Social Media Business Power

          There are an estimated 7.5 Billion people on the earth today. Facebook has about 1.5 Billion users, Instagram has over 400 Million users, and Twitter has 320 Million users. There are approximately 2.22 Billion social media accounts active in these, the top three social media platforms. I became interested in social media as an LDS Missionary. I was in one of the initial pilot missions that attempted social media missionary work for my church. We saw an incredible boost in the work from social media usage. I recently read a book, The Tao of Twitter, that provides incredibly simple, but effective, ways to boost your business through social media. The book focuses on Twitter, but it much of what it teaches can be applied universally across all social media platforms.

For those of you who don't want to read the book, I'll provide the basic, most important lessons from the book on social media use.

1. Targeted Connections

2. Meaningful Content

3. Authentic Helpfulness

Targeted Connections:

You want to connect with people who have the same interests as you. Search topics and like people's posts about subjects similar to things you or your business is about. Go to your competitors and see who follows them. Follow the people who follow the competitors. What does your target audience "like?" Identify that, and begin interacting in those areas.

Meaningful Content:

You don't want to blast people full of crap. In the Facebook world, this means don't send people a dozen game requests a day (the main reason I unfollow people on Facebook). More than not spamming people, you want to post things that are useful and good. If your content isn't any good, you aren't going to connect. Are you an expert in your field, or are you posting unimportant, outdated, or unrelated rubbish?

Authentic Helpfulness:

People are tired of being sold to. Although I get on social media for business, I also get on it as an escape. I like to scroll, see people's lives, see some funny video, and I'm one of the weirdos that likes the controversial political posts, but I don't care about your multi-level marketing business. I don't want to buy health shakes, I'd rather watch a Tasty video about a bacon wrapped burrito. People, especially people with similar interests as you, have problems that you can relate to. If you can help someone, help them, whether it relates to your product or not. If a person views you as a helpful person from your previous interactions, and you post something about how your business will help them, they will trust you. Karma is also a real thing. If you help people, people will help you. If you post a question, people who you have helped are much more likely to help you than people you have ignored in your feed. Being really, truly, helpful on social media is the best way to grow your social media presence.

Personal Example:

A Facebook friend posted the other day on Facebook, asking what side projects people do to make money. I commented that I had a blog that both makes me money, and that I write about this very subject, people's side projects. The other people commenting were people who were passionate about their side projects, my target audience. I had meaningful content that helped these people. From that specific interaction, I made a $5 referral bonus to a free Grocery Rebate app which will help someone lower their grocery bill. I also helped a lady start a YouTube Channel, got a couple more blog subscribers, got more views on my YouTube videos which made me money, and I was able to network further, which is critical and hard to put a monetary value on. I also now know of a bunch of passionate people with side projects that I want to interview for a future blog post, which will help them market their business, and will help me advertise my blog to their followers.

Start Today:

I highly recommend the book, The Tao of Twitter. It has expanded my online presence tremendously, and in a way that it continues to grow without me even trying that hard. Although I've touched on the three most important principles from the book, I've barely scratched the surface. The book is easy to read, it has about 200 pages, and it is written to be more entertaining than most business books.

If you know of other business books or social media books, let me know! 

I'm always looking to learn more.