A New Attitude
Social networks provide an excellent environment to promote awareness of your group, events or ministry. However, if you use social networking as a way to advertise rather than to connect, you're not going to have the success you could. Advertisement style posts with urgent language such as "Register Now," or "Get Your Ticket Now," or "We Need Your Help," have, in my experience, less and less effectiveness when it comes to drawing people into the great event I am planning. Also, listing the time, date and location is just not enough. In other words, a shift in thinking is necessary away from newsletter style copy, or church bulletin style announcements and towards something more social, more personal, more connecting. In other words, you have to develop a new attitude towards how you use social networking: make it personal.
Tell The Story
So don't bombard your intended audience with facts or a flurry of advertisements. They'll probably just stop reading your posts, or worse, disconnect from you in the social network you're using. Here is what you ought to do instead: do tell stories! Share personal information about your connection to the event you're promoting. Tell the story of how you came to be involved in it. What happened? Who was there? How did you get 'heart-connected' to the event? What have you learned as a result of being involved? The answers to these questions provide the basis of interesting and compelling copy, which in my experience, is the backbone of good social networking. Very important is this: be interesting! So many people repeat what other people have already written about, sharing links to articles and videos that other people have created. More compelling is your opinion.
Word-Of-Mouth
Did you know that word-of-mouth is considered to be vitally important in the promotion of products, movies and events? Word-of-mouth appears to be even more effective than advertising; I know it is for me. I am more likely to try a product based on a friend's recommendation than I am based on an advertisement. Sometimes I think I have become numb to the constant claims and attention grabbing techniques of advertising, but I still pay attention to what friends say. With this in mind, when using social networking, express your opinion. Approach your posts, blogs and status updates as if people really want to know what you think about an event, book or subject. Disclose why you are interested and let people generate their own interest based on your sharing. Express an opinion and ask for your audience to express theirs. Whatever you do, try to strip your posts bare of any language that comes across as sales pitch.
How much is too much?
Too many advertisement style posts will make your readers lose interest. Even if you are writing for a bookstore in a nonprofit organization, your daily announcements about new products, in my opinion, will do less for your store than if you post weekly product reviews by your customers, expressing why they did or didn't like the product.
Too frequent posts will numb the audience and you will lose being "special." I recently un-followed a technology reviewer's posts because of this issue. I love reading about technology and the latest trends, and I love reading the opinions of the up and coming young technology reviewers. However, the simple joy I had of reading posts now and then was destroyed when I subscribed and found myself set upon with several posts-two and three times a day-from the same author.
Social networks provide an excellent environment to promote awareness of your group, events or ministry. However, if you use social networking as a way to advertise rather than to connect, you're not going to have the success you could. Advertisement style posts with urgent language such as "Register Now," or "Get Your Ticket Now," or "We Need Your Help," have, in my experience, less and less effectiveness when it comes to drawing people into the great event I am planning. Also, listing the time, date and location is just not enough. In other words, a shift in thinking is necessary away from newsletter style copy, or church bulletin style announcements and towards something more social, more personal, more connecting. In other words, you have to develop a new attitude towards how you use social networking: make it personal.
Tell The Story
So don't bombard your intended audience with facts or a flurry of advertisements. They'll probably just stop reading your posts, or worse, disconnect from you in the social network you're using. Here is what you ought to do instead: do tell stories! Share personal information about your connection to the event you're promoting. Tell the story of how you came to be involved in it. What happened? Who was there? How did you get 'heart-connected' to the event? What have you learned as a result of being involved? The answers to these questions provide the basis of interesting and compelling copy, which in my experience, is the backbone of good social networking. Very important is this: be interesting! So many people repeat what other people have already written about, sharing links to articles and videos that other people have created. More compelling is your opinion.
Word-Of-Mouth
Did you know that word-of-mouth is considered to be vitally important in the promotion of products, movies and events? Word-of-mouth appears to be even more effective than advertising; I know it is for me. I am more likely to try a product based on a friend's recommendation than I am based on an advertisement. Sometimes I think I have become numb to the constant claims and attention grabbing techniques of advertising, but I still pay attention to what friends say. With this in mind, when using social networking, express your opinion. Approach your posts, blogs and status updates as if people really want to know what you think about an event, book or subject. Disclose why you are interested and let people generate their own interest based on your sharing. Express an opinion and ask for your audience to express theirs. Whatever you do, try to strip your posts bare of any language that comes across as sales pitch.
How much is too much?
Too many advertisement style posts will make your readers lose interest. Even if you are writing for a bookstore in a nonprofit organization, your daily announcements about new products, in my opinion, will do less for your store than if you post weekly product reviews by your customers, expressing why they did or didn't like the product.
Too frequent posts will numb the audience and you will lose being "special." I recently un-followed a technology reviewer's posts because of this issue. I love reading about technology and the latest trends, and I love reading the opinions of the up and coming young technology reviewers. However, the simple joy I had of reading posts now and then was destroyed when I subscribed and found myself set upon with several posts-two and three times a day-from the same author.
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