Self Marketing: Why you should have more Facebook Friends

1209 Xing contacts, 930 Facebook friends, 744 Twitter followers and 203 followers at Google+, added up with another 388 LinkedIn and 152 Swarm contacts. I am not really using Instagram just yet but do want to go ahead with it in the near future too. This is the current amount of contacts I do have on my social media platforms, but what for?

Adding up the above stated contacts create a sum of more than 3323 people whom I theoretically reach directly through my social media channels. (Not counting in newsletter and other offline channels.) Certainly some are double connections but these don’t account to too many, that is for sure. Actually on the contrary these could be much more!

There is one aspect which many people do not consider while using social media:

“Social media is the simplest way to reach purposefully and fast a huge amount of people.”

Of course one does not always reach all at one time. Not everybody is constantly online and the logic of Facebook and other social networking websites is decisive on what one gets to see actually. Let’s presume that with one message I reach only 5% of my 3323 “friends & contacts”, then we are still speaking of 166 people. If you imagine this amount of people lined up, side on side, than you comprehend what impact that actually implies.

There is no other comparable channel on which I can access such a huge amount of people with one click. That’s why I would like to explicitly approve at this point that every enterprise ought to use these channels consciously, to promote ones business and products.

The Challenge: How to place a product and take care of the biggest possible visibility?

Making products and businesses visible means that the owner wishes for as many people as possible to find out about it. The product has to sell and maybe one of it turns into a fast-selling item. These are the hopes and wishes of every business founder. But only a partition of founders owns the necessary cash to start up with corresponding promotions or complete marketing strategies. I myself recognize repeatedly, that besides the classical performance channels, boundaries are met rather quickly and that it is an inevitable necessity to find alternatives

Why not use the free of charge and highly effective social channels? Promote your mission! No matter if you sell home-made airplanes, software or a high tech multimedia gadget. Become your own brand ambassador and spread your messagerepetitively.

An example from real life: Personal messages vs. Business messages

It is explained best with some examples from real life. Not too long ago has FastBill taken over the Austrian competitor Xeer. This message spread through our blog and social media company channels. The example of Facebook shows very precisely the deviant behavior in relation to the interaction with the shared news.

While the relating post received on the FastBill Facebook site only 13 likes, the same post received on my personal profile proud 103 likes, 2 shares and 14 comments even though we have more than 7000 fans at our FastBill Facebook profile.

Another example is after a presentation in a co-working space in Germany, Wiesbaden:

A third example when we won an award as an internet startup:

Good Friends receive Kisses

Empathy is a wonderful ability among humans, differentiating us in its shaping from the animal kingdom. Humans like to participate in the lives of others, are nosy, feel, laugh and mourn with other people. No wonder really that this behavior is visibly lived also in the social networking communications.

People whom you reach there and who appreciate what you are doing will “like”, share or comment. They want to be part of this and want to establish a personal relationship. Of course this does not always include all but there is certainly a pattern recognizable. In that way your reach grows month after month. For that reason begin to set up and use your social networking channels from as early as possible.

The social network simulates at this point nearly a real friendship to some degree. Facebook friendships can grow into trusting relationships over time which is very humane. Exactly this liaison is based on posts, recommendations and knowledge which you spread into the world through your social channels.

At this point I actually try to meet my Facebook contacts sometime sooner or later in real life, outside Facebook. Once that happens, suddenly two people are no more “strangers” after all. A certain degree of trust is already given and shows that Facebook friends certainly can also have relevance in real life.

The Personal Timeline as a Self Marketing Channel

From these many components, likes and comments a new marketing channel evolves which also can be demonstrated scientifically. 17% of men and 14% of woman trust recommendations made on Facebook. Recommendation marketing cannot be thought away anymore from any business and all marketers are on their hunt for a so called “influencer”, a person with a wide, social reach and who’s opinion is valued by many.

Virality — the Jackpot in Social Media, but it is also possible without

The Nom-Nom cat, skating babies or a biker who lands after a crash standing on a car roof, everybody knows such videos because they are viral. Somebody has posted these. Thereafter they have been shared and shared again and again. The famous multiplication effect can spread content within hours over the entire internet.

Planning for such self-propelling is not possible; the structures of the internet are way too diverse for that. The only aspect remaining is the hope that this might occur sometime. In my case this has not happened so far and the good news is, one can do without.

Constant Tripping Wears the Stone

As a blogger it is not only important to work steadily but also to produce content regularly. It also counts in social networking to continuously be present but it is not the frequency that is decisive. It is highly advisable not to post impulsively. It is of greater advantage to post regularly once a week than five times a day. And yes:

Social Media is Work

Not for no reason more and more content planning tools appear on the market. Networking is long since something manual but turns more and more automatic. Obviously the fun is not allowed to get lost in the whole process since then nobody has anything from it. Those who do not appreciate the aspects of social media content marketing should consciously consider the possibilities which they waive for themselves.

It would be so simple… Typical Pretexts and Excuses

I know many people from my own environment who just don’t want to use self marketing. Here are some typical reactions and my opinion to those:

• “I use Facebook only private” — Your own fault. You decide who views what. Consider once if that would not be sufficient to your privacy.
• “I don’t want to be found or known on the Internet.” — Ok, that’s your thing. But you should get someone into your team who does not have a problem with that. It would be a pity to lose out on reach.
• “Ok, well but then only with a fake identity.” — Better not. This will turn out embarrassing once you go to your first event or you meet up for lunch.
• “I have not content. What could I post?” — You ought not to think too much about “press releases”. Share and post what occupies you in your experience as an entrepreneur and believe in its value. Your business is different and nothing is more interesting than background information. Our Startup Tour has proven that.

Tips and Tricks to gain more Visibility with your Business

As said earlier, it does make a difference if you permanently spread spam or if your content is interesting to your network. Some tips here for the practical side of things, so that it stays interesting:

• A relative relevance should be present in (nearly) every post. Re-inventing dog food does not require videos about cats. Slips are always accepted.
• Stay authentic, otherwise nobody believes you and nobody is following you.
• “Wannabes” are also not needed by anyone. Every person is brilliant, so you don’t need to show in every post how brilliant you are. Be who and how you are.
• Excitement and news make your posts interesting. A way to distinguish yourself out from the masses. Don’t simply utilize what is known by all already.
• Communicate at all times at eye level. Talking from high up down is the blatantly proof of your social incompetence.
• A timeline is not a blog. If you have to tell lots, rather create a blog and conclude the essence in a social blog post together with a link.

My Conclusion

As an enterprise you will be less vulnerable with accumulated growth. That’s why it is important to use personal reach and to use it and to build on it particularly in the period of founding. Networks like Facebook and Twitter are the ideal breeding grounds exactly for that.

There is even a further possibility to measure social influence. The Tuesday Klout indicates with reference to Klout-scores who influential you are. My klout-scores oscillated in the last few months somewhere between a score of 63 to 65 (out of 100). In comparison: Lady Gaga has 93 and the US-president reaches even 99. In spite of the big numbers the service still confines to me, that with my 63 points I am still in the midst of the top 10% social influencers.

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Originally published at en.letsseewhatworks.com on October 23, 2014.