WHY… THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IN SOCIAL MEDIA

The question for most businesses leaders is not “if” they should be using social media. There are far more important questions to both ask and answer.

Did you know that on average 98% of the people who “like” a business Facebook page will never visit the actual page again? They may only see it in their newsfeed “if” the brand is lucky and Facebook’s edgerank algorithm determines it is worthy of a view in the newsfeed of their fans.

Competing for eyeballs

As more and more brands jump on the social networks there is no shortage of tweets to read, Instagram photos to view, videos to watch and blogposts to learn from. Every brand seems to have the product you need, the community to join and the answer to all of your life and business problems.

Unfortunately many brands and small business owners have no clue how to engage using social media. They forget that social media is about people, relationships and conversations that bring value.

They hop on Twitter and assume it instantly becomes their one way highway to spam the world. They don’t think twice about spamming our email inbox, LinkedIn messages, Twitter direct message stream and the list goes on.

If there is a route to your inbox and eyeballs the spammers are going to find it. The social networks are going to offer them a paid track to get their ads in front of you one way or another.

Competing for our eyes, ears, minds, hearts and overall attention is becoming more challenging each day.

Is it working?

The question is this… is it working? What do you think of the people who blast the same ads in your face daily? What about the people who preach quality over quantity yet auto tweet 24/7 the same tweets every day? What about the brands that beg you to like their page, join their community, follow them on Twitter or read their blog? My guess is most of them drive you crazy.

Are they inspiring you to follow them? Are they inspiring you to click? To like? To read? To engage? Or are they doing just the opposite?

The reason is they are not answering the most important question in your mind. The question is WHY.

Let’s turn this question around now. Let’s talk about your community, your target audience, colleagues, partners, friends and future customers.

I’m going to make this simple and give you the question and the answer.

The most important question you should be asking when using social media for business is… WHY!