David T. Fagan: Social Media Mining, the Ultimate Audience Builder

There is a reason why the topic of Social Media is so polarizing and why it has had such mixed results for businesses. Quite simply very few people can keep up with changes and even fewer people truly understand how media outlets like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and Youtube really work. I’d even go as far as saying that most so called experts that may understand the intimate details of various Social Media platforms do NOT understand how to really use these tools in a consistently practical way.

Casey Eberhart, a premiere lead generation expert, explains it like this. So much of Social Media is an ongoing party. How do you act at a party?

1. Do you just walk up to people already having a conversation and just ask them to buy something?
2. While everyone is holding there drinks huddled in a small group do you try to sell something out of the blue?
3. Do you try to yell over the music about how great you are?
4. Out of the blue do you pull out your wallet to show them pictures of your cat?
5. Do you walk up to a group of people and tell them what you ate for lunch?

While none of these things are entirely wrong in the right setting these Social Media lines of etiquette are constantly crossed. Some might even say Social Media was never designed for businesses. To those people I say “neither was Internet but look how that turned out!”

The correct expectation that a business owner can and should have about Social Media is that it is a great way to build a list and a movement! That is, if you know what you are doing. Sure you can sell on these platforms but that should NOT be your primary goal or expectation. Social Media is for mining out the gold and other precious stones. It’s a process that requires skill, knowledge of tools and a little intuition of where to work.

Social Media is all about two-way interactive communications. You should gauge your success by how many people take action on or with your posts. If a high percentage of people are commenting, clicking, viewing, sharing, and rating you have a good shot at being successful. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Here is the step-by-step way to create profitable Social Media Mining:

1. Create Killer Content – You need to be constantly writing articles, making videos, taking pictures, and making posters for your posts. You have to put out content that is fascinating, intriguing and that will inspire action in the audience that you most want to communicate with. Remember we want interactivity so we need conversation starters. Your content should start conversations.
2. Engage – Once people start to respond to your killer content you need to engage those people in a conversation. Explore the topic in detail. Go deep. Transform these sometime acquaintances to true friends, strategic partners, associates and fans.
3.  Move Them – Once you are really connecting with someone move the conversation and the communication some where else like a phone call, an opt in where they can get valued information from you or a face to face meeting. (Yes, people still meet face to face and they should from time to time even if it’s a video conference)

Don’t be satisfied with just being Friends on Facebook or a Follower on Twitter. Create a universe in which people can live in and truly stay connected to all you do. I want my people to Connect with me on LinkedIn, register on my website, friend me on Facebook, come to network with me at events and participate with me in the appropriate groups based on their interests. I want all their information and want to connect myself to them in every way possible. This is how you build a list and a true audience. This is how you build a movement.