Is it just me, but on Facebook, there seems to be a lot of fan pages, but not a lot of active fans? Your friends are pretty engaged. They post stuff and make comments and toss pics up. But on fan pages, there seems to be less engagement. Perhaps it is because everyone wants to have friends. But who wants to hang out with a company?
Ashley: “What are you guys doing this weekend?”
Ben: “Oh, we’re headed over to hang out at the offices of Blankenbutt and Napscracher.”
Ashley: “I love those guys. Took the kids over there last night. They were doing inventory. They gave me a sales talk while we waited. It was pretty cool.”
Many companies are working to put a face on their fan pages. Even if thay talk about doing inventory. Whatever you do, just be yourself and make it interesting. If your people don’t get involved and become the face of your company, aka, be human, then you have a Facelessbook fan page. Same with other social media and networks.
“So what if our people aren’t interesting? What if we’re a bunch of dullards who just happen to be amazing at what we do, but not great with this social networking stuff? What if we don’t want our people wasting time on Facebook? What if there are legal concerns about what we can post?”
What if you go out of business because your competitors figured out that this is the reality, not of the future, but of the now?
One good rule seems to fit most of these questions: If you wouldn’t say it or do it in front of your mom or in the middle of a shopping center, don’t do it on Facebook. But maybe that’s just me.
The main thing about social media is, it’s basically a digital way to do what the average business owner used to do when a customer came into their store: have a conversation with them. Talk about what they want to talk about. Provide them something they want and will come back to get again. Social business is about finding new ways to talk with people. If they like the conversation and they need what you are selling, then you have a customer.
As Seth Godin says, “Don’t have meetings about your social media strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.”
Want to learn to ride a bike? Get on one and start peddling.