If you can’t engage people, don’t try social media…

I just read something that made me stop and think about everything I say to people about promoting their business. I’m a great advocate of social media and good optimisation, but it just dawned on me – if you don’t have anything to say, it’s completely pointless.

The great thing about social media is that it allows people to get their ideas, their information, their life and put it out there for all to read. If you’re lucky, it will be dead interesting and you’ll be swamped with people wanting to know more. So to exploit it, you’ve got to have something to say.

But I find myself telling everyone I meet that they should get themselves onto social media now and use it to promote and exploit their business potential. Wow, I was wrong – I really should stop it because I’ve completely forgotten who my audience are. What I mean is, they’re not me.

I love social media but I guess even I’m only a light user, I’m certainly not an addict (OK, perhaps a little bit), and here’s the rub – if you want social media to be an effective form of business building, you need to really use it and use it hard.

I don’t mean just pop in every now and then and tell people about your latest air-fix model accomplishments, you need to promote yourself and do something that other people might find interesting.

Oh dear, I’ve done it haven’t I. I’ve said the ‘I’ word. Yes, it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s got to be interesting to someone otherwise people just won’t read it. Ideally it’s got to be both interesting and maybe even something people can use to make money or just make life a bit easier.

And that’s where it all falls over. Saying interesting stuff doesn’t come easy to many people and so if you are one of those, I’d like to just give this little bit of advice : don’t do it.

Don’t use social media and please stay off Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you.