Do you want your audience to sit up and take notice of the posts you share on social media?
Then please read on, as I want to share with you two words that can help you make all the difference with your social media content.
This is one subject I’ve addressed in my videos over on Instagram at IGTV – you can check them out here .
Here’s the episode that covers this subject:
And here are the words, if (like me!) you prefer to read:
I’ve been doing a lot of training with businesses recently who want to get better at their social media, and who want to be able to see results from the effort they’re putting with their social media.
I help them focus on 3 main areas: strategy, audience, and content.
From the content perspective, one thing that I’ve noticed my clients (before I work with them!) and so many other businesses doing is posting business-related news or updates that they presume are of interest to their audience. They’ll post them on social media (or share them in an email.) They say something like “Oh, exciting update.” Or, “Oh, this is really exciting.” Or, “This is interesting.”
The content they’re sharing in these updates might be a piece of news or might be a development for their business or in their business that is, indeed, exciting and interesting to them.
BUT – here is the all-important question- is it interesting to their audience?
When you’re sharing a piece of news that’s exciting to you and your business, is it really exciting for your audience?
Say, for example, you are at an event and you let people know that you’re at an event, is that exciting for them, really, that you’re at this event?
Or maybe someone’s visiting you – is that exciting?
Maybe you’ve got a new website for your business and you share this email going, “Yay, it’s really exciting. We’ve got our new website. Check it out.”
Well, why? Why should they give up precious moments of their time to check out your website?
Why is it exciting news for your audience? It’s exciting for you as a business because, presumably, you are hoping that having this new website is going to help you grow your business, but what value is it bringing to your audience? (And there might be some value – like more easily navigable, or new freebies to download – but just saying ‘it’s exciting -check it out’ doesn’t explain that!)
How is it exciting for your audience that you are speaking at an event?
As it stands, it isn’t. As it stands, sharing that you’re speaking at an event is, to put it bluntly, taking up their time and their energy to read or hear about you and it could just come across as being a little bit self-centred.
They might be vaguely interested and it does class you as an expert, so it could be a potentially great update …
So how can we share news like this AND serve our audience and provide value at the same time?
Luckily, this is a really, really simple challenge to sort out!
This is where the two words I mentioned in the title come in.
Next time you’re in this situation – think about the post that you want to share, or the email that you want to share, or even a blog, for example, or a Facebook live.
Think about it, or maybe you sketch it out, and then use these two words to evaluate it. “So what?”
So, say your post was going to be, “I attended this amazing event today. It was really exciting.”
Now test that post – say to yourself, “So what?”, from the perspective of the customer.
This makes you think, “how is that relevant to my audience?”
It could be that you’re learning loads of stuff that you’re then going to share with them or the learning is going to make you better at what you do (which
will benefit them.)
It could be that you’re meeting some amazing people that you will be able to call upon in future to share some free content (which will benefit your audience).
It could be that you’re getting ideas and inspiration for the business (which will help your audience with new products/ services for them.)
It could be that you’re actually out there buying stock for the business that your audience will see in your stores, or you’re looking for new suppliers of your food and drinks for your hospitality business.
Do you see how that simple test can help you switch what was a mundane, easily-ignorable post into one that is going to encourage your audience to sit up and take notice?
The minute you start triggering ‘what’s in it for me’ for your audience then your updates becomes much more relevant, actionable and shareable than just boring old pieces of news that they have to work out the relevance of.
I can’t tell you how much your posts will suddenly stand out from the crowded online space when you do this. I was just on Twitter, and I scrolled through my home feed, just for a couple of minutes and I saw two posts were both just, “Oh, today, I’m at … ”
And my response is – “Really? You’re telling me you’re there, but you’re just, in effect, wasting my attention and my energy to tell me that you’re there and you’re not giving me anything in return. You’re not telling me why it’s relevant to me. You’re not engaging me. You’re just sharing something that has no value for me.”
Is that really how you want to make your audience feel about you?
So I really hope that’s been helpful. I would love to hear your comments and questions in the comments,