Social Media Popularity Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Influence
Have you seen Facebook pages with over a million likes, but only have a few hundred likes on their posts and only ten or so comments? Then you see people with only a hundred thousand followers, but have tons of likes and comments on their posts. What’s happening here?
We’re seeing the misconception that a lot of marketers and entrepreneurs fail to see. Popularity isn’t everything. You may be popular but you have the following problems:
- Low engagement
- Low retention of visitors
- Low conversion
It’s actually possible to have more followers than your competitors but have less engagement and retention and lower conversion. There are a number of reasons. Maybe you’re not connecting well enough with your followers. Maybe your posts are dull. Maybe you’re not making calls for action. Or maybe you’re talking too much about yourself.
So just because you have more followers than your competitors doesn’t mean you’re necessarily performing better than them. You have to look at the other factors. For instance, a common occurrence on social media and even on blogs and websites is one-time visits. A bulk of your following is initially from curious and interested people who look at a few posts, follow you, and then soon stop caring about your brand.
Your goal should be to have regular visitors. So keeping your first-time visitors should be a mission to keep in mind. Satisfy their curiosity by posting interesting topics from time to time. Keep them engaged by asking them questions and making them participate in events, contests, and polls.
Five ingredients are necessary to build influence.
- Authority
- Value
- Connection
- Consistency
- Reward
Establishing authority is difficult. You can tell people you’re a doctor or an engineer, but that won’t necessarily make them believe or care about what you have to say. Building your authority takes time. You probably need the help of other authority sites or people.
Adding value is something you always have to work on whether you’re writing posts that inform or inspire laughter. Keep in mind that your audience remember you more when you provide them positive online experience. Of course, they also remember you if you’re awful, but that’s the path you’re not getting them into, right?
Connection is built through a number of steps. Make your audience the chief focus of most of your posts. Make it about them, not about your brand. Know their concerns and issues, and deliver. Ask questions. Respond! Responding is extremely important in building connection.
Engagement and then influence aren’t built without consistency. Don’t expect people to care about you if you only update your channels once in a month. Post updates every day on all of your social media channels.
People love gifts, freebies, discounts, and promos. But not only that. Other forms of reward come as simple as shout outs. A mere gesture of acknowledgment is enough for many of us to stay tuned and give back.
