So, Will Social Media Ever Work?

I often get asked about using social media to find clients.

In truth, the most effective away of growing your business is to use a mix of marketing methods (at least six) to reach your ideal clients.

You could be forgiven for thinking that marketing is just about social media. Many business service owners tend to make a beeline for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

But one of the difficulties with social media is down to the fact that it is all about being social – sharing, recommending and connecting. You can spend time and effort in building an online social presence, but when it comes to asking for ‘the order’ it just does not work for many service businesses.

Social media can be hugely effective if it is a part of a permission-based marketing effort, allowing you to build trust and credibility that, over time, converts to new clients.

If you are using or plan to use social media as a part of your marketing efforts, here are three key things to consider before you invest your time:

• Is your target market social? Some business services don’t lend themselves to social media, so don’t immediately jump on the bandwagon. If your target audience does not use social media to find services that they need, it will likely be a waste of time

• Use permission-based marketing at the heart of your social media campaign. Offer high value content, information and ideas to start relationships. If there is a follow-up system in place your efforts will result in leads, enquiries and conversations

• Don’t dabble with a piecemeal approach. Build a strategy that delivers specific outcomes – who is reading it and what action does your social media content prompt them to take?

The real lead generation benefit of social media is to get people who have expressed interest in your services onto your own email list to build a relationship, which will maximise the chances of them becoming a client.

If you spend hours on social media and are not getting that many clients change the way you use it. Apply these ideas and you will land more opportunities to win clients. Apply these ideas and you will generate more leads into your business.