At least once a week, a prospective client reaches out seeking one or or all of the following via social media: to grow followers, increase visibility, sell more product, etc. These conversations aren’t always easy because the expectation has been set by folks that you just set up an instagram account and then you just grow organically out of nowhere with no strategy or plan. 

The myth is, if your brand just does social right, all your problems will be solved. You’ll have more sales than you can keep up with, you’ll have to hire people faster than you want and your brand will be in front of the masses, just like that! But this is the myth.

Sure there are exceptions to the rule and every once in a while someone stumbles onto something that goes viral but that’s not only because of social media. The reason these one off situations occur is their timing was right, and they likely put in some hard work prior to things “taking off”. I should note, if you have a pile of cash to throw at something, it is possible to receive results but we aren’t talking $100 or even a $1,000...we are talking $10,000s of thousands if not $100,000’s of thousands of dollars to get to “growth”, whatever that means to your brand.

The real issue here is that social is different for every person & brand. We always advocate for folks to produce content that is honest and truthful to who their brand is, what their goals are, and in a way that is helpful to their audience. The alternative is to follow trends in hopes that you grow because of a dancing video or some other trend. That’s actually a great strategy if your brand is fun and light hearted. But let's say you’re an attorney and you represent folks who are at risk of losing their homes due to foreclosure. That might be a situation where a dancing video wouldn't be a great look.

The cold hard truth of it is, social won't save your life or your business's life. But that’s not to say that social media isn't a tool that can lead to brand growth, increased awareness, and ultimately increased sales...it’s just part of the puzzle, not the whole puzzle itself. By why wont social save your life? 

Social won't save your life - because it is one of many tools.

You as an owner need to start to fill up your brand tool belt. Some of the items we always start with are:

1. Sales Strategy - what are you going to sell and where?

2. Marketing Strategy - how and where are you going to market your product?

3. Branding - what does your brand look, feel, and sound like?

4. Setting up Google My Business - legitimize your business.

5. Setting up Google Analytics - helps you understand how folks are finding and using your site.

6. SEO - helps people find you via google search.

7. Social Media - represent your brand and communicate with your audience.

See, you don’t need to start with your social media but rather you need to start with your sales and marketing strategy, i.e. you need to be crystal clear on what you sell, how you sell it, and who you are selling it to. From here, you can begin to build your brand. If you don’t put in the strategy work up front, you will likely find that your social media can actually fight against your big goals as a brand. Then it’s back to the drawing board to start over.

So, social won't save your life because it’s one of many tools you need in your tool belt to succeed as a brand. Take some time and establish what you sell, how you sell it, and who you are selling it to. Next, you’ll need to execute the strategy, i.e. the real hard work.

Social won't save your life - because its it’s ongoing.

Part of the reason we encourage our clients to build their brand first then begin to create their social platforms and content, is because it's an ongoing process. Some data has shown that if you have under 10,000 followers you should be posting 1-2x’s a day to continue to grow organically. In order to produce that amount of content, you need to have some things figured out, namely your branding, so that you can create ongoing content based on your brand guide, rinse and repeat.

Even if you aren’t posting 1-2x’s a day, it’s going to be immensely helpful to have a brand guide so that your content looks consistent no matter what it is. Not sure what a brand guide is? Just reach out to us, we’d be happy to chat.

 Social won't save your life, because it is not one and done, it’s ongoing. If you don’t have a brand guide it will quickly become very cumbersome to create consistent content and your brand will quickly become diluted. 

Social won't save your life - because it’s only part of a sales strategy.

As we mentioned above, social media is only part of your sales strategy, or at least it should only be part of it. It doesn't take a sales expert to understand, if you are relying on one stream of sales it leaves you exposed as a brand.

While we aren’t sales experts, we do know a thing or two about growing brands and a growing brand means that they have increased sales. We recommend folks take a wheel approach. Meaning, if your brand was a wheel, that which supports the wheel are the spokes. Some of those spokes are: outbound sales, inbound sales, wholesale sales channels, retail sales channels, DTC Sales channels, marketing, branding, operations, etc. Each of the aforementioned (certainly not exhaustive list) spokes are part of what supports the wheel (the brand) at large and if the wheel is not balanced it wont roll down the road in the direction you want it to.

Social won't save your life, because it’s only part of a sales strategy. You need to fill in the gaps around social and utilize it as part of your sales strategy vs. the whole strategy.

Social won't save your life - because nothing replaces person to person sales.

There’s nothing that takes the place of being at a live concert at an old venue you’ve been to many times...that stale smell of cloroxed floors, the dim lights, the plastic cups full of the beer you paid way too much for, and it’s only kind of subpar. Oh, is that just me? But truly, nothing can replace the feeling of that kick drum pumping, the floor shaking from folks stomping on the floor, the energy of the band on stage and the people around you seeing their favorite band.

The same is true for in person sales. Nothing replaces a handwritten note, dropping off samples of your product in person, or doing a live demo. See, social won't save your life because nothing replaces person to person sales, especially after not being “sold” to in person for so long. 

So what will social do?

Social will help folks make their buying decisions. In fact, most folks check out brands via social media to help them make their decision as to whether they will buy your product vs. your competitions’ product. It’s a tool that helps your brand communicate with your audience. It’s a tool to provide your brand with more exposure and it’s a tool to help you sell more product.

Need help with your social media, branding or something else? You can reach us at thelevco@gmail.com or you can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @thelevco.

 Be well!

Author: Luke Waite