Do you get sales from social media? If you lost your account what would happen?

Work Smart Not Hard Tip No. 8 in a series written for Indie Cambs

I’ve been using social media since 2008 and it has had a huge influence on how my business has developed.

However, using platforms we can’t control to build an audience, a customer base, or a following is fraught with danger.

The big tech companies are at war with each other and with governments who try to control them.

A Facebook Page, Insta, Twitter, TikTok, or You Tube account is like living in a rent free tent under the railway arches with a predatory landlord taking the details of all your visitors, whether they like it or not, and not sharing them with you if they kick you off their platform. Your accounts and content could all disappear without notice because you don’t own any of it.

What do you own?

• Your website and domain name should be entirely in your control. If you use Wix, Squarespace or any proprietary website builder you may only have partial ownership and find it hard to change supplier when you grow out of them or if things don’t work the way you want them to. WordPress is a much safer bet. You should know how many visitors you get, where they come from, how long they stayed and which pages they visited.

• Your customers’ data, if shared directly with you for this purpose, is yours to use for marketing. Direct, you-to-them marketing. The most valuable sort of marketing there is. If you haven’t got a mailing list of customers and a newsletter that goes directly to their inbox you’re missing the best opportunity there is to make repeat sales.

• Your relationship with your customers is the most valuable asset of all. I was just approached by a global food ingredient company with 12,000 employees who want to learn how small businesses connect with their customers. They wanted to know how we build relationships – and yet most small businesses are told they should be copying big businesses by automating everything! Staying personal, really knowing and understanding your customers is gold dust.

There are lots of ways to advertise your business without using social media. The most valuable of all is word of mouth. Think about how people used to advertise before social media came along – most of these methods still work. Ask all your customers how they found you.

Social media is only going to get more like the wild west so putting efforts into something you own and can control is even more important.

I’d love to hear what works best for you – get in touch and let me know!