8 Laws of Successful Social Media Marketing

With the growth of social media, businesses and customers alike have had a unique opportunity to stay in contact with one another. Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter keep businesses in touch with their consumers. This can be a great opportunity for businesses. This is especially true for businesses that follows the rules. These rules are unspoken and are more like laws. You are not able to market on social media as you are through other forms of online marketing. If you approach your social media marketing campaign the same way that you approach other marketing campaigns then you will be doomed before you start. Unfortunately for many small businesses this is often the case. After they become frustrated because their marketing campaign is not working they usually just give up rather than trying something different. The reason that most small business owners fail on social media is because they do not follow these 10 laws.

1. The Law of Listening – Listening to what your followers on social media are looking for is key to your social media success. Many people try to post post post and not listen to what their followers are telling them. Generally, if you take the time to read what your followers are saying on your social media pages you will know exactly what type of posts and website content they like and what they do not like.
2. The Law of Focus – Do not stray from what it is that you do great. What is going to set your business apart and what is going to set you apart on social media is what differentiates you from your competition. In order to show your followers what sets you apart you need to stay focused on what you do best. Do not try to appeal to everybody as this will cause your message to be diluted and you will look like you do not do anything great. It is better to do one thing great then 10 things average.
3. The Law of Quality – This law is speaking directly to those businesses that purchase likes or followers. The only thing purchasing likes does for your business is it shows a large number of people like you on Facebook or follows you on Twitter. None of these likes will ever read your posts or become a customer. That is why it is much better to have 100 likes that all read, comment, like and share your posts than it is to have 10,000 purchased likes that will never even look at your page. Most of the purchased likes are bot type of accounts that are setup for the sole purpose to like pages when a company pays to have them.
4. The Law of Patience – This is an issue for most people in everyday life. We are a society that wants things to happen and we want it now. If you have this mentality when it comes to social media marketing then you are doomed. You must realize before you start that social media marketing is a marathon not a sprint. Over time if you are doing things right and posting content that your followers want to see you will begin to grow your base. Unfortunately, many small business owners give up on their social media marketing campaigns when things don’t blow up for them over night.
5. The Law of Influence – This one is important because it can really give your business a huge boost. Search for the people that are in your industry that have big time influences. Then do everything in your power to connect with them. Once you connect with them you need to produce content that shows them that you are an authoritative and interesting source. This will give you business contacts that have the ability to help you take your business to the next level.
6. The Law of Value – Here is where many people make a big mistake. They attempt to spend every minute that they spend on their social media accounts trying to promote their products and or services. This does not work. This annoys people and they eventually stop following your business. If you want to be successful with your social media marketing campaign then you must provide content that useful to your users.
7. The Law of Acknowledgement – This one has always baffled me. When it comes to social media accounts, many business owners think that they can just ignore people that they do not agree with. You would not ignore somebody that came into your business to ask you a question or complain so what makes you think you can do it on social media. It is even more important that you respond to people on social media accounts because online people love to share their negative experiences which can go viral and really hurt your business.
8. The Law of Availability – Many people post their business’s content on their social media pages and then they disappear. People may be commenting or talking about their content. However, the owner of the business or at minimum a representative of the business is no where to be found. This makes people feel like the business is ignoring them and they do not care. Business owners have a unique opportunity to reach out to their customer base and really show how they are customer service oriented.

If you own a business then social media gives you an opportunity that business’s in past generations never had. It gives you the ability to take your online business and give your customers the same customer service that you give to customers that come into your brick and mortar store.