It was Valentine’s Day, so naturally we found ourselves sitting at a table eating chips, salsa, and queso! Nothing screams love to us quite like that combination! Seated at the table next to us were four business people. They were discussing business and marketing for their company and we did our best to lend them their privacy. We were sitting, munching, dipping and entertaining our daughter when we heard it. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t help but listen in once we heard them say it. Especially once we saw everyone at the table nod their heads in agreement.
She said, “Yeah, I just don’t really believe that marketing on social media is effective at all!”
Hit the brakes.
Screeech.
Reverse.
Did we really just hear that?
It was eye opening for us. We thought that everyone in this digital economy understood the power of social media for marketing! To be fair, the folks around the table were likely towards the latter half of their careers. Unfortunately, it seemed they had fallen into the trap of believing that just because things ‘used to be done this way’ that they would always be successful with the same strategies.
Truthfully, we make no claims at being experts on social media marketing. There are others capitalizing on the power of platforms like Instagram and Facebook at levels much greater than our own. Still, we have found that with our intentionality and purposeful focus on leveraging social media for the right reasons, the returns have been incredible! Especially when you take into account the cost of marketing – which is $0!
When we started our business, we knew that social media needed to play a big time role in everything we did. Since we are creatives, it made sense to share our work on platforms like Instagram. As we worked ourselves in deeper and began to understand the platforms more intimately, we realized that there was room to do so much more than simply share our work. It was a vehicle that we could use to develop relationships with potential clients we didn’t even know yet. People we may still have not yet had the pleasure to meet. But people that at this point feel they know us pretty well.
We have been intentional to open up and show not just our finished work, but the entire creative process that goes on behind the scenes to make that final image. We’ve shared openly about our family and the activities our kiddos are involved in. We’ve shared our successes and our losses. The highs and the lows. We’ve been transparent and open because that’s what it takes to build true community. After all, how deep of a relationship would you have with a friend if all you discussed was your highlight reel?
In this blog series on social media marketing, we are going to cover the different ways that we use social media to attract our ideal clients, create vendor relationships, and bring value to others. We’ll share actual examples of how powerful social media marketing can be, and give some advice on what has worked well for us.
If you aren’t a believer in social networking and marketing, we hope that this will help you see just how effective it could be for your own business. Maybe you do share some of your work on social media, but feel that there is more you can do. Either way, we hope that this will bring value to you and your business!
Continue reading the other part of this series! Find them here:
Part 2 – Attracting Your Ideal Client
[…] have read this far in our series on Social Media Marketing, you know that we are completely sold on the effectiveness of social media marketing and that we use it to attract our ideal clients and to create vendor relationships. […]