<\/p>\n

What if you had a beautiful gift to give away? Let’s pretend it’s a\u00a0brand new set of golf clubs. Instead of “going viral,” you have the feeling people are avoiding you like a contagious illness. It’s \u00a0around us, every day, in e-mail blasts, Facebook posts, and tweets; since I follow a bunch of<\/del> authors, I call it the “buy my book bug.”<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Instead of “going viral,” people are avoiding you like the flu.”]<\/p>\n

Some authors post about their topics, their writing process, their pets, their partners, their projects and their progress. I love reading their stuff. I feel connected to them, and, because of that, I enjoy their success. When they post about a new release, event, or sale? I gladly retweet it or share it on my page. There’s a relationship.<\/p>\n

Then there are the others. I “like” or “follow” someone new, hoping to find some good, fresh content. But sometimes get the automatic, one-size-fits-all private message “inviting” me to connect with them somewhere else. Ugh.<\/p>\n

The second group doesn’t get it: social media is not for selling. It’s for creating and developing relationships. And, as Bob Burg<\/a> says,\u00a0\u201cAll things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Social media is not for selling.”]<\/p>\n

I’ve taught social media basics to authors and other small business owners for a while. It breaks my heart to tell them, “Nobody cares about your _______ (book or product).” I feel like I kicked a\u00a0puppy. It’s not personal: most people don’t care about mine, either.<\/p>\n

What do people care about online? The same things they care about in real life: themselves, their families and their own lives.<\/p>\n

So why should authors and small business owners have an online presence? That’s where our readers are. Part of our job is to make it easy for them to find us. Another part is to let them know we care about their lives, too. Writing, tweeting or posting on Facebook… it can’t “be about” you.<\/p>\n

What about the golf clubs?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A\u00a0lot of people would be thrilled to get a brand new set of golf clubs for their next big occasion. I’m not one of them. I don’t play golf and have torn both rotator cuffs; my chances of becoming a regular, happy golfer are pretty slim. If you offered me golf clubs I’d know you don’t know me well… \u00a0But, if you kept<\/em> trying to give me \u00a0golf clubs? I’d start to wonder what was wrong with you.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “There’s nothing wrong with you; I appreciate your generosity”]<\/p>\n

There’s nothing wrong with you; in fact, I appreciate your generosity. There’s nothing wrong with \u00a0golf clubs, either. They’re just not something I want or need right now.<\/p>\n

And, if you stop trying to give me golf clubs and, instead, try to find out what I DO want? I’m a lot more likely to stick around… and share your message with the golfers in my life.<\/p>\n

Do you have a social media pet peeve? Or, better still, a tip? Please share in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if you had a beautiful gift to give away? Let’s pretend it’s a\u00a0brand new set of golf clubs. Instead of “going viral,” you have the feeling people are avoiding you like a contagious illness. It’s \u00a0around us, every day, in e-mail blasts, Facebook posts, and tweets; since I follow a bunch of authors, I call it the “buy my book bug.” [Tweet “Instead of “going viral,” people are avoiding you like the flu.”] Some authors post about their topics, their writing process, their pets, their partners, their projects and their progress. I love reading their stuff. I feel connected to them, and, because of that, I enjoy their success. When they post about a new release, event, or sale? I gladly retweet it or share it on my page. There’s a relationship. Then there are the others. I “like” or “follow” someone new, hoping to find some good, fresh content. But sometimes get the automatic, one-size-fits-all private message “inviting” me to connect with them somewhere else. Ugh. The second group doesn’t get it: social media is not for selling. It’s for creating and developing relationships. And, as Bob Burg says,\u00a0\u201cAll things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.\u201d [Tweet “Social media is not for selling.”] I’ve taught social media basics to authors and other small business owners for a while. It breaks my heart to tell them, “Nobody cares about your _______ (book or product).” I feel like I kicked a\u00a0puppy. It’s not personal: most people don’t care about mine, either. What do people care about online? The same things they care about in real life: themselves, their families and their own lives. So why should authors and small business owners have an online presence? That’s where our readers are. Part of our job is to make it easy for them to find us. Another part is to let them know we care about their lives, too. Writing, tweeting or posting on Facebook… it can’t “be about” you. What about the golf clubs? A\u00a0lot of people would be thrilled to get a brand new set of golf clubs for their next big occasion. I’m not one of them. I don’t play golf and have torn both rotator cuffs; my chances of becoming a regular, happy golfer are pretty slim. If you offered me golf clubs I’d know you don’t know me well… \u00a0But, if you kept trying to give me \u00a0golf clubs? I’d start to wonder what was wrong with you. [Tweet “There’s nothing wrong with you; I appreciate your generosity”] There’s nothing wrong with you; in fact, I appreciate your generosity. There’s nothing wrong with \u00a0golf clubs, either. They’re just not something I want or need right now. And, if you stop trying to give me golf clubs and, instead, try to find out what I DO want? I’m a lot more likely to stick around… and share your message with the golfers in my life. Do you have a social media pet peeve? Or, better still, a tip? Please share in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-10799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10799"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=10799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}