Plant your feet and stand firm in
whatever you believe in but my question is: Where do you put your feet? I
have planted my feet in the social media world for some years and I can
say my harvest has been bountiful.
Before you plant anything, you need the
seed, a fertile ground, water and care to nurture the plant. But the
seed won’t sow itself; the fertile ground won’t seek for the seed,
likewise the water – it is a waste if it doesn’t wet the plants. One
thing is needed; the decision of the famer to plant the seeds in due
season.
Technology is shaping our world and will
continue to shape it. Successful companies those that are sensitive to
the changes around them. One of those changes is social media. More
social media platforms will come up. But are you taking advantage of the
existing ones? Companies often feel once they create a social platform
for their organisations, they have gone social. Absolutely wrong!
Creating a social platform is not the first step. The first is studying
your brand to determine the social platform that suits your it. So,
creating a wrong social platform means doing nothing social. Now that
you have make up your mind to plant your feet on social ground, let me
show you how you can plant and reap bountifully:
Your seed: Your objective is your seed.
What do you want to achieve with the social drive? Once this is
determined, you get a clearer picture of what you want to achieve at the
end of the season. The farmer goes into the season with the expectation
of what he wants to harvest at the end of the season. A farmer that
wants to harvest cassava sets his mind on harvesting cassava (objective)
and at the end of the season he harvests it. Set your mind on the
objective you want to achieve.
After a farmer sets his mind on what he
wants to harvest, he nurtures that seed in his mind as well. Nurture
your social objective in your mind as well – if you know what you want
your harvest to look like.
The fertile ground: Every farmer needs a
fertile ground to plant; likewise, your business needs a fertile ground
to flourish. Social media is that fertile ground you need. The social
media is today the biggest gathering of people (your customers).
Whichever business you are into, you need people. Businesses are made up
of people; your staff, your customers, your suppliers etc. For you to
achieve your set goals socially, you need to create a social media
platform for your business now.
Nurturing the plant: A farmer is filled
with excitement when he sees his seed spring forth; but his work has
just begun. I have seen the same excitement on the face of top C-level
executives when a social media platform has been created for their
business but your social business work has just begun as well.
After sowing your seed of the social
media platform, you nurture these platforms with content. Content is
king. Content is what drives your platform. In fact, social media
marketing is moving towards content marketing. Lots of work go into
content creation. It’s hard work. One of the ways a farmer nurtures his
plant is getting rid of the weeds; same with content. Filter your
content, get rid of unwanted contents that may disturb your real
message.
Another way of nurturing a plant is
watering it adequately. Conversations and interactions are what water
your social media platform; nothing more, nothing less. Relationship is
the currency of any business; for you want to earn more of this
currency, you need to maintain a constant conversation and interaction
with you contacts. How can you do that? Get social.
There is lot to going social than what
you see or know. Putting your advert on social networks won’t do the
work for you, it’s more than that. Conversations and interactions make a
great percentage of the success in going social.
Before the farmer plants he makes sure
it’s the actual season, he makes sure it’s not going to rain before he
sows the seeds; so the rain won’t wash his seeds away. Then he plants
and waits for his harvest. The season is now, plant your seeds and wait
for your harvest.
Culled from Punchonline
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