Are you sick and tired of being told that social media is the holy grail of marketing and that if you’re not on every platform documenting your every thought that your business will fail? Yeah, me too.
But the reality is… social media is a necessary evil. However, it’s not the main thing. It’s just one piece of the whole marketing solution. And if you really hate the thought of posting one more thing to Instagram, then you’re doing it wrong.
Social media is a tool – nothing more. The goal of your social media marketing should be to drive people back to your web site. If you’re just posting funny pictures and inspirational quotes, you’re doing your audience a disservice. They want to hear from YOU. You’re the expert. You know what’s going on in your niche, so post that information on your web site and tease it out on your social media channels.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with sharing content from other people but let’s be frank… If your audience wants to hear from those people, they can subscribe to those channels on their own. Don’t oversaturate your audience with other people’s content. Post more of your own content so your brand and your voice speak the loudest.
Three Words: Own That Shiz
Your web site belongs to you. Facebook and YouTube don’t own it. They can’t take it away from you. The files, the content, the images… those all belong to YOU. Stop neglecting your best online asset!
Here’s something to ponder… if your favorite social media channel suddenly shut down your account, would your audience know where to find you? Would you lose valuable content?
Building a strong social media channel is definitely a great marketing tool, but it should never be a place where you store original content. It should be the place you advertise your content and then it should lead back to your web site. Always. You can post snippets of content without links from time to time but the original source for all your content should be your own web site. When you consistently direct people back to your website, they will have no trouble finding you outside of social media. In fact, you’ll even start to see more direct traffic coming in because they will start coming back by typing in your domain name.
When you bring people out of a social media channel – even for a brief moment – you are capturing their attention.Don’t waste that moment with a meme or the latest Lolcat photo. Provide value and show your expertise on that topic. When you do that consistently, you’ll have a follower for life.
