do you want to keep it small and fun, earning just enough in sales each month to pay for your supplies?
They’re all good answers. There’s no shame in wanting to stay small and no ego in wanting to become the next Martha Stewart. But the answer to that question is going to decide how much time and effort you want to put into building a social media presence.
February is social media marketing month here on IndieMade. Each week, we’ll post a new, easy-to-implement tutorial for one of the top social media networks. We’ll tell you how to get started, what it can do for you and how to make the most out of the platform.
What you can do, is get involved. Ask questions in the comment sections and share your own tips and tricks. We’d also like to invite you to share your social media handles at the end of each tutorial so we can all follow and follow-back.
It all begins with my favorite social platform: Twitter.
So you don’t miss out, follow us at http://www.twitter.com/indiemade and we'll see you back here next week.
