Why most people starting in social media, purely for social media’s sake get screwed.  And how to make a lot more money, gain a lot more followers, faster…

Let me preface this by saying that this will be a rant and a random meshing of several of my thoughts together, but that I think this may be some of the most important stuff you can think about for YOU on social media, like ever.  Because if you’re doing it for business AT ALL, you had better get a real strategy and clearer vision behind what you’re doing and why. ALSO, this is really me figuring out some of my own stuff, I am writing this for me more than anything, but I hope it helps you at the same time.

I realized that my goal is never to be a “social media celebrity” and that trying to be a social media celebrity and focus more on being an entrepreneur, who uses social media for authenticity, passion and fun.

A while ago, I wrote an article called, the “Ultimate Branding Strategy,” while I think that branding is not really the right focus, it’s something we all have to think about and it’s important. Here’s a link to it. I may not still completely agree with everything I said back then, but I think it’s one of my best articles ever.

You may also like my article: How To Build A Huge Following in Social Media

There is also an interesting pattern I have noticed about the people who have the most followers on twitter for example.

They are all famous or important for some other reason, and they used social media to amplify that.  I’ll admit, what we talked about 6-12 months ago with social media and who was doing well was really a pure game because normal celebrities like ashton kutcher were’nt on there yet.  You almost can’t count that because there’s all kind of famous for the sake of being famous, and did it in other mediums.  Even the movie stars focused on being entrepreneurs in a way, they set out to make movies that made a lot of people happy, not to get a million followers on twitter.

THE POINT: Build something great for it’s own purpose and yours and bring all the authenticity, transparency and you and your greatness and uniqueness to the world including social media, but not because of it.  Here’s my two strategic axioms.

Entrepreneurship First, Fans and Followers Second.

Market First, Product Second.

Case In Point:

Our e Commerce company (not going to mention it here because that’s not the point and there’s privacy stuff) just jumped into social media and there isn’t one person that’s the face and we use it and are authentic and all of the other stuff, but our face book page grew from 0 to over 10,000 and generating 5 figures in sales per month just from the links on face book in about 30-60 days.  That’s incredible really when  you think about it.  It’s because we focused on serving a specific need of a large similar group of people, not trying to get a large group of similar people to focus on us.

…It’s because we focused on serving a specific need of a large similar group of people, not trying to get a large group of similar people to focus on us.”

On Popularity and Politics: POPULARITY IS NOT A STRATEGY… Authority may be

Personally I think focusing on this stuff is draining, painful, selfish, and ultimately pointless.

Most of all it’s not strategic.  This whole game is all about marketing.  Social Media allows us to do marketing in ways that create transparency and trust like never before.  You have to remember though that there is only so much space in people’s heads, and that the tighter your niche the easier it is for you to be number 1.

You can build, automate, systematize and own and leverage a business built on the purpose of serving a specific need.  You can do it more than once.  And probably will in your life time.  People change jobs and employment all the time.

Remember Why Steve Jobs or Jet Blue Or Anyone Being On Twitter Was Cool In The First Place…

It was because it was actually steve jobs, or because they were actually and already cool or important.  It was like inside access to the life of someone you never thought you’d be able to talk to and now you can ask them a question! Cool!  You can see what they’re thinking about and doing… awesome!

So, if you want a lot of people to follow you and think that you are awesome, go out and actually BE awesome.

(PS you might be awesome at teaching about social media or marketing or whatever, and that’s my point.  People are interested in that, and therefore you because of your awesomeness in that… get it?)

At least that is what I am going to focus on doing more of…