Mass broadcasts are a thing of the past. Instead of spending big bucks on flashy TV ads, marketers are turning to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Social media is where it‘s at, darling. And in this case, it means your customers, and potential earnings.
With all of the buzz about social media, it’s hard not to become wrapped up in its mythology.
Myth 1: It’s Free
I hate to break it to you, but being active in social media is going to cost you. (Wait, what?) Well sure, registering for Twitter and Facebook is technically free, but maintaining an active account on either social media platform requires a payment in time and energy. Your time and energy.
Time is Money, even on Twitter
And your time is valuable. Please remember that. To calculate the cost of your social media efforts, first keep track of the hours you spend on those activities.
- - 3 hours per week spent blogging
- - 30 minutes on Facebook, every day
- - 15 minute Twitter breaks at lunch, Monday – Friday
Now, decide what your time is worth. If that’s too hard, think instead about how much you charge your customers. If you usually earn $25 per hour in your crafty enterprise, then participating in social media costs you $25 per hour in opportunity costs. What I mean by that is, when you do something like blog or Facebook, you’re creating a time commitment that costs you the opportunity to
do something else — like make bracelets to list on Etsy or knit scarves to sell at the craft show next week. So applying this rate:
- - Blogging could cost $75
- - Facebook could cost $87.50
- - Twitter could cost $31.25
Total that up, and you’ll see that “free marketing” can be expensive.
Myth 2: It’s Fast
Tweets go by in seconds. Facebook statuses can be updated as often as you wish. We all know that social media moves at a rapid pace.
But any DIY marketer would be fooling herself if she thought that social media would make her business famous overnight.
The truth is:
- It takes time to build your credibility.
- It takes time to earn the trust of your audience.
- It takes time to gather a following of loyal fans.
It’s hard not to want immediate results — but give yourself some credit, and give social media some time to be successful. You will see results, just not instantly.
Myth 3: It’s Difficult
Social media has a learning curve. There is no denying that. Talking in 140 character blurbs can take a little getting used to.
But you know, we talk all the time. To our family, to our friends, to complete strangers, and to potential customers. Each of these conversations has its own voice. And I’d imagine that in real life, these conversations come naturally. And at its core, what is social media but conversations online?
The format of online conversation is different, sure. But don’t put off your social media efforts because you don’t understand something. Free tutorials abound on the web. Here’s a glossary to get you started.
Once you get the hang of it, social media is really fun. And more than fun, it is a ridiculously fabulous way to connect with customers on a more personal level.
Myth 4: It’s Optional
Ah – the worst myth of them all. Some biz owners would rather ignore social media altogether than invest the time it takes to learn how to use social media as a marketing tool to grow their business. But therein lies the rub — the online conversation is going on about you, with or without you.
And guess what, marketing isn’t about you, is it? Instead, social media marketing is all about engaging with your customers. Join the customer conversation on the social media sites that your customers already use.
If your customers are on Twitter, you should seriously consider tweeting. If your customers love Flickr, try uploading photos of your new collection, and see what kind of response it gets. Make it part of your job description to interact with your customers on a daily basis. Schedule it, and do it.
P.S. If you need help getting your feet wet in the sea of social media — I’m available for one-on-one coaching and planning sessions. Send me an email: sarah [at ] makeryblog.com, and we will work together to grow your business.
Related posts:
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
this is so true. I am just now starting to build an online presence for my craft business and I spend more time online, posting on facebook and forumws than I do in my studio, sewing! I have started using twitter but I am not completely at ease with it. The same with my blog…
It is crucial, though, especially for new businesses that need to generate traffic and get their work talked about. Thanks to posts like these, I learn new things everyday that help me along the way!
Nicely done, Sarah – this is a great encapsulation of the challenges and benefits of social media marketing.
The social media aspect can be a complete time-suck if you’re not careful. While I do love it and completely understand its worth, I find that I easily get lost in the e-world, which takes away time that I should spend actually making things for my shop. Today, I started implementing a bit of a micro-managed daily schedule to put me on track. My hope is that it will limit my time spent on these sites, which often starts with a good intention and ends with procrastination and loss of productivity.
You are right! Social media is like a black hole — it can take up all of our energy and zap our productivity if we let it. I like your idea of setting time limits. Have you ever thought about scheduling your tweets and posts in advance?
I just started this whole social media thing 3 weeks ago. But I do limit the time to early morning before I dive into the day and after hours at night, otherwise I could totally be riding this wave all day, bouncing from one excellent piece of advice to the next. My business is all online for me so reaching out and finding more ways to connect has been a boon to me, I can’t believe it. I feel like I’ve been asleep all this time! Since I’m a newbie, I’ve made it a limit to gain one good insight a day and implement it whether it’s to the blog or to the studio work. The education is too hard to pass up to me and I do really apply it to my needs. I’m having a blast with it. I thank all you creative geniuses that I’ve been crossing paths with.
Good for you! And it sounds like you’ve really been successful in applying what you’ve learned to grow your business. Maybe you’d like to share what techniques have had the biggest impact on your business? Email me if you would be interested in doing an interview for the blog! Here is my email: Sarah@makeryblog.com
Hi – so glad I found this site! What useful information – thanks so much Sarah!!