Social Media: Fans Or Customers – Which Is More Important To You?

After the crackdown of fake accounts by social networks like Facebook and Twitter, a lot of Facebook pages and twitter accounts had a massive reduction in their fan/follower numbers. This helped put a lot of things in perspective for me as a business owner, and hopefully, I’ll be able to share my thoughts with you in a comprehensive way.

Let’s begin…

The aim of a business is to get clients and impact lives, and not only that, clients who will stay on with you for as long as possible (this is when you determine what your client lifetime value is – CLV).

With the surge of new social media networks, it is now becoming hard for business owners to figure out which platform will give them the most results for their efforts. Based on that, many marketers have created an unending amount of products and services to cater for this need, which in my opinion, has further heightened the confusion.

Most of the info products out there are just not worth the investment. I say that because I have bought them, and have also created them :(. I later realised that it is not just about creating products/services, but adding true value, building a strong community, meeting a need, and providing adequate solutions.

I had to pull down all the products I created in the past, and now I’m taking time to study my industry, to identify needs, and how I can help solve problems. That is what business is and should be about.

Some believe that a brand gains more credibility when you have a great number of fans/followers, however, that concept worked 5 years ago. Today, people are not looking at your fan count, they are looking at reviews and testimonials from your previous and current customers.

Why is that important?

The average consumer understands how to access information online and most of the time, knows what he/she wants (they have become “gimmick proof”!). When they visit a website (or find a businesses social media account), they are looking for solutions… not products/services or how many fans/followers you have or how great you are.

If your digital space answers their questions (meets their need), then they are more likely to go further to contact you via any method you have made available (be sure to use proper Calls to Action).

Regardless if you have hundreds of thousands of fans/followers, the aim of a prospect is to satisfy his/her need at that time, and when you don’t provide that satisfaction, they jump ship.

Does that mean having a lot of fans/followers is worthless?

Don’t get it twisted!

We all love looking good (who doesn’t?). The idea behind this post is to ensure you set your priorities straight. If you really want my opinion, I’d say – “I prefer to have a great amount of hyper responsive people in my email list, than 1000s of fans/followers who hardly engage with my content”

Why?

Some business owners believe email is dead, but how wrong they are! Having an email list of hyper responsive individuals (especially people who have bought from you before) is a valuable digital asset, if you really want to scale up your business.

Now, to set a balance.

Fans/followers are good to have, but don’t stop there. Getting people to subscribe to your email list shouldn’t be a pain-in-the-neck! You need to have a solid marketing and content distribution strategy in place, a well structured funnel system to send people into, and a unique (valuable) offer to give them for free.

What are your objectives?

Figure out what you really want to achieve with your business via social media, and set your targets on how to achieve your set goals.

In my case…

• I use Facebook mainly for advertising (I still connect with friends and family though)
• I use Twitter to build engagement (interact and follow influencers). I also use it for research and ‘listening’
• I use Linkedin to connect with potential clients, create a professional image for my business, and also follow and learn from influencers
• I use Pinterest to share content I feel would benefit the end user
• I use Instagram to connect, share ideas, and tell stories visually
• I use YouTube and other video sharing platforms to share my training and promote my products/services

The ultimate aim is to drive traffic to my website, in order to generate leads, and figure out strategic ways to convert them to clients.

I often say this when I get the chance…

Social Media networks are not owned by us, and if peradventure something happens to our accounts, we can instantly lose all the fans/followers we spent years and money to grow (it has happened to many people and it’s not a very nice spot to be in).

So, aim at providing as much value as possible on your website, and use your social networks to send people there.

I hope you found value from this post. It’s your turn now… what do you think of this post? Makes sense? Don’t agree with it? Let’s hear you on the comment section below.

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Thanks for reading.

All the best,