In a recent meeting an executive shared how messages from some of his connections on social media are a turn-off. Are you turning off your buyers before they buy?
In our early presentations about social media, marketing and social media consultants focused a lot on how the average marketer could manage to have a presence on social media – in addition to everything else they were doing. We talked about how to create content and how to use automation in the form of apps and tools to get your messages out on multiple platforms.
Some people took our advice and began populating the same messages everywhere. What they tweeted on Twitter appeared on their Facebook page and on their LinkedIn profile. Their messages streamed into news feeds and some of them dominated the pages with the sheer volume of their messages. From a marketing standpoint, this seemed impressive at first, but as time has gone on and social media has been adopted by more and more marketers, the quantity and repetition of messages has become overwhelming for many buyers.
Research has shown that buyers like it when a company makes their information available on social media. It makes them feel that they are in control, according to psychologists (see Is Your Social Media Marketing a Turn Off? by Eric Wright on Inc.com). But, according to Wright, when a marketer pushes messages in front of buyers too much, it’s a turn off.
In an article in ForbesBrandVoice, Turn Off the Social Media Noise, Mike Tittel calls for marketers to curate content, not just broadcast messages. Curation done well requires one who “finds and shares things of real value, whether because of their inherent beauty or truth, or because they are exquisite examples of a particular genre.” It’s not about pushing out tons of messages to stay at the top of online search results, but rather it’s about adding value for your buyers by filtering valuable information for them.
The nature of inbound marketing is that buyers find the seller when they need to. The great content and information that a seller posts online attracts buyers when they are “hot” to buy.
How do you know when your social media messages are too much? Talk to your customers and prospects. Ask them if they notice your messages. If they have seen what you write, do they enjoy them? Do they want more or less? When you have the answer, act on the information you receive. Make sure that your social media marketing isn’t turning off your buyers!