Bridget Willard | SaaS Marketing Agency

Tag: Social media

  • What Does Social Media Engagement Look Like?

    Updated 2/21/22

    Everyone talks about social media engagement. But what is it? How do you do it? What does engagement on social media really look like? Short answer: it’s a conversation — a back and forth of exchanges. Someone has to start the conversation. Someone has to keep it going.

    Firstly, you should respond to your audience: whether it is a tweet, Instagram post, or comment on one of your blog posts. By the way, comments are great for SEO.

    But engagement is more than just responding. As a brand, that is building your awareness and audience, you will want to go out of your way to engage. Think of it as outreach.

    What is Social Media Engagement?

    Merriam-Webster states that engagement is the state of being engaging, “tending to draw favorable attention or interest.“

    Drawing attention to your brand by being polite and interesting is the way to engage on social media.

    What about short comments?

    Are short comments less valuable? In a word: no.

    It’s a conversation. Sometimes you say hi to someone in the grocery store or in the coffee room at work or while you’re at the neighborhood bar. The engagement isn’t less important; it’s just brief.

    Conversations are valuable regardless of the length. I’ve talked about the value of small talk before. Often small talk is a way to build trust before talking about deeper things.

    Social Media Engagement: Be Interested

    If you want people interested in you, show interest in them.

    Whatever you choose to do, I recommend spending five minutes a day finding posts you can reply to. Set a timer if it helps you. Do it in the morning or after lunch. I enjoy scrolling Twitter while I am drinking my coffee in the morning.

    Here are some recent examples of people who reply often.

    https://twitter.com/ryankienstra/status/1126263102784163840

    Engagement is up to you.

    Think about engagement as outreach. It’s allowing people to know that you are relevant. It’s keeping your brand top of mind. For businesses, engagement shows you’re still open for business.

    In most lines of work, referrals are our bread and butter. Why wouldn’t you want to build relationships on social media? It’s not different than in “real life.” We work in digital; we live in digital. Let’s succeed in digital.

  • Social Media Matters Because Successful Business Relationships are Built Upon Small Talk

    Updated 1/8/23

    The use case for social media to develop business relationships gets a bad rap. Social platforms have the reputation of being where people tweet that they’re going to the bathroom, take selfies in their car, photograph their chicken salad sandwich, and test out the newest dance craze. These posts are viewed as irrelevant at best – foolishness at worst.

    It’s drivel. It’s meaningless. It’s small talk. So why should your business invest in social?

    I mean, who cares what someone ate for breakfast?

    The truth is, we all care.

    Wait. What?

    Business is Built with Relationships

    We all know that we do business with people we “know, like, and trust.” I can hear you saying it out loud while you’re reading it. It’s a cliché because it’s true. In business, this is why we put a huge emphasis on likability.  

    It’s not a fair world. It’s not about the best product. We don’t hire the best candidate. We don’t promote the best person. We promote, hire, and purchase from people we like. It’s changing with the diversity and inclusion landscape – but that’s another blog post.

    So how can you become likable in business? Engage in effective small talk. 

    Small Talk Builds Business Relationships

    Small talk builds business relationships. If you agree, you’re done reading. If you’re in doubt, let’s take a step back. What is small talk? 

    You may think about discussing the weather trends as small talk. Meaning, the talk is unimportant. Does it matter if you discuss whether Aaron Rodgers will retire next season? No. The Packers won’t take your advice and neither will Aaron Rodgers or his agent. What small talk does, however, is determine whether or not the person next to you at the pub, conference or dinner is willing to continue to talk to you. 

    If small talk is bad, what are we supposed to talk about anyway? Are we supposed to solve the energy crisis with a stranger at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast? Do you sit down next to a person at a conference and pour out your latest heartbreak? No. You don’t. Why? Because “big talk” is often inappropriate in public, business settings.

    Small talk’s role in our lives is far from small. People who think we waste time talking about our cat, lunch, etc. fail to appreciate that small talk is the structure upon which business relationships are built. Small talk naysayers are often self-conscious about their small talk skills.

    “One of the hardest things about small talk is finding something to talk about besides the weather. But, pro networkers have figured out that most people like to talk about themselves. Take that and run with it.” Vernon Gunnarson

    Small Talk is an Emotional Bridge

    In personal relationships, small talk is a bridge to an emotional discussion. It’s dipping your toe in the conversation water to make sure its temperature isn’t too hot or too cold. It helps you evaluate the emotional status of your potential conversationalist.

    So what does this have to do with business? All relationships contain a personal element – even in business. If you’re an employee, you need to have an emotional bridge – psychological safety – so that you can have harder discussions – like policy change, promotion opportunities, and even grievances. 

    Dismissing small talk as banal and pedestrian puts you at a major disadvantage in business settings. All team building requires psychological safety. That doesn’t happen without small talk. With regards to business mentorships, cutting off small talk may cut you off from larger conversations and, ultimately,  deeper connections. Keep this in mind the next time someone asks you an annoying question like, “What are you doing?” It may be they’re just testing the waters.

    Do you remember the last time you approached someone with a request? How did you start?

    “Many times, much as in the outside world, family members preface a highly anxious issue with small talk. If you can listen without dismissal to what seems like small talk by a spouse, child, teen or parent, you may facilitate an opportunity for crucial disclosure.” Suzanne Phillips, Psy.D., ABPP

    But Small Talk is Annoying and Difficult

    It was for me, too, before I started. You do it on social media the same way as in real life. Starting conversations with questions helps – especially if they are open-ended questions. This only backfires if you’re talking to someone shyer than you. The truth is that most people like to talk about themselves. It’s just a fact.

