Stop planting your stake on rented land
Looking to build a community?
Stop doing it on rented land.
I was at a conference for speakers recently, and one of the breakout sessions was headed by marketing and customer experience keynote speaker, Jay Baer.
His presentation focused on encouraging speakers to focus their marketing efforts on getting their audience off of social media and have them follow you in places that you own and control who sees what you write.
Specifically, he mentioned websites and subscriber lists.
He pointed out the fact that organic reach for content is at an all-time low and is only getting lower.
The reason is simple.
Social platforms have monetized visibility, and want you to pay for the right to have your content viewed by as many people in your audience.
As a business owner, the thinking on their part makes total sense, but the reality is that it sucks for us users.
Jay’s suggestion is to leverage social media in a way that creates awareness for your business and brand and directs audience members to sign up for your newsletters, courses and groups off of these platforms.
Get them off the rented land and onto your own property.
After listening to his presentation, I took this perspective to heart.
Once I got home from the conference, I immediately started re-working my social media strategy.
Over the past couple weeks, I have prepared over a year’s worth of social content with one clear and definable goal - let people know who I am and point them to my website.
Rather than create fresh content monthly, I decided to do what I suggest to all of my clients to do with respect to sourcing material for their posts.
I went through my old material and pulled interesting sentences and paragraphs and repurposed them as social posts.
By old material, I’m speaking about 5 cornerstone articles and my ebook, S.H.A.R.E. M.A.G.I.C.A.L. I.D.E.A.S.
I’ve spent so many years writing new stuff off the top of my head, it was a really interesting experience sifting through the already written stuff for content.
But, lemme tell you - it’s an AWESOME way to bank a ton of valuable, informative content in a short amount of time...
...although I did spend a ton of time finding the right photos that visually punctuate the sentiments of the stories I share.
I mean, of course I did - I’m a fuckin photographer over here, I care about the photos, :)
In the past, my calls-to-action were all over the place.
But with these evergreen social posts, I pointed them all in the direction of my website.
The vast majority of them point to my opt-in signup page, while others are pointed to my cornerstone articles, portrait galleries and client testimonial page.
I want people in my ecosphere where I control the way in which my audience is directed.
Now, does this mean I will never post any new social posts on the fly?
No, I plan on still creating social content, but it will be very timely and for a very specific reason. I also plan to pay a little more attention to Stories and live stuff.
Otherwise, my main goal is to drive people right here to my blog, where I can pontificate to my heart’s content and not worry if only .01% of my audience is seeing the material, :)
It’s for this reason that I’m asking you for a favor.
I ask that if you know anyone who would benefit from reading my blog, please encourage them to sign up. The more, the merrier, right?
Here’s where they can do that: www.johndemato.com/share-magical-ideas
I would greatly appreciate the assist on this, :)
As for your social media presence, I encourage you to evaluate what you’re getting out of it and how you can maximize the return on your investment.
Does this mean you need to do what I’m doing?
Of course not.
Everyone is in a different place with respect to their visibility levels online and it’s important for you to determine what your next step is based on the knowledge that you’ve received.
As far as I’m concerned, this is my next play for the foreseeable future, and based on the results over the course of the next few months, I’ll re-evaluate and go from there.
At the end of the day, we, as small business owners, are in the business of building relationships, whether it’s on social, your website, groups or in person.
I’m just looking to make some new friends in the best way I can, :)