Everyone is an expert!

We love to surround ourselves with people who have similar thoughts  and to be quite honest don’t put us to sleep right?  I got into social media 4 years ago when it was just fun and a hobby maybe win a perk from KLOUT remember that!!

WOW 1.3 million SEO experts…

NOW I hear 100 different ideas from 100 people now this is not a negative but I have found in MOST cases they are just plain wrong. I am AMAZED at just how many people follow the crowd or a business owner forking over 45k to a guy that honestly should be helping my 5 year old on her ipad.

I love social media and how it connects us to the world around us. Thanks to Youtube, FB, Twitter, Instagram etc I have been able to build a good life for myself. Was it easy??? Only if you consider pushing yourself to the limit every day 16 hrs a day.

I have found old friends and built strong relationships with new friends and forged relationships that meant NOTHING. I have also found myself talking about social media for close to 6 years. Early on none of us even spoke about a viral hit, or how to get reach. I still remember when I would gain 30 followers in a day and be so excited until I learned that most people did this artificially!

The discussion was not about how a business would sell everything via social media. It was how social media would connect people, build relationships etc

So what has happened since that time? I see people PROMISING amazing results in social media. They can  build millions of fans. Tools promising amazing reach for your content,and how this will make you go VIRAL!

Another 120,000 social media experts here…

I kid you not I get 400 emails promising me MASSIVE social media success if I just hired them! Now and again I actually call just to see if they know what I do for a living. Some say yes and I say where are you? They say at work…I say EXACTLY and hangup. Or I will sit and listen to the amazing success these tools and firms have brought to their clients which are know are not possible. That is the one thing that turns me off the people that really need GOOD social media help end up buying from those people and that isn’t right. So that is why I fight on and put on my gloves everyday because it is a WAR not a game.

So now companies are told they must listen in social media.  So now they listen in social because they have to listen. Let’s say company A sells flowers and so does company B 2 miles away. Company A sacrifices 5,000 a month for the whole 9 yards of social media. The 1st month no real difference other then A has spent 5,000 dollars but during week 6 all of a sudden a group of 5 then 10 so on and so forth flow in the store.

WHY??? His social media “expert” had been building up locals interested in botany over the prior 6 weeks and decided that day to have a 10% off sale (everything was always 10% off anyway) So company A had a record sales day just like that and served 40 new customers. Now can the social media person control if the customers liked the product? No but he did his job.

Sad fact reality is most brands are listening to mentions of their brand to simply head off the next crisis.

At the end of the day social media is  highlighting your brand for what it is. In fact I have read and heard many times the more succesful you are for a small business the more it brings out the problems of the company. So actually it brings to light many other issues.

In today’s small medium even upper echelon business social media has now become required some companies get the standard cookie cutter “social media expert” others dig deeper for that special something.  I personally have had a success every time I have tried social media whether for myself or others because I give it EVERYTHING I have so yes it does indeed work..

It is time to face the reality of social media.It is here It is real so just accept it and find the best person you can!