Image credit: www.#business.vic.gov.au
Is Your Social Media #marketing Too Much About You?
If you have been around for a little while, and have created a good few blog posts that you have shared over social media, and also created some posts just to use on #facebook or #twitter etc. it will now be a good time to go back and revisit them.
Can I ask you a question? Looking back through your posts, can you see how much you have spoken about you and your company within the text. Now for my question – how much of your writing has been about your customer?
Something to talk about
We can all become a little jaded with our constant postings to social media. The desire to talk about how great our company is can be so overwhelming. We have a tendency to talk enthusiastically about how wonderful our product is, how well it is made, why we choose the best quality materials to make it/them with etc. It is something to talk about, right?
Can I let you in on a little secret here: You are not the customer. I will say again, you are NOT the customer.
Once you get this perspective into your head, you will start to look at your social media posts in a whole new way. Go back once again and look over your recent posts, but this time using a strangers eye. Ask yourself – how will this product help me? What advantage would buying this give me?
Your customers don’t really care about what you sell
You may think it is a bit harsh of me to say that your customers don’t care about your product, but they really don’t! All your customer’s care about is how what you sell can benefit them.
It is completely natural to want to rave about the high-quality design, components, or materials that go towards building your product, but your customer wont give a fig about any of that. They only want to know if it is going to help them solve a problem or resolve an issue they may have.
The only person who really cares about your business and the quality of your product is you. And probably your mum. That’s about it!
Make your posts about the people whose money you want
Like just about every other person on this planet, the only thing people are interested in are themselves. Keep this thought in mind, then go and take a look at the home page of your website. Go on, I can wait…… Looking at your site, would you buy from yourself? Be honest now.
You may have the greatest invention since sliced bread in your possession, but if your sales and marketing copy is only full of why your product is better than anything offered by anyone else, but offers nothing in the way of how your product can help your customer solve a problem, to borrow a phrase from The Big Bang Theory: then you would be if you were attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis. (Screwed).
Time for a re-write?
Here is a little challenge for you when you get some time. Scan through your posts and note down how many times you have used the words ‘our’,’we’, or ‘I’. Now do the same for the words ‘you’ and ‘your’.
How much have you been talking about yourself in your posts rather than your customer? If you have counted many more ‘we’ and ‘our’ than ‘you’ and ‘your’, then you have a problem that needs fixing. As a rule of thumb, there should be three times more ‘you’ and ‘your’ mentions than ‘we’ and ‘our’. Time for a bit of re-writing perhaps?
Exceptions where ‘weeing’ is acceptable
Just about the only time you can use the words ‘we’ and ‘our’ excessively would be when you are telling a story about yourself or your business. Maybe your are telling your customers how you came up with the idea for your product because you have experienced the same problem that they now have, and you are explaining how your product helped you solve your own issues. In this way, your customer can understand how it can help them too.
Try to be mindful when writing your future posts. Remember to focus on your customer, and resist the temptation to talk about yourself or your company. Put your focus on your customers needs, and show them how your product or service can solve their problems. After all, this is what your customers truly want from you.
