First of all, being good at social media doesn’t mean having lots of followers. Let that be clear.

Are you “good” at social media?
How would you even go about defining your skill level?
If you think you’re good, it’s likely you’d point to your number of followers or comments you get on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis right.

But are those metrics really the best way to judge if someone is “good” or “bad” at social media?
According to a recent study, nearly 70% of people on Instagram have less than 1,000 followers.
If we went by those metrics, we’d have to conclude that most of us aren’t good at social media.

But I don’t think that’s true.
I think you can be great at social media, even if you don’t have the biggest following, comments or likes.

I recently had a talk with one of our partner internet/social media experts and here are the 7 big lessons I learned.

Great Social Media Takes Work

This isn’t a surprise, but being good at social media takes effort. A Considerable amount of effort.

We’ve all heard this cliche advice “practice makes perfect”.
No, I am not going to talk about motivational pep talks here!

But there are two things in particular about this classic phrase that we should find interesting as it relates to social media.

First, very few people actually practice.
Social media has not only consumed vast quantities of our time, but it has tricked us into thinking that when we do share, we must share perfection.

It’s like we suddenly want perfection without practice.

Second, because social media is constantly changing, it’s not enough to simply practice.
Practice methods become obsolete in months and even weeks.
Hard work isn’t always seen in the repetition of the same content over and over.

Great social media isn’t hard work because it’s hard to do.
It’s hard work because it’s intentional practice over long periods of time.

Your Audience Is Important Until It Isn’t

Writing or sharing your message about your brand to your audience can be a tricky thing.
First, let’s all agree that you do in fact have an audience. All of us do.

Whether your audience is the 10 people who liked your latest Facebook or Instagram post or the 3 people who shared for your latest Facebook or LinkedIn article, you have an audience.

So when you write, post, share, or comment, we’ve all heard that we want to do so with our audience in mind.

And that is in fact right, but here’s the problem. If you write, post, share, or comment like you’ve only got your audience in mind, you’ll likely start losing your audience.

Content that’s only curated for your audience isn’t good social media. It’s stuffy.

You need to be targeting your captivated audience and those on the edge followers you’re looking to bring in.

People Want to Hear Your Voice

This was something that our social media expert stressed over and over.
In an age with countless accounts and things to follow, people are being drawn more and more to people who are willing to share their own unique, creative voice.

This sounds scary, right?

But here’s the deal.
If your writing, your content, or your posts sound exactly like someone else, then it’s not really you.
And if it’s not really you then it’s not really good.

Sure, you might figure out how to trick the system, but if you want to really be good at social media, sooner or later, you have to figure out your own voice and you have to stick to it.

If you like short, choppy sentences, write short, choppy sentences.
If you like emojis, go for it.

If you want people to listen to you, be yourself. It’s a must-do to be good at social media.

A Consistent Baseline Creates Followers

Consistency helps keep people engaged.

Let’s take Facebook, for example. If you look up almost any article on how to gain more likes of followers on Facebook, you’re almost guaranteed to find this
piece of advice: “Post Every Day or Post consistently”.

A consistent baseline doesn’t have to be something you do every day, but if you want to be good at social media, you have to have something that your followers can rely on.

Maybe for you, that’s posting twice a week.

Or it could be a once-a-week newsletter you send out.

Find what works for you. And stick to it. If you want to start creating loyal fans and followers, then one of the best ways to do this is to create expectations and then consistently and excellently fulfill those expectations.

Excellence is not about doing something once to perfection. It’s about doing a task over and over with increasing skill and success.

Being Creative Retains Followers

If being consistent creates followers, being creative retains followers.

Yes, being consistent is key. But if you never vary up the playbook, then you never really have the opportunity to surprise people.

And good surprises are the secret sauce of good social media.

Consistency eliminates the gimmicks of clickbait social media and filters out the people who just want the result without the work.

Creativity shows who of your consistent content creators is worth following more closely.

Consistency will capture people. Creativity will inspire them.

And good social media inspires.

The danger with creative social media is adding too much too fast. No one is asking you to do a complete image overhaul in the next two weeks.

But it’s not too much to ask for a new style, filter, or piece of content every so often. Try something new on your social media and see the response.

Email Newsletters Are for Your Committed Followers

This was most surprising to me. In a generation that seems to want things as fast as possible, trends show that the most loyal followers you have are the people on your email list.

Good social media understands this and plays to it.

People might give you a few moments of their precious lunch break as they scroll through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, but if you can get people to intentionally sign up for your email newsletter, that is where your captive audience awaits.

So take advantage of this. Curate your email list and invite people into content that goes beyond just a simple short post.

But be warned, email lists that aren’t consistent and creative won’t last long. So think hard before starting one. The audience is captive to both good and bad marketing.

The Best Social Media Creates Community

This is my favorite.

The best social media creates community.

How do you know if you’re good at social media?

Are you creating a community for someone?

Does your social media encourage or discourage people to be authentic, purposeful, and friendly towards others?

Are you cheering for and championing those around you, or are you always posting about yourself and your problems and accomplishments?

If you are creating a community and intentionally connecting people to one another, it doesn’t matter if you have ten followers of 100,000; you are good at social media.

If you’ve read this and want to know more about how to effectively create your brand and grow your community and convert browsers into loyal clients and followers,
then just click here and contact us for a 30 min strategy session worth more than $1000. We will discuss what challenges you are facing and how to effectively create a system that will increase your ROI.

See you soon.

Regards

Brian Imambaks