Hey friends, I have a rant followed by the infographic, as promised! One of the biggest annoyances in the world of marketing, is not having a real, live human being pick up the other end of that phone call, answer that email or social media direct message! It is imperative to maintain a human element in all marketing relations, including, content marketing.
It is important to learn from your audience, interact with them and present marketing in a way that is not an obvious sales pitch. If your business manages a Twitter page and you send out direct messages to anyone who follows, spamming them with a message suggesting, “Like my Facebook page or click here for your free e-book gift,” I know, I immediately unfollow (and I am not alone).
I have tested the waters a several times and responded to a few of these obvious, automated messages. Guess what? They never responded back. Are you kidding me? If you send a direct message, automated or not, you better have someone on the team available to answer questions, handle inquiries and keep that human factor alive! Please stop with the automated messages that sound robotic! This is not 2008 anymore. Remember that like everything on the internet, things change and practices evolve. Stop it!
Moving on, do not unfollow followers you sought out! Look, I get it. You want to build your Twitter or Facebook following up and have learned that many people do not utilize apps such as Crowdfire to locate those who are not following them back, so that they can in turn, unfollow. The result? You have ten times the following audience than the audience you follow. I would think this would be common sense (but in my experience, common sense is not that common). If you are a marketer, author or any other business that sells services or goods, don’t seek out my following only to unfollow me after you have obtained it! Guess what? I won’t buy from you. In fact, i will unfollow you. Hey, I might even write a content marketing article on a respectable SEO website and call you out on your unbelievably shady practice of making “friends.” What’s the number of your competitor?
Like white hat SEO driven by organic search results, be patient with your content and social media marketing. When done right, people will begin to subscribe to your blog’s email, follow your Twitter and Facebook pages without you initiating the relationship. When someone likes you or follows you without you first liking or following them, then and only then, is it okay to not extend a follow back. The difference? They sought you out. They likely are already aware of who you are, what you sell and want to know more. You didn’t seek them out for the sole purpose of spamming their feed with coupon deals, promotions and that lovely slap in the face of an unfollow!
End rant! And now onto the Infographic. Love it. Take a look!
