May 6, 2016

Support Local Businesses on Social Media!

Another retro post from my company blog, from June of 2015. I hope you enjoy it!

Hello again,

It’s been quite a while since I’ve reached out to you. A ton of things have been happening for me both personally and professionally and being busy is not a bad problem to have. It’s certainly better than the alternative. I was inspired to blog today for a couple reasons, one being to “educate” and the other to vent. I’m going to explain why you have to support local businesses on Social Media because believe it or not, if you don’t engage, you’re hurting them. Here goes nothing…

Within Social Media, engagement with content is literally the most important factor for it’s success. Facebook’s algorithm is designed to cater to your interests because after all, it’s in Facebook’s best interest to feed you content you like so you keep logging in to your profile. That being said, if you see a post of mine in your feed and scroll on by, Facebook notes that. The next time I post something, it may not appear in your newsfeed at all because it has been deemed “uninteresting” to you by the Facebook Gods. On the other hand, if you see a post and you like it, it is lightly weighted to appear again. If you comment on a post, Facebook deems that to be more interesting to you than something you simply “like.” Lastly, if you are so moved by a piece of content that you share it, Facebook will ensure that you see more posts from that page in the future. Mark Zuckerberg is no dummy. He has this social thing figured out pretty well. So if you truly do want to support my efforts, please please please engage with my content any way you see fit. If you like it, actually “like” it. If a thought pops in your head when you’re reading it, comment and share that thought with me. I promise that I will reply to you. Let’s start a conversation! Who knows, we might actually learn something from one another. And again, if you see a piece of my content and think to yourself, “I think John Doe would really be interested in this,” then share that post on his wall! Then the three of us can have a conversation and all will be right with the world.

Now that we have the education piece out of the way, it’s time to vent. If you truly support an artist, photographer, restaurant, fitness instructor, ANYONE AT ALL, you are literally doing them a disservice by not engaging with their content. I know that sounds a bit harsh, but the reality of it is, Social Media is supposed to be SOCIAL! If I create a post and end it with a question I really truly am asking each and every one of you to answer that question. I wouldn’t ask for no reason. I really am curious to see your opinion. I’m doing market research. I’m gathering potential customer data. I’m figuring out which types of posts my audience likes more. This next part is where I’m probably going to confuse some of you, but bare with me…

If you aren’t ever going to engage with my content, unlike my page. Yes, you probably read that right. I’m not saying you have to like, comment and share everything that I put out there. However, if you aren’t ever going to engage, unlike my Facebook page. Your lack of interaction with my content is killing my algorithm, formerly referred to as EdgeRank and let’s be honest… Ain’t nobody got time for that.

In conclusion, I value each and every one of you and I sincerely mean that. I hope that after reading this you better understand the workings of the Facebook Underworld and will make a conscious effort to interact with all of the business pages you like. Don’t be afraid to give us User Generated Content either, but that’s a WHOLE different story.

Were you offended by my audacity in this post? Comment. Are you cheering because you’re a business owner that can relate? Comment. Are you here because you’re my mom and you would NEVER be reading this for any other reason? Comment. Get the point?

Until next time,

Dyl