The “New” Rules Of Social Media
Image: Kittiphan / Adobe Stock
I was recently working with a small company in regard to doing some advertising. As we chatted so I could understand their needs and goals, something caught my ear; something I’ve heard umpteen times in the past several years: “We’ve done okay on social media, but we need to expand our reach. We just haven’t figured out how.”
Well kids, welcome to the club!
Their problem is a common one; something we even face here at FMG. We’ve had countless meetings, discussions and email chains and even hired consultants and attended classes on the very subject of “How do we get more eyeballs online.”
We throw a lot of resources at the online world and we’re doing okay in the daily fight for clicks. However, when I consider our extensive efforts, I can’t imagine trying to build a business online from scratch nowadays.
I wouldn’t call myself an expert but as an “interested bystander” I’m going to share my unvarnished and perhaps even harsh insights on this idea of winning the online battle.
Point one: The online world has grown too fragmented to find a huge audience organically. Unless you spend cold hard cash with Meta or one of the other large platforms, your organic growth will disappoint you. After all, their business model is not built on providing you with a free large audience.
Point two: Examine your purpose. If “outreach,” “support” or “interaction” with customers is a goal, you’re on the right track. If you think simply establishing an online social media presence is enough to bring business in the door, you’re mistaken.
Point three: You must throw resources at the problem. For every success story you hear, there is an unbelievable amount of work going on behind the scenes. I’d posit the online world is even tougher than the physical world — after all, your shop or company probably isn’t 24/7/365, but a successful internet presence is.
Not a pretty picture, eh? But I believe it is accurate. Gone are the days when publishing a website and opening a social media account brings instant success, so we need to recalibrate our expectations as such. There are answers, but none are quick or easy.
Actually, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one good solution, something you’re probably already doing in other areas — hire an expert. When you’re talking about reaching a large dedicated online customer base of potential gun clients, one carefully cultivated through years of constant hard work, there are professionals ready to help.
Reach me at brent.wheat@fmghq.com.
