Social media is often criticised for making us less mindful, for harming connection and for spreading misery. I think of it in the same way as money: merely a mechanism to achieve one’s goals. As a business tool, I think social media is vital. I’m an author, so it’s very important for me to reach new audiences all the time in order to promote my book. After I published my book, I developed a marketing strategy with a consultant and that helped me to define my essence and to identify my target market.
I hired a publicist to work on opportunities for me to appear in media to talk about my book. I appeared on TV on a morning show in July, as well as on a variety of radio shows. My book was sent to a number of journalists who read my book and wrote about it in reviews and blogs. Of course, I shared all of these articles and appearances on social media. It’s amusing to me that when I’m having a very quiet patch, that someone remarks about how much I’ve been up to lately. My social media seems to give a great impression of how busy I am even when I’m feeling stressed about things being so quiet.
I use many platforms to share my message as it’s clear to me that I’ll reach a broader audience that way. We all have our favourite few social media sites and I can’t assume that my target audience will only appear on the ones I like. In the beginning of the year I laid out a social media roadmap to plan what platforms I’ll use and how often I’ll post on each. I inserted a meeting reminder in my calendar for each one so that it’s easy for me to remember what is due when.
Many people propose planning in advance all the posts on all the platforms, but I find this too constraining. I like to talk about what’s topical for me and I don’t really know what I’ll be feeling and thinking about a few months in advance. I don’t always meet all the self-imposed social media commitments, but I get pretty close. There are some platforms that really don’t work well for me, so I focus on the ones that do. I need to be authentic and to work with what feels natural.
We all know that building engagement is important. If you are posting things and no-one is liking or commenting, then perhaps you’re not meeting the needs of your community. I can’t say that I’m an expert or that I have this all figured out, but I experiment a lot. I have tried Facebook polls recently which was an interesting experiment. I got some good participation and engagement on the first one but the second one fell a bit flat. Experimentation is really important to test what resonates with your followers. And it’s okay if something doesn’t work, it’s all part of learning and refining along the way.
People keep telling me that I have to do more video. I have a YouTube channel that contains a few clips and some extracts from my speeches. I haven’t yet done a Facebook live video and I know why. For starters, I’m afraid that I’ll stumble and say something stupid. I’m also afraid that I’ll look ugly and that everyone will notice my bad skin. I suppose I have a fear of being seen and it’s something I need to get over if I want to reach my dreams. I also struggle with what to say. What snippet of wisdom could I convey that is so important and special and what if no-one’s even watching?
As a writer, I love expressing myself in writing because I can really think about what I want to say. I can edit and check my grammar and make sure that it is meaningful and that it makes sense. I can polish my piece of work many times before unleashing it onto the world. Live video is the opposite and it scares me to be honest. I guess I need to see it as another experiment and give myself permission to fail a few times at first.
I can thank social media for so much free exposure and for connecting with so many people I would never have reached otherwise. Recently, I commented on a thread of a Facebook post and connected with another author. She’s based in Cape Town and I’m in Johannesburg, but as luck would have it, I was heading to Cape Town for training in September and we met up for coffee. We swapped books as many authors tend to do and I really feel that I’ve made a new friend. I loved her book, so I gave her a favourable review which hopefully boosts her brand. She did a blog post on her website to promote my book. Without social media, I wouldn’t have met her, read her book or got the opportunity for free exposure to her audience (which is more extensive than mine).
Many people criticise social media for all its ills. Yes, it is a time waster if you let yourself drift down the news feeds for hours a day. Yes, it can be a barrier for relationships and can prevent you from paying attention to your loved ones if you’re not careful. But, it can also offer so much. I’ve gained tremendous exposure with very little investment. I’ve connected with people I would never have met before. I’ve promoted other people’s businesses and had people do the same for me. As a business tool, I think social media is invaluable and I will continue to embrace all that it offers.