Small Business | Forum « How much of your social media is promotional? (TOTW: 7.29.12)

How much of your social media is promotional? (TOTW: 7.29.12) (15 posts)

Topic tags: promotion, self-promotion, social media, totw

Rich Brooks said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
I just received an email from someone who was signing up for my conference as a suggestion for a possible seminar/topic:
How do you build an audience on Twitter or Facebook without being completely self-promotional.
My immediate reaction was, “well, don’t be completely self-promotional!”
However, I had just finished posting to three LinkedIn groups about my upcoming conference, so I felt like perhaps I was a little too glib.
It got me thinking about what is the right amount of self-promotion. Is it ever 100%? Or is it 0%?
Does it matter depending on your industry? How much promotion do you do?
Look forward to hearing your thoughts!
@rich-brooks | # | Top
Daniela Previtali said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@rich-brooks interesting topic Rich, one the one hand most of my clients are posting corporate news only about their personal product and enterprise announcements; honestly I don’t see much interaction; using social media as we used to do with mag adv or press is a one-way approach; the investment in setting up the channels and publishing news there is hardly paying; social media are a fantastic way to engage people (and I see numerous examples) where the channel’s owner reveals a little about himself, indulges in other daily topics, is more casual in his tone; and at the same time he breaks such chat with marketing oriented promos; there are some niches that are really hardly sellable directly through social media; and that’s when even more the 2.0 scheme is essential in building up a community around industry discussions, white papers, field applications… curious to read other posts on this
@daniela-previtali | # | Top
Kristy C. Cartier said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@rich-brooks For Twitter I only put in 2-3 “about AHAA” tweets per day promoting the conference, member webinars, our career page, etc. On Facebook, I pin our events while the rest of my content is geared towards the creatives (of advertising). On LinkedIn, I’m 98% promotional. On Pinterest, I do have boards for our conference and U.S.H. Idea Awards but the rest is industry. On YouTube and iTunes, it’s 100% industry and post-event material. Hope this helps!
Interested to hear what others have to say…
@kc_kreative | # | Top
Diane Bianchi said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
I do maybe 10% promotional, like specials and coupons, the rest is informational and interesting content.
@dianebianchi | # | Top
Joan Muschamp (Fagnani) said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@rich-brooks For me a lot depends on what I have teed up, and my available “engagement time”, especially on LinkedIn. If I have a particularly busy week, my participation in discussions will wane a bit, but if I do have an event to promote, or a blog post, I will fit that in.
When I am in a promotional campaign on Twitter, I use Hoot Suite, but make sure I am also Tweeting other articles and useful information, and actually include them in the schedule.
Facebook tends to always be mixed–a lot of articles, a very occasional quote, and promotion. In my blog, most is information, but once in a while I will include a link at the end of a post to a free resource that is related to the topic.
Overall, I would say it ranges substantially from 25-70% depending on the schedule.
@joanmuschampfagnani | # | Top
Russell Allert said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@rich-brooks Hi Rich
My general rule is 10-20% promotional, but if you are creative enough, even these can be written without the hard sell.
Russ
@russellallert | # | Top
Ann at greenoak said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@rich-brooks mine is mostly to actual   customers and people who   are   very interested in my field…..we are local and brick and mortar….
my percent of promotional posts is at   least 80%%%….  maybe not all direct pitches, but   difinitely about what im selling and what my   fans are interested in….out of 3000 fans im getting over 1200 reach on almost all of the posts… over 2000 fairly often… so if i can keep it interesting   they stay connected….
im trying to find   suitable   fun social posts/images    that i can freely use…. for the other 20%….finding   2 good posts a day is my   job….and pretty hard….
@annfurnivall | # | Top
Paul Wylie said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@rich-brooks Interesting, our social media has really been focused around 2 platforms Twitter and Pinterest. However, like everyone else has a varied opinion as to the percentage of promotional vs. general interest topics.
The owners of the company are having a tough time in seeing the value of Twitter. Don’t like to see tweets without some form of promotion. So, our twitter feed has become IMOE on the spammy side something of which I feel I must make some changes to.
Does the 80-20 rule apply? Or is it really industry specific?
Best,
Paul
@ptwylie | # | Top
Paul Wylie said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@rich-brooks Interesting, our social media has really been focused around 2 platforms Twitter and Pinterest. However, like everyone else has a varied opinion as to the percentage of promotional vs. general interest topics.
