So we were thinking about how people use social media like Facebook to keep up to date with their friends. If you see someone whom you haven’t spoken with for a while, you can pick up the conversation more easily if you’re Facebook friends with him or her. For instance:
Friend 1: “Oh, hi, Fred. It’s been forever since I’ve seen you. Didn’t you just get back from Hawaii? I think I saw that on Facebook.”
Friend 2: “That’s right, Mary. It was such a great trip. We took the kids and we all had a great time on the beach. Speaking of kids, how’s your new little grandson? I saw the photos on Facebook the other day.”
This beats talking about the weather, right?
As business owners, we can take a lesson from this – one that we don’t often pull off very well. Why don’t we talk about the fun stuff that our business is doing more often in social media? Instead, we write blog posts and promote other people’s links and try to put out subtle reminders of why someone should buy our product or service.
Would you rather see:
“Mo’s Dry Cleaners has the best dry cleaning service in town! Here’s a link to our most recent ad in the local newspaper.”
or
“Wow, what a day. A woman brought in a letterman’s jacket that belonged to her father. It had been up in the attic in a trunk for years and she found it when she was cleaning out his house after he passed away recently. Yuck, did it smell! But we were able to get the smell – and a few stains – out of it. Now our customer has a great way to remember her dad.”
You’d at least be more engaged reading the second post. And you’d be more likely to remember it in the back of your mind. So the next time you come across some item of clothing that you want to keep but that is pretty stinky, you might think (consciously or subconsciously), “Oh, yeah, Mo’s Dry Cleaners can handle that.”
Or, just as good for ol’ Mo’s, let’s say you’re having a conversation with a friend and for some reason the topic of a smelly article of clothing comes up. “Hey, I heard Mo’s Dry Cleaners can take care of that sort of thing,” you might say.
So, just like Mary and Fred at the beginning of this post used Facebook to casually keep up with what the other was doing, you can keep your customers and potential customers in the loop through the things you share on Facebook.
Best of all, it doesn’t take a lot of time and energy to relate the events of your day. You don’t write an article, or shoot a video, or agonize for an hour about posting an update on your new pet or the fun thing your family did, do you? Nope (well, most of us don’t…). So while it’s great if you want to incorporate all those other types of content, don’t forget to post quick, informative updates on what your business is up to. You may attract more attention that way.