Rely on your people not on social media

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How many times did someone like what I posted or how many views did it get? Why do we care? Does it actually equate to something in the end or is it just a metric?

It feels good to say my post got thousands of likes and I guess in a way that's not a bad thing that means that real people saw a post you put out and decided to hit some sort of like button. You got their attention. But are they going to buy or are they going to engage in a discussion with you? Do you know who they are? How do you know that the next time you put a post out there that they will see it? Can you control what the social media giants decide to show to people and don't decide to show to people? It can feel pretty black boxy to me.

There are parts of the social media platforms that I like, but every time you're putting something out there you're hoping that people will see it and engage with you. They might have liked your page or started following you, but how long ago was that? You have no metrics on the individual person. I'm much more interested in areas where you have a subscriber base and you can see their individual interactions and can tailor messages for them and see trends as well. Like in email. That's a finite audience that somehow asked you to reach out to them and you have direct access to them when you want to get in touch with them. Or text messages. These are ways in which you can have a much more personalized communication that can hopefully lead to a sale.

But, how do you get this information? You need a lead generator on your website. You need to offer something for free in return for an email address. Offer something relevant to your business like a "Top 10 ways..." or "10 things you might not know about..." or offer access to a video or a course. Give them something for their email. Don't have them sign up for a newsletter... that's giving them basically nothing.

Now you're beginning to get a personalized list of contacts that you can learn from, reach out to, and hopefully sell to when the time is right.

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