You may be doing it wrong…no, you are doing it wrong. Social Media

March 27, 2010  |   Posted in Blog   |   0 Comments   Tags: Facebook, marketing, Social Media, transparent, uncut

Ok campers, Social Media is becoming more & more prevalent for the builder crowd and that’s awesome.  Just a short two years ago it was nearly non existent but the lights are getting switched on and people are starting to realize its importance. This wont be another boring post about how
essential Social Media Marketing is to your business, I think you get that and quite frankly I’m getting tired of reading that shtick.

So there you are, coming in droves and appearing in my thread. Home Builders! I can’t say for certain but I think I’m connected to all of you or at least a fan of your pages. Way cool, but here’s the thing and I say this with nothing but love in my heart.

You’re doing it wrong!

Please take a moment and listen to what I’m saying because if you’re going to jump into Social Media then you have to make sure you’re using it in the most effective way possible as with any marketing endeavor.

Allow me to start with a story. As I mentioned before I’m connected to the bulk of home builders on Facebook which means that the bulk of the posts I read are from home builders. Duh, right?

Here is what I typically see. “This beautiful home…..blah blah blah” or “This new plan……blah blah blah” or “Come visit us at….blah blah blah”. What is this except for written commercials or as some like to call it, spamola. Now, before you get all frustrated allow me finish the point. The other day I took the time to pick just one these builders and I examined their follower list. I went through each follower one by one (more than 100) trying to determine why they could be following this home builder. What I found was a long list of industry people or industry businesses (like myself) along with what appeared to be friends from church, co-workers and a few that I just couldn’t tell who they were. Hopefully prospective home buyers right?

So, the question that begs to be asked is, when you’re posting this umm, spam; To whom are you talking to? Or in other words, who are you trying to sell? Who is seeing your advertisements? In the case mentioned above, no one that will be buying a home anytime soon if ever right? So to be completely blunt, it’s a waste of your time to post that stuff.

You see Facebook was never meant to be another place for you to place your ads. It’s meant for building relationships and allowing the consumers who follow you to see another side of your business. The real you. They want to know the personality behind your brand, the real, uncut and transparent you. If I’m a potential home buyer and I’m thinking of following you the first thing I’m going to do is look at your wall to see what you post. If all I see is “buy this buy that” umm, no thanks. But if I see you, you’re sense of humor, your comments about current events, your interaction with other people, your weaknesses and vulnerabilities then yep, I’m in. Sound strange? Not really. So many people have already said that Social Media is like a cocktail party. How would you respond if someone at a social gathering just walked up and forced his business card in your hand and started selling? Get the picture?

So this post could easily branch off to so many other topics about how to post, what to post and how to get your consumers to follow you but I’ll save that for a follow up post. First, I’d like to get your comments, responses and or reactions to this post.

Have you analyzed your followers? Do you know whose following you? If so, what kind of response do you get from spam like posts? I’d truly like to know. Leave your comments below.

P.S. If you wanna know which builder it was you’re gonna have to call me and I’ll let you know if it was you. If it wasn’t you and I can’t tell you who it was.