The 'kindness trap' that will hold back your social media success (and how to avoid it)
"It's brilliant!", a lovely service business owner said to me the other day, "There's this group and whenever you post you just drop your link into the chat and everyone likes it to give you a boost".
This, my friends, is an engagement pod and if you're invited into one, you should run away faster than my kids when I ask them to get dressed for school.
Here's why -
Engagement pods are predominantly full of nice, normal people (probably) who want to help each other out. They think that lots of likes and comments will boost your reach and grow your business. But they're actually stopping you from growing. Why?
Well, the algorithms react to engagement. So yes, likes, comments and shares do tell the powers that be that your post is interesting. Logically this should drive increased reach.
But what the pods forget is that the algorithm doesn't just look at the AMOUNT of engagement you receive. It looks at WHO is giving you that engagement. And it will push that content out to similar people because, logically, similar people will also find it interesting.
Which is phenomenal news if you're in an engagement pod with a big pool (or even a small pool) of your absolute ideal customers. But most likely the pod is actually made up of your friends, people from your coaching group, your brother's hairdresser etc. And you don't want to reach more of those people because they will never buy your services. But that's exactly what will happen if those people are the only ones who interact with your content. Your impressions metrics might go up, but remember we're not here for impressions, we're here for clients signing on the dotted line, and one doesn't equate to the other.
That's all very well Alex, but how on earth do I make sure my content is seen by the right people? Here are my 3 top tips:
Proactively follow and connect with your ideal customers - this will gradually fill your feeds with content from people you know you can help, which gives you an opportunity to add value to conversations they start via their posts and demonstrate your expertise.
Cut down on your engagement with your business friends - of course be supportive, but by religiously liking and commenting you're telling the algorithm to keep showing you their content (which isn't helping them) and you're filling up your feed with similar people who likely aren't who you want to be engaging with (which isn't helping you).
Create content that speaks to your ideal customers and demonstrates that you understand the challenges they face. Tell them, via storytelling and demonstrable results, that you are the absolute ideal person to help climb over those stumbling blocks.
Of course, none will bring you the same endorphin rush as a load of engagement, but long-term will bring you much better results. Stay strong team 💪
See you on the socials,
Alex
You know a newsletter alone isn't going to be the silver bullet to grow your business. Sometimes you need to bring in the big guns, and that's where I come in.
I'd love to invite you to a free 30 minute strategy call where we'll deep dive into your business and what you've been doing to bring in new clients. We'll identify what to focus your energy on to bring in consistent leads and income, what to stop doing and any areas where support would help. Click here to book a chat with me.