Everyone
is talking about the power of Social Media and its ability to reach the
farthest corners of the World. Social media gurus have created a new job market
to advise those who have no idea by building a base of followers on Twitter,
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Boomerang.
There
is absolutely no doubt in the fact that reaching out directly to a group of
followers is the only way to deliver your message quickly, efficiently and
without too much wastage. Traditional marketers and advertising agencies are
scrambling to hire a group of young men and women who understand this medium. Businesses
are setting aside separate marketing budgets and looking for young “experts” for
this new medium of communication.
And
yet the time honoured principles of marketing remain unchanged – if you have a
good, credible message, you will be noticed and if your product or service
fulfils a needed or perceived demand at an acceptable price, you will get
customers. The medium of communication is the only change that is taking place
in the brave new World of social media.
Understand the medium well
Twitter
is an easy yet very complex medium to work with. It is very easy to start
tweeting but it is a challenge to keep your message limited to only 140
characters. Once you are able to communicate in the restricted word limit, you
will realise how cogent and pithy your communication can become.
Instagram
is an incredible platform for photographs and Boomerang is for GIF files. The
fastest growing segment on Facebook are the forty plus generation as the young
move to more exciting platforms. In addition there is of course LinkedIn which
is now gaining a lot of traction amongst the professionals.
And
then there are the blogs. Everyone has a lot to say to a select group of people
so how will they get heard in all the noise and the clutter where millions are
expressing their opinions every Nano second?
The
first step is to set up your account with a carefully selected your photograph
and background and establish your own security norms on every platform. There
are many sites that will help you to understand your followers and unfollowers.
It is definitely worth your while to visit some of these sites to understand
the social media analytics that is available for free.
Decide on the subject / subjects that you wish
to Tweet / Instagram about
This
is important. If you decide to tweet on any subject, remember that you must
have enough to say and say it with confidence and credibility. The subject is
not the issue. That is your choice. What you say is important for your large
base of followers on Twitter or Instagram – talk of interesting things to your
potential followers. Quoting today’s breaking news is not necessarily a great
idea to start with.
Followers
will “follow” you but your challenge will be retain your followers. Remember
that while it is very easy to follow you, it is equally easy to unfollow you.
Build a database of what you want to say
Once
you start to “speak” on this medium, you will be surprised at how soon you run out
of things to say. It would help to create a data base of what you want to say
on your selected subject(s). Keep making a note of your thoughts so that you
don’t forget these. Once you have your data base ready, communicating becomes
easy and you have a lot to speak about!
The
life of each message if a few seconds given the speed at which messages are
being sent out by others – therefore, don’t hesitate to repeat your message
again and again because your audience may have missed out your communication.
Avoid
using foul language and stay away from controversy. If you don’t like someone
else’s communication, “unfollow” the person instead of reacting on an open
platform.
Communicate frequently
It
is important for people who read your Twitter / Instagram feed to see you
regularly to stay connected. Your followers must feel that they are connected
with you.
Therefore,
based on your own trial and error, you will be able to understand the best time
that your communication is read. I found that my Tweets / Instagram messages are
read, retweeted, liked or favourited in the mornings at around 7 am, in the
late morning around 12 noon and in the evening around 7 pm. Remember that your messages
are reaching a global audience and time zones need to be factored in. I have
also found that it is better to tweet three or four tweets / Instagram messages
at a time. When you do this, you get a “significant share of page” for a few
moments for new followers to notice you and hopefully start following you.
When
people respond to your messages, it is a good practice to respond to them. An
engaged follower will “favourite” or “retweet” much more frequently, thus
spreading your message to a large follower base.
However,
I am not suggesting that you thank every follower that you have or question
every follower who has “unfollowed” you!
Retweet
The
general unwritten custom in the twitter world is if someone requests you to
retweet, you do so without wondering why you should give access to your
followers. Of course if you find the content objectionable or if someone is
trolling you, you are within your right to block such a follower. There is
nothing that could be as exciting in the world of social media as seeing your
tweet being retweeted or your post being liked by a large number of your
followers.
Don’t
compare the number of your followers with film stars, politicians or cricket
stars. They are public personalities and people follow them so that they don’t
miss out on any aspects of such high profile lives even though they may not
have anything significant to say! More than 95% of people have less than 1000
followers.
Build
your base of followers slowly but surely. From a small base you will suddenly
see a lot of people following you and your base will grow every day.
Happy
Instagramming and Happy Tweeting!
*******************
The author is the founder Chairman of
Guardian Pharmacies and the author of the best-selling books, Reboot. Reinvent.
Rewire: Managing Retirement in the 21st Century; The Corner Office; An Eye for
an Eye and The Buck Stops Here - Learnings of a #Startup Entrepreneur.
Twitter: @gargashutosh
Instagram: ashutoshgarg56
Blog: ashutoshgargin.wordpress.com |
ashutoshgarg56.blogspot.com
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