Sonia SimoneThere’s a new article every day claiming that this or that tool “doesn’t work” to market your product. Sometimes it’s a fair statement … and sometimes it isn’t.
In this ranty little episode, I talk about how to use Facebook (or any other tool or platform) in a smarter way, and how different communication tools work together to attract an audience and get your message across.
In this 12-minute episode, I talk about:
- Is Facebook useless for marketing? (The answer: Yes … sometimes)
- Where Facebook excels (right now)
- The magical marketing tool — and how to use it properly
- How to know when the tool is the problem … and when it’s just you
Listen to Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer below ...
But Facebook Doesn’t Work For … (waily waily)Sonia Simone
- Social:
- Link:
- Embed:
The Show Notes
- My podcast on How Not to Be a Dirty, Rotten Spammer
- Our Email Marketing ebook (free when you sign up for our content marketing library)
- My Copyblogger post on Is It Time for Content Marketers to Abandon Facebook?
- My podcast on How Not to Get Sucker-Punched by Internet ‘Facts’
- An explanation of “waily waily” if you don’t know the expression (Ach, crivens!)
“99% of the time [an email list] is what works”
Yes! I’m working with a client right now and the main thing I’m doing is building out an email list.
They’ve been somehow converting people by sending them to a contact form. Simply by adding email marketing to the mix I’m expecting them to see an immediate boost.
It’s fun to have that “magic tool” in the tool box. 🙂
Email marketing is definitely more valuable than trying to sell products on social media! Love the show notes – thanks for sharing. 🙂
I’m sure there are people out there who are doing reasonably well selling only from social media platforms, but for most of us, it really does a terrible job. 🙂
I’m in several writing groups on FB. I see most people pushing their products way too often as opposed to sharing something that can help others first (at no cost).
And then the next goal in these groups seem to be increasing “Like” count. Like I’ll “Like” your page if you “Like” mine. I’ve fallen into this silliness before but I’m over it.
Now I’m “Like” a magician creating a strong email list!
Ha, excellent David!
Thoughts on non-profit marketing on social media? Facebook specifically? It seems it used to be THE main touch point for telling our story, but now it’s a gamble on if we will even get 1 or 2% of our followers to see it.
Great question, I’ve got a guest coming who’s going to go much deeper on nonprofits, as I only have limited experience in that space.
I think FB (and other social platforms) are still a great place to make sure your stories are being posted and shared (and optimize them to make them shareable!), but you always want to be directing folks back to an email list.
Remember that the email list has to serve the needs of *donors*, so give them lots of what they want — this is often “feel good” stories about people helped by nonprofits like yours, a sense of inspiration and possibility that the world can be better. People give because they want to feel better about the world, and they want to feel part of something larger. So make sure your content plays to that.
Also, and this is from my friend Chris who runs a nonprofit (and is the guest I’m talking about), beware of burning your audience (donors) out by guilt-tripping them. That works short-term, but you sacrifice long-term support, which is what will sustain your work.
Hi Sonia, this podcast was super helpful! I had been racking my brain about the deeper purpose of social media for my clients and had come up empty. You gave me the answer (building an email list) because CTAs on social media are so difficult to pull off. Thank you so much.
Hey Sonia,
I love this podcast! I’ve been feeling *uhem* frustrated with FB and this validated it!
Christine