The owners of the company are having a tough time in seeing the value of Twitter. Don’t like to see tweets without some form of promotion. So, our twitter feed has become IMOE on the spammy side something of which I feel I must make some changes to.
Does the 80-20 rule apply? Or is it really industry specific?
Best,
Paul
@ptwylie | # | Top
Pauline Cook said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
HI Rich, On Facebook I do about 20 % promotional the rest is relevant informaton, interesting graphics, and just conversation.on Twitter it’s about 90% promotionalon LinkedIn about 50-50 as I am trying to build up relationships, give out tips, and strategies on SEO.
@localbusinessco | # | Top
Amani Roberts said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
In general, I like to promote myself a maximum of 20% of the time. Use the 80/20 rule. Many of my tweets are sharing articles that can help everyone and not about my services. So I share tips and informative articles the majority of the time and actually rarely promote myself. Perhaps I should post more!?!?!
@ahr19 | # | Top
Charlene Kingston said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
I don’t really have a formula, and the mix changes.
I do go through and review my history on every tool to see how it feels to someone who is checking it out for the first time. I don’t think you can ever really see yourself with fresh eyes, but I try.
I really make an effort to share helpful information in everything I do. I make an effort to ask questions that lead to more conversation. I know I have things floating around in my head that would help someone and not strain my brain one bit.
So even when I’m promoting a webinar or service, in my head, I’m focused on how this product can help the people who are looking for exactly that answer. So I don’t really break it into “self promotion” and “helpful.”
@charlene-kingston | # | Top
Ann at greenoak said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@charlene-kingston thats how i look at it too charlene….. its a blend but most is pretty close to my subject….hoping im   giving out good info   at the same time its still about my business…. but not in your face way….
and i try to remember that links are the least favorite   thing on facebook…i read that somewhere last week….so i dont have   lots of outgoing links on either….
i never quite get this…if i m friends with grandma mary or the sme page i dont want to hear about their cat…. by joining i   figure i will get social media messages everyday….some   in a more fun way etc….maybe i dont get what   self promotion means in this kind of discussion ….to me it means promoting the store which is   why im   on facebook…
p.s. i like your pinterest boards.
@annfurnivall | # | Top
Stacy Layman said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
Hi Rich, I post around 20% promotional on Facebook, but no more than once per day (usually) on any social media platform. Otherwise I’m engaging friends and trying to get to know them better, offer opinions and help. Twitter is probably 95% promotional as I’m not using my personal Twitter account right now. On LinkedIn, I share interesting articles about my industry, then promote maybe 20%. I’ve found it very difficult to engage connections in a real conversation on LinkedIn and haven’t realized many benefits from using it. How do you benefit from using LinkedIn?
Thanks, great topic
@brightgreenpath | # | Top
Mike Cartmel said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
Good topic!
I run social media campaigns for a number of clients and everything I do on their behalf is promotional. Everything.
Now ask me how much deliberate selling/advertising I do then the answer is about 3-5%.
For me, social media is about being social and everyone who follows/likes your stuff already knows about you. Why hit them often with promos? Build and develop relationships is what social media is all about. My 3-5% selling? I’m not selling. I’m pointing out an opportunity they might have missed
@mikecartmel | # | Top
Amy Valentine said
9 months, 3 weeks ago:
@mikecartmel I totally agree:) I run social media campaigns for clients which are 100% promotional, but I also write their blogs and try to post out useful content rather than hard sales pitches. My aim is to build value-relationships by just being conversational, informative and providing excellent and useful content. If the customer/fan likes what they read, they’ll buy when ready anyway.
I want ‘raving fans’ who tell their friends and family about how great my client’s or my own service/info/page is, which in turn creates trust and builds your brand. My website does the selling, its pretty straightforward if someone wants to make a purchase, but if you spam them via social media with sales and promos or invites to ‘never-ending free webinars to upsell them to your courses’ then you’ll lose them IMHO;)
That’s not to say online education isn’t very important, but I think time spent in learning/researching/understanding your target markets and tailoring content to match serves you better in the long run than posting promos all day every day and eventually people tire of that sort of message. That’s why I think Pinterest is so dynamic and appealing, no hard sell, just gorgeous images and if you know how to leverage it for your products then you’re already way ahead of the sheeple:)
@amy-valentine | # | Top