I have a question for you today: is social media working for you—or, are you working for social media? Many small business owners have adopted social media platforms and are finding there is nothing at the end of the rainbow.

Let’s talk about Twitter, as this is a great example, which came to being on July 15, 2006. If you think about Twitter with respect to the first mover advantage you get the idea that the people who jumped on the Twitter bandwagon first are the people who are successful. On the other hand if that were true then no one after 2006 would have succeeded on Twitter.

I think people have ‘lost the plot’ where social media platforms are concerned! Whether you are working on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, to name the most well known, you control your destiny and can make decisions, which will ultimately mean success or failure.

When you decide to start a small business one of the first things you are told is to work on a business plan, set goals (financial and otherwise) and do lots of market research. In essence you have work to do before you even start making any money. The majority of people who use social media expect instant gratification, have no idea why they are using social media and either follow like sheep or stand out like people who have no idea what they are doing.

Many people who found early success on Twitter did so because they did something different which encouraged people to follow them and want to buy their products or services, outside of social media.

Social media is about creating a presence online, building relationships, and creating awareness about who you are, what you do and why you do it. The challenges start popping up when some of the users insist there is no need to walk away from your computer screen and meet people face to face. Check out what Wikipedia has to say about Social Media. In my simple terms I believe it to be: finding ways to communicate with others, interacting and sharing information.  Ideally, and this works for me, where possible I meet people off line when I have built up a strong relationship with them. Obviously if you are a talented salesperson and can sell on the line you might well be successful, but the majority of people are not and fail to realise they are working for social media, not the other way around. How is this so? Taking Twitter as an example again, if nobody joined then there would be no Twitter! By staying there even though your business is not gaining from the exercise you are purely working for that platform to keep it going.

If your expectation of social media is purely to socialize with others, this is fine; taking the process a step further may not work for you as it does for others. Knowing why you are there, what you are doing allows you peace of mind to know it is working for you.

I use Twitter as a tool to get to know people, but if I relied on this as a way to generate all my sales then I would be out of business in a very short time. Sales can come from social media but in my experience you have to be in it for the long haul and have short and long-term goals.

If you use social media properly and build a strong foundation by clearly defining who you are, via your profile first and foremost, and then by your tweets and ultimately your followers, you will have succeeded. Whether that is your success or not is a decision you have to make.

Some tips I want to share with you that have helped me use social media in general for my benefit are:

• Knowing that I can change my profile whenever I want. This is useful if you are established on social media platforms and what to share information about events, products or services via websites. Followers are interested in this information, and by changing your profile now and then to suit this purpose it is a quick and easy way to share information without using the 140 characters on Twitter.
• Caring about others, whether it is offering tips on how to find a job, or where you found a great graphic artist. Being able to share with your followers how you build your success means you are open and this leads to trust.
• Following people back who are new to social media… everyone has to start somewhere. We all started with zero followers.

Take a look at your social media plan and if you have no plan, no goals, no idea why or how or when or what, step back and start again. Treat social media as part of your business and set short and long-term plans, which you can review, and revise over time. First impressions count in everything we do in life, but assuming you have not made a complete mess of your online reputation you can go back to the beginning and start all over again, if you need to.

I know that social media is working for me, and I do see instances where social media has people working for it. They sit there day after day encouraging more people to jump aboard, and this will continue to work for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. It’s all about choices, social media is not smoke and mirrors, it’s as transparent as a clear blue sky.

If you take a tip from me and start enjoying social media, as you do your business, you will not only feel happier and less stressed you will move forward with your initiatives and reach the success you are working hard to achieve!

“Fans, Tweets & Likes are vanity. ROI is sanity. It’s up to you to decide how crazy you can afford to be.”

- Lori R Taylor

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is the Social Sweetheart. She is President of Motivational Steps and Co-Founder of the Small Business Community Network (SBCN) based in Waterloo Region. Find out more about Linda at www.motivationalsteps.com and www.sbcncanada.org