"Why would we engage with anyone? We just want them to read our blogs."

This was the feedback I received on a comprehensive social marketing strategy I'd created for a potential client. In 2017.

"I understand the goal," I said. "You want to broaden awareness of [your organization], become the top thought-leaders in your domain. Increase the volume of readers of your blog posts and become a go-to resource for trade publications. Your content is strong, but without building relationships with your members and potential members and existing social followers, you're publishing into the wind."

Silence. And then:

"We put up our blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn every week. Why would we engage with anyone? And we definitely shouldn't follow anyone."

Ever been on a conference call that's gone so poorly you can feel the antipathy coming through your headphones? This was one of them.

This myopic view of how social media should work--post content once per week, never engage in conversations surrounding that piece of content, never develop relationships within the industry by investing time into participatory dialogue--is still present. Simply posting the same piece of content on multiple channels simultaneously, not customized for each specific channel, not formatted with eye-catching images, not updating the preview box to tantalize a potential reader, is not social media marketing. Yet this lame approach is still the de facto execution of too many brands, small businesses and organizations.

If you're going to achieve any measurable results from your social media marketing, you have to invest time and money. There is no escaping this reality; the Wild West days of social media ended years ago.

You must:

Have a content archive to draw upon plus an ongoing pipeline of new content.
Repurpose content into multiple formats to distribute across your active channels, customized for each channel. One size does NOT fit all!
Have a strategic supply of 3rd party content to supplement your own and aid in relationship-building.
Have a budget to promote your content and calls to action to your target audiences (and understand segmentation).
Have measurable goals! This doesn't mean vanity metrics like fans or followers; this is click-thru rates to landing pages; email list opt-ins; requests for a follow-up phone call, and conference registrations.
Have the resources available to invest the time necessary to make your social marketing efforts work for you! There are plenty of great dashboard management systems that can automate SOME of your social efforts, such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Buffer and Spredfast, but in order to truly scale your efforts into positive results, you must have resources that can participate in real-time Twitter chats, monitor and respond to hashtag and keyword searches relevant to your business, host Facebook Live sessions and engage your target influencers when those influencers are active on each channel.

Fortunately, social marketing myopia is curable. Adaptation is the key to survival, no matter how difficult that adaptation in mindset may be. Adapt, and you'll replace myopia with a clear-sighted roadmap to gaining measurable results from your social marketing efforts!

"Hi David. I'd like to connect with you on LinkedIn."

WHY? WHO ARE YOU?

As strong a platform as LinkedIn has become--and it's fast becoming a preeminent content publisher in addition to everyone's online resume--there are some limitations in LinkedIn's basic structure. Chief among them is the default "I'd like to connect with you/I'd like to add you to my professional network" message that populates the invitation message user's send to one another. You get them. You've sent them. I get them every day.

It takes 30 seconds to write a brief, personalized invitation. When your goal is to connect to someone whom you've never met, and perhaps with a larger goal of developing a business relationship with them, take the time to articulate why it would be beneficial for the recipient to accept your invitation. First impressions matter just as much online as they offline! You wouldn't go to a networking event and walk up to each person and say "Hi ______, I'd like to add you to my network of professional contacts," hand them a business card and then walk away, would you? (Actually, if you would, you have deeper issues).

The same holds true on LinkedIn. How will I benefit from accepting your invitation to connect? How will you benefit from connecting with me? Personalize the invitations you send to address these questions. It need not be a paragraph; one or two sentences works well.

This morning, I received a generic invitation from a woman I've never met before, online or off. Her profile is virtually empty, and there's no profile pic, just the generic silhouette LinkedIn assigns to fill that space. I wrote back, asking what the purpose was of her invitation. Her response: "the reason i was trying to connect was to know [if] you or members of your team [would] be interested in attending the upcoming world's largest Social Media Marketing conference. The event takes place in San Diego, California on March 25, 26 and 27, 2015."

OK, so you're attempting to recruit attendees to a conference by conducting a LinkedIn search for "social media marketing professionals" and then sending generic invitations to connect, which if accepted will then trigger a follow-up message pitching the conference. This is very poor form. This is the social media cold call. I hate cold calls.

A more effective approach would be the following:

"Hi David,

My name is ____ and I'd like to connect with you here on LinkedIn, as we're both social media marketing professionals. I'm working with ____ on the world's largest Social Media Marketing Conference, taking place in San Diego March 25-27. The lineup includes X, Y and Z as featured speakers, as well as seminars on A, B, and C. We'd love for you to attend! Here's a link to our website for more details, and I'd be happy to speak with you to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you,

Your new LinkedIn contact."

Please, personalize your invitations to connect. As the old saying goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression. Don't blow it!

Gins