We, as Web Marketing Specialists, are constantly preaching the benefits of social media to your business, no matter the industry, audience, or sector. To us, everyone is eligible to participate and appreciate everything from brand recognition to improved ROI.
That’s the trick, convincing someone they belong in the social space. Each social space carries its own reputation, and thus a pre-conceived notion of its value. Persuading a business to participate in Twitter is more difficult than persuading them to participate in Facebook, which is more difficult than persuading them to participate in LinkedIn.
Some businesses are very choosy about where they appear in the social space, and they should be to a point. But this social media zeitgeist is ever-changing; what was a valuable outlet last year may be useless this year; and what is fantastically trendy this year, was non-existent until a recently.
Consider what the Top 10 Social – Networking Websites & Forums of August of 2008 (courtesy of Hitwise via MarketingCharts).
…and the Top 10 Social – Networking Sites & Forums of August 2009.
There are some major differences from one year to the next:
- Half of the sites on 2008’s list didn’t make the list in 2009
- Three of the sites on 2009’s list were not included in 2008’s
- Facebook experienced the largest boost in US Market Share of Visits, climbing from 13.50% in 2008 to 39.53% in 2009
What’s my point? If you’re a business owner who’s not yet made the social media leap, please jump already. Once you’re in it, stay malleable and keep your eyes open, able to switch to the next great trend in the social space. Encouraging you to do so is nothing new. In fact, our frequent pleas to “Pretty, pretty please join the social media circuit” have become platitudes; rendered trite to the point of ridiculousness, as made evident by Mr. Kevin H. Nalty in his article, “The Stupidest Article about Social Media Ever.” But it’s cliché because it’s true.
Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredcavazza/3428921418/
My company launched a social networking site for our software user group and we have opened it up to retail industry professionals at large. Thur far we have over 200 members which is great…but… we are tracking activity and see the average member reades 4.6 posts per day but they post almost no comments. We are posting tons of new content every day so it’s not like they don’t have the opportunity to sound off. What tips can you offer on getting members to participate?
our community http://www.acceleratedanalytics.com/acceleratedcommunity
Chad,
Without a membership to your community, and therefore without the insight on what content you provide your 200+ members, I can’t definitively assess why people are reading without writing. Sometimes you can have the nicest, most informative posts ever imaginable on the face of the earth, and all you hear back are crickets. Ask yourself why you respond to any given post. The mainstay of social media is to interact; everyone has the opportunity to be published and heard, and that is intoxicating. Have you tried engaging your readers beyond providing them with posts? Have you flat-out asked them to answer a pertinent question?
Sometimes when you write tons of content, you invoke massive conversations; and sometimes when you write tons of content you just write tons of content. Don’t get me wrong, in providing a community you have set yourself up to be an industry voice; don’t worry if you haven’t gathered that great instant gratification of feedback from your members. Clearly, they’re listening to you, reading 4.6 posts per day, on average.