Most online digital marketing plans including sharing others’ content — and if not, they should, as 100% self-promotion is sure to drive followers crazy. It can take some time to curate but digital community marketing success requires you to cast a wider net when reaching out. After all, most people are turned off by the “Me, me, me!” chatty Kathy acquaintances and it’s no different online. Sharing can attract new readers and a lot of times, I am able to make friends with other bloggers, so I have to share one of my biggest pet peeves: ignoring people who are active on your wall or feed.
We’re all busy but most people notice when you don’t comment back. In a pinch, a quick Like is better than nothing, but it’s like real life — are you going to hang out with the people that give you a brief nod when having a conversation a party or the people who respond with words? How does it make you feel when you share a thought or praise someone only to have them look at you and then talk with someone else, or worse yet, walk away?
If you really think about it, that’s what it’s like when you do it to people online.
Sure, we don’t need to get our feelings hurt so easily, but we do want to feel like our help is appreciated. When we like a post or reply, it’s helping the original poster. Their sponsors or PR reps are seeing the activity and the traffic/followers numbers go up thanks to your Like or comment. If your digital marketing plan doesn’t include reciprocating, you’ve got a big gaping hole that you need to address.
Even on personal Facebook pages, repeatedly ignoring someone’s input is not cool. Be kind online. Someone took time out of their day to say hello, to praise your kids’ back-to-school picture or ask about a craft you made. Would you ignore if someone did that face-to-face, via text or in an email? Why do we do it online then?
Anyone that’s read my blog for any length of time knows that my history of working in online community and digital marketing is long and heavily entrenched in all of my social media strategies. It’s not just good practice, in my opinion, but it’s the right thing to do. I have written before about how getting customer service online doesn’t mean yelling and/or ranting at the social media staff but means trying to be nice, so it kills me when I see people forget in any regards. Social media doesn’t need to desensitize us towards manners and being polite.
Last week I posted about not Liking random stuff anymore; I am not doing it to throw some algorithm (though it will be interesting to see if it works) but because it means I am really interacting on others’ pages. (And if you post to my wall, I have always answered.) This isn’t necessarily related to that, but it’s a good by-product. Give it a shot — see what happens when you thank people for commenting, ask them a question back, or go to their wall and talk. Don’t just pepper group walls and feeds with promotions of your posts, but add in something more personal. I am willing to bet you’ll gain more followers and shares organically and people are going to feel more invested in sharing your stuff. Be honest with yourself; do you share others’ stuff randomly, or are you willing to do more for those who are your friends? And how do you make friends online?
Just something to think about that may help your digital marketing without it being “work.”
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