“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
Happy 4th of July! I love this quote… it’s what freedom is all about… you can’t just receive freedom – you’ve got to achieve it.
Stop and think about that.
This is why social media is a little messed up. We have the freedom to say just about whatever we want… and yet it gets censored. This will bring up the whole debate of politics. But that’s not what I mean… I’m talking about your social feed for your business.
You write a post and maybe 1% of your list will see it. Yet, over and over, we create a post… put online… and wait to see if we get a thumbs up.
Why wait?
Because we’re trained to obsess over the thumbs. We want the thumbs… hearts… shocked face… you know – we obsess over interaction. And then we feel sad when no one comments because just 1% of our list sees it… we may even feel upset and discouraged. We can even feel angry because… “how dare they not show my post.”
Well, here’s some food for thought… We may have the freedom to post whatever we want but we did not EARN that freedom. We do not own Facebook. In fact we do not even pay for an account. We can pay for advertising or to boost our posts… but the actual freedom to share thoughts to a meaningful crowd does not exist. It is controlled. There are rules and algorithms created by people that restrict you. These rules can even change at a moments notice because you do NOT control them.
Where does this leave you?
If you want success in social media marketing you need to dig in, do the work, and earn your freedom. You need to create your own audience for your business. This is what I call the Infinity Marketing Machine!
Remember, you are given a great privilege when someone signs up to follow you. You need to treat this as an honor. This following is how you earn the freedom to communicate your message to a meaningful group of listeners!
I talked a little about this on Monday – but I thought it was worth a little more time to discuss due to our 4th of July freedom at “top of mind” time of year. We understand the concept of freedom but until you look at your personal world and see just how restricted your business messaging can become… freedom may seem like a guarantee BUT you do really need to achieve it when it comes to social media marketing.
Yesterday I talked about fun ways to collect names and gather them into pool of people. But that’s not where it ends. That’s the beginning!
Once you identify people that want to follow your blog, podcast, or vlog – you are at the start. But let me give you a little insight of what you can do with a meaningful following.
I sent an email out to our customers yesterday as a reminder that the 4th of July sees lots of people coming to visit our lake. Let’s take it easy and just stay calm, they’re novice boaters… so it’s best to just give way. “An extra minute at the dock can save you weeks in the repair shop.”
You know what happened? Today I had two people say… “Thank you for the reminder”.
This is not the type of email message that translates into money but it does build community.
Yesterday I also sent a different message to our boat club members that said “Hey we have a boat that opened up for the 4th” – The members that grabbed it were THRILLED. They really wanted to go for a boat ride because they had guests in town.
Again… not the messages that will drive direct cash flow – but without my list, I’d have to put a note on Facebook and “hope” that someone would see it. With my list I was guaranteed that ALL of my customers would receive it. Every single customer that I wanted to send a message to… RECEIVED it.
This is real world stuff going on here! Put in the hard work and freedom will be achieved! By the way, it took 10 minutes to make and send both emails.
PS: If you really want to build a bond with your customers… come back tomorrow!
Until then, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!
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