Are you struggling with social media engagement? Struggling with building your audience? You have thousands of Twitter followers, maybe even 50 or 100 people who have clicked “like” on your Facebook page.
However, even with this early success you've seen in social media, people just simply aren't engaging with your brand? You are not feeling the social media love that others talk about.
Top 10 Reasons Why Your Audience Doesn't Like You
1. You are not engaging. You spend all day listening or retweeting. You are not genuinely engaging with your existing network. You are on the sidelines watching the game go on.
Tip: Engage. Have a conversation. Get in the game.
2. You are not providing value. Your website may lack content that resonates with your audience. Your tweets are well let's say, tweets. They look, smell and act like everyone else. There are more than 10 Billion Tweets sent in a year. Tweeting a simple tweet that looks and smells like every other tweeter will get you no where.
Tip: Provide value. Inspire and connect with your audience. Get in their head and learn who they are and what they need. Provide content that helps them solve real business problems. Provide tips that help them move their business forward with new skills.
3. You are not following people back. If you have people following you and you are sitting on your arrogant Twitter mountain thinking you don't have to follow them you might want to think again. This thinking drives me nuts. Show the love. Be a good friend.
Tip: Develop a follow-back strategy. There are different schools of thought on this. My personal recommendation is at minimum make an effort to follow people back. Don't sit high on your Twitter mountain with the expectation everyone owes you something. They don't.
4. You are not a good social media friend. You don't retweet. You don't thank people who show you love. You never follow back. You don't comment on other blogs in a genuine way. You don't thank people who comment on your blog.
Tip: Show the social love. Genuinely engage and make your audience and network know that you care about them. At minimum let them know you know they are there! Often times if I don't have time to thank all of my retweeters or send a series of #FF follow friday recommendations on Twitter I will send a couple tweets during the day thanking my network. I let them know I appreciate them and all the social love they gave me!
5. You are boring. Sorry folks but it could be you are just boring. I am seeing many people who have a boring profile picture, boring content. They are the same ones who sit all day and retweet news feeds of mortgage rates or market news. They are providing no value and not engaging.
Tip: Brand yourself. Understand your audience. Who are they and what do they need. Who are you and what can you offer them. Give your business and brand a personality. Dare to stand above the norm. If you shoot for status quo that is exactly what you will receive, if you're lucky. It may be less.
6. Your website stinks. If you are boring, your content is boring and your website stinks you have three strikes and you're probably already out of the social media game.
Tip: Social media is about conversation. Engage in conversation with interesting content, design and brand. Hire a web developer and freshen up your website. If you don't have the funds to do such then find a self-help site or teach yourself WordPress blog at minimum.
7. Your social profiles stink. If your Twitter background is the default and your Facebook Fan Page has no customization you once again are shooting for status quo.
Tip: Hire a consultant or an agency to spice up your profiles. If you don't have the funds the leverage an off the shelf service. There are several Facebook Fan Page engines you can use yourself that are affordable.
8. Your Facebook Fan Page is all about you. What are you doing to engage your audience?
Tip: Engage your Facebook audience. Have fun. Ask them questions? Do some research. Ask them what they need, what they want. Leverage the discussion tab to invite people to introduce themselves.
9. People don't know the real you. You are hiding behind an avatar (social media profile photo). You are not sharing the real you. You are using corporate speak. You aren't using video, no interesting blogs.
Tip: Let yourself shine. Try out video. Come out behind the avatar and let people get to know you. Don't be afraid of video. If you use video you will attract people who like you, people who want to business with you.
10. You are afraid. Because of what I said above you are afraid to come out and play in social media. You have been intimidated by the mean blog posts that are surfacing the net on social media gurus, wannabe gurus etc.
Tip: Don't let the bullies scare you! Be confident. Have fun. If you don't you are never going to make it in social media, business or life.
Your Turn!
What are you doing to build community? Are you really engaging? What are you doing right that others can learn from? What do you find most difficult in building and engaging with your community?
