“I’ve got my business set up, my website’s ready to go and now I just need to get started with social media. How do I make a big splash?
This is another common question I receive in my inbox from Odyssey subscribers responding to the question I ask when you sign up. I wrote a brief response in part 2 of this month’s Odyssey but I wanted more space to give a more comprehensive and useful answer.
After 6 years online full time, much of those spent feeling my way around and getting to grips with social media and the never-ending stream of new tools, I have learned a thing or two about how best to use it to market a location independent business or online venture. There is one thing you should know, before we get into the nitty gritty, and it’s this:
There is no automated, secret magic bullet to make a big splash. Social media is simply another channel to enable you to build relationships. It functions in the same way building relationships does with any other channel…slowly, steadily, and with mutual respect and patience.
The main difference with social media as a channel is that it allows these relationships to be from anywhere in the world, unconstrained by location which makes the pool you fish in just that little bit larger.
With that caveat out of the way, here is the advice I impart whenever I’m asked by clients or subscribers about how they can get started with social media, launch their new thing with a big splash there and make an instant impact…
There’s an important concept I’d like to start with which I call “Circles of Influence”. We all have them – they are the groups of people who influence you and who you may have varying degrees of influence over too. Consider your existing network. You may have…
- Close family
- Extended family
- Close friends
- Work colleagues
- Old uni friends
- Old school friends
- Sports team mates
- Pub mates
- Facebook “friends” or acquaintances
Note: With the exception of that the last point, all of the above are offline. If you’re on Facebook and/or Twitter, then some of these may also be online contacts too.
Step 1: Start With What You’ve Got
When you’re getting started, you can only start with what you’ve got – and you’ve already got existing circles of influence. So start there.
It’s easy to think that all you need to do is get one of the A listers to tweet your link or write about you – back in the day when we started, that’s how we got many a big boost – but the signal to noise ratio is now so great online, and the A listers get so many similar requests that you’d be lucky to get anything more than a polite “Thanks, but no” response from many of them.
So strike that off your list for the moment…it’s just not likely to happen. Instead tell the people in your existing circles of influence what you’re up to, how you can help and who you can help and encourage them to spread the word for you. Instead of a big wave, start with a little ripple.
While they may not be the right fit for what you’re doing, they could well know someone who is. If they never know, there is ZERO chance of passing it on to people who may just be interested.
And make sure you ask them directly to connect you with connections of theirs who they think may be interested. You have to be clear, direct and specific when asking for connections and contacts – people aren’t mind readers so make it easy for them to connect you.
Remember, all big waves started with a little ripple. So that’s step 1. Step 2 is somewhat more complex because it involves strategy and planning.
Step 2: Put Relationships First
Build relationship-building into your social media strategy from the start.
The key to social media is consistency and persistence. If you dip in and out you’ll get less noticeable, if any, results. If you expect things to happen quickly, you’ll be sorely disappointed; if you only use social media tools as a one-way announcement megaphone, don’t expect it to do much for you either.
None of the above are effective strategies for building solid, two-way relationships built on trust or integrity – whether you’re doing it online or off. Social media tools can be great for spreading something like wildfire – but only the right things get spread like this. Unless your idea is one of these things, be in it for the long haul.
You must be prepared to put in the time and effort to build relationships online, using tools like Twitter and Facebook to better connect with and communicate with people. This is the key to making a big splash; it’s also the key to getting an A-lister to support your venture.
Build up the relationships long before you might want or need to call on them to help – and if that’s your primary reason for building that relationship, don’t be surprised if that person susses out your intention long before you even get a chance to get cozy with them.
Step 3: Get creative and create win-wins
If you want to even be in with a chance to create a big splash with your new thing, it must satisfy 2 requirements before it’s even got a sniff of a chance…
- It must be different, unique, creative, inspiring and move people to want to do something.
- It must be a win-win (or even a win-win-win).
If you’re launching yet another blog about lifestyle design or how you quit your job to do something different, you better make damn sure you’ve got a truly unique spin on it which offers something people haven’t already seen or felt before.
If you’re launching a new product and you want others to help you promote it, an affiliate programme might be fine but they’re so over-used today and – this is my latest theory – less and less of an effective motivator to encourage support from others. So you need to be creative to get people on board. What win-win scenarios can you create and offer and why should people care?
You’ve hopefully got the idea by now. There is no magic bullet to get started and make an instant splash on social media.
Despite the real-time, super speedy nature of all social media tools, the reality is that relationships take time to build. Sure, the tools can help break down some barriers but time cannot be sped up unfortunately. As the parable goes, even though fast and instant is what people want and expect, slow and steady wins the race.
