Do More ‘Likes’ Mean Better Results?

14 Nov Do More ‘Likes’ Mean Better Results?

You know how the banks educate the public to think the most important thing to consider when getting a home loan is the interest rate?

Well, along these lines, it seems many people think the most important thing when posting on social media (namely Facebook) is for their ‘posts’ to get liked.

At the risk of being contentious, I’m fervently believe that isn’t necessarily so.

Let me give you some context though.  I’m not say likes are unimportant and that you shouldn’t aim to get them, it’s just that there isn’t always a correlation between more ‘likes’ and getter more clients.

What is important is to understand is that social-media is a long-term game – and the posts you’re putting up today might be the start of building trust and engagement with someone who might wish to buy from you 6 months down the road.

Or they may never buy from you at all, but they could become an advocate and a door opener or a referral partner – and you could create opportunities with and for each other.

While it might be hard to determine which category they fit into, one thing is fo sure – if you aren’t posting, you’re not creating any opportunities for you – or others in your network.

While there are many factors to succeeding with your social media strategy, one of the most important keys is to maintain consistency with your interaction, to be engaging but rarely if ever, selling.

Buying a bunch of likes and then posting a photo of a ‘kitten playing with a ball of wool’ and saying ‘like me, it’s Friday’ may well result in ‘likes’ for the post – but doesn’t by any suggest you’re likely to generate more trust, advocacy or sales. In fact, unintentionally, in some cases, such posts can actively cause ‘distrust’.

How?

One of the factors that drives trust is ‘competency’.  In other words, people want to know how good you are and that you can help them get their loan.  If for some reason a post causes a perception of incompetency, then it’s game over.  At least, it is for that potential client.

So, here’s something to consider.  You could continually put up posts of ‘inspirational quotes’ and get a bunch of likes or you could put up some posts about finance / interests rates – and probably get no likes – but that doesn’t mean the post is any less effective.

People want to know you are good at what you do – and if they think otherwise for any reason, they’ll likely take their business down the street.

So, you might be thinking “what’s the best option, do I go for likes, not go for likes or do I just hand over my social media to someone who knows better?”  The answer that is “it depends.”

You should start by considering your answer to this question: “for what purpose are you using social media – and what do you want to achieve?”  Based on your answer, you’ll have different options available – which you can either implement yourself or get someone to do for you.

Three Criteria:

