It doesn’t matter what speech I give or to what kind of group…as soon as I suggest (strongly) that they sign up for twitter, I get asked, “How do I get lots of people following me?” Unfortunately, it’s the wrong question…
Relevance has changed…or has it? Back when Social Media first started gaining traction (it’s been 8 years since I started working in the field) and it was the “shiny new object” for people, relevance was about followers and connections and friends. If you had a lot of them, you were somehow important. Not that they all cared about you…they didn’t, but numbers were important and it made you “relevant” in social media and possibly your industry. Have times changed?
I have been back giving a lot of speeches and guess what…this question still comes up, “How do I get a bunch of followers?” It’s the wrong question…
If you want lots of followers, you can easily get them today and there are thousands of companies willing to take your money to build your twitter following…but it’s the wrong answer to the wrong question.
The question you should be asking is, “How do I get followers who could help me grow my business?” And if you asked this, they would fit into a few categories…
- Current Customers
- Past Customers
- Future Customers
- Industry influencers and leaders
- Thought leaders in your areas of business
- Business friends and colleagues
Start with this list and this list only. It will probably be a lot smaller list than you could ever buy from some “list building” firm…but they will be people that matter. They will be people who will do two things for you…
- Help you find and curate content valuable to your customer audience
- Find Value in the information you are sharing and talking about
Don’t over complicate a simple, yet valuable and critical tool to help you grow your business. Start with this and you will finally be focused in the right direction of BEING RELEVANT. Because if you aren’t “relevant”…no one is going to care about you. Sorry…it’s just reality in the “New World” we live in today and no one has time for something or someone who isn’t relevant to them. Now you also have some insight into why Social Media doesn’t “work” for most companies today and why they don’t get talked about on their social channels.
