This is a great story and it illustrates the power of being persistent and consistent with your Social Media efforts. It also shows why exposure is important, even if you can’t measure its ROI.
Our target demographic at Online Profit Strategy, clearly, is business owners. From sole proprietors to multi-million dollar international corporations, we serve them all. A large part of our marketing strategy, not surprisingly, involves consistent blogging, video, and posting to Social Media outlets.
Last week we received a call from our local Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. Turns out they have been following our blog for months now via LinkedIn. (Part of our blogging game plan is posting every article we write on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Hey, you never know who’s watching and reading!)
Over the past 2 years, we have made an effort to fully build our LinkedIn profile to include company information, photos, and client testimonials. We accept LinkedIn invitations from anyone who sends us one and we actively seek out LinkedIn connections. Again, we do this with the mindset of “you never know”.
Long story short, the CVB asked us to be a presenter at an upcoming workshop on Social Media. The workshop attendees? Roughly 50 owners of local restaurants, hotels, and wineries – the exact demographic we are trying to reach. You can’t buy any better exposure.
Without blogging and Social Media, that connection and opportunity would never happen.
Persistence, Consistency, and ROI
The single most common mistake business owners will make with Social Media and blogging is that they will quit too soon. They blog or maintain a Facebook page for a few months and, seeing little or nothing for their efforts, they stop because their perceived ROI is non-existent.
Social Media success isn’t built in a day, or a month, or even in six months, and sometimes not even in a year. It’s an entirely different animal from any other source of advertising or marketing. Success requires long-term commitment and a plan. It’s about providing value to your readers on a regular basis and it takes time for those readers to find you, and even more time for you to be able to monetize the effort.
Zig Ziglar tells a story of a man in a field hand-priming a water pump. He pumps and pumps for what seems like hours, yet still no water. Finally, feeling frustrated and defeated, he quits.
Immediately, his friend who was standing next to him witnessing the event grabbed the pump and yelled, “You can’t stop now, you never know when the water is about to start flowing!”
As the friend continues to pump, water miraculously begins to flow within a matter of seconds.
Moral of the story… You never know. Just keep pumping!