    Practice. Read “How to Win Friends & Influence People.” Learn how to actively listen.

    The next wedding you attend, ask a stranger how they know the bride. At your next meetup, ask the person a question about the subject matter. This is a great way to get better at small talk. It will not happen without practice.

    “Small talk can lead to a host of outcomes, from a merely pleasant exchange to the signing of multimillion-dollar business deal.” Brett Nelson, Forbes 

    Believe me, I used to panic while entering rooms full of people I don’t know. With practice, I found that a smile and greeting goes a long way and even people waiting for an elevator can have a perfectly good conversation. Why not leverage that opportunity?

    Small Talk 2.0 – Build Business Relationships Online 

    Enter social media. Specifically, Twitter. I think this is where most people meet others, though I could be wrong. For me, it’s where I’m open to conversations (small talk) with strangers. I could babble on incessantly about how much my life has changed because of the people I met. Let’s settle for one use case.

    While working for a commercial general contractor, I met a Commercial Real Estate broker on Twitter. The good thing is that he also worked in the same geographical area as Riggins Construction. After interacting and reading Allen’s content, I knew he and my boss would hit it off. I had a crazy idea. Let’s all do lunch. At first, I was nervous. After all, this was my very first sales call.

    But when Allen walked into the restaurant, all anxiety disappeared. It was all smiles and handshakes. The awkward small talk wasn’t awkward – it didn’t exist. Why? We did it online. We sat as friends because we were friends.

    “Small talk is not wasted talk. It’s a social lubricant as essential as wine and laughter that allows strangers to make crucial first connections across demographic lines. And it’s far from meaningless.” Ruth Graham

    Now, the next time you see someone you have a basis for continuing the friendship. You no longer need to talk about sports or weather — though you can. You can level up.

    You can ask a question you’ve been dying to ask. You can tell them how you liked the blog post they wrote last week. You can brainstorm, collaborate, and actually become friends.

    Small Talk Builds Trust in Business Relationships

    The value of small talk is this: it builds trust over time. When it comes to business relationships, trust is the intangible element that makes our community stronger. I’m not going to tell you where I live, my first kiss, or my darkest secret right off the bat. Would you?

    The point is this. Humans are social. We create business relationships by communicating. This includes body language, tone, inflection, micro-gestures, laughter, tears, expressions, and, yes, small talk.

    If you want people to like you, be likable. There is no way around that.

    Or, just enjoy your next business dinner for one in the corner. Alone.

  • Organic Social: Are you investing in your soil?

    Organic material needs the right conditions to grow. Your crops need the right soil. That’s an investment.

    So, how are you investing in your soil online? Are you doing the work to be successful at organic social?

    This is a spinoff of my recent GuruMinute video.

    Chef’s Table — A Netflix Documentary

    I was inspired by Chef’s Table this week and how Dan Barber’s food-to-table movement starts quite literally at the farm.

    Crop Rotation

    Crop rotation and investment in the soil is how you get flavor — mind-blowing, true flavor.

    The organic food movement is a movement against automation and a movement back toward nature. Allowing the land to rest, planting things that give back to the soil, and encouraging the microbial activity takes more time, is more expensive, but yields better results.

    What makes social media organic?

    What if we treated our social media organically?

    What if we invested in the soil — the people — our fans, friends, and followers?

    What if we rotated our content so we had a three-dimensional persona online? What if we shared other people’s content? What if we rested?

    Guru Lesson

    You can’t have organic faming without investing in the soil.

    You can’t have organic social without investing in people.

    Invest in people and they’ll invest in you.

  • Curate Content by Curating People

    How do you curate content to share online? You do it by curating people. Be a people broker.
    Is your Twitter feed worth reading by you?

    Would you like your own Facebook Page?

    Let me tell you a story.

    Let’s go back to the summer of 2004 when my sister and her friends came to visit me here in Southern California. They were curious about the Southern California lifestyle.

    “Where do you want to eat?”

    “Anywhere but a chain,” they said.

    Now, there’s nothing wrong with the Cheesecake Factory or Pizza Hut, but they’re the same here as they are in Northern California, that’s the point of a chain. They wanted local flavor.

    “What about Wahoo’s?” I asked. “It’s a local chain.”

    That phrase “local chain” got them curious. So we went to Wahoo’s who started here in Orange County in 1988 and they loved it. They had a great meal and got to experience part of Orange County’s local culture.

    Fringe Players

    Chris Brogan, in a Women in Business Today video said:

    “All of the experts… we all see it all. … If …300,000 people are tweeting Mashable. Who cares? You know what? Go find interesting fringe players that no one’s ever heard of and treat them like they’re the experts. You’ll have more fun.”

    Curation Tools

    Now, I’ve talked about being a people curator before, so if you’ve followed quality people, why not use that to your benefit?

    You don’t need a third party tool to tell you what to tweet. You’re better than just another account that tweets Mashable, BuzzFeed, or TechCrunch.

    Don’t get me wrong, you’ll see Gary Vaynerchuk, Ted Rubin, Mashable, and other well-known people in my tweets. But you’ll also read from Carol Stephen, Ruby Rusine, and Amy Donohue.

    I’ve found some of my own gems, “local flavor,” or “fringe players” as Chris Brogan calls them. They’re on my “Social Friends” list on Twitter. I know, if I want reliable content to share, I can go right there. I don’t need some fancy tool to curate content other than my own Twitter lists.

    Win-Win-Win

    When you curate people and share their content, it shows that you’re a social person. It shows that you reciprocate. It helps promote your new connections. Your audience benefits from another perspective and a local flavor.

    That’s a win — times three.

    Content curation is as simple as curating people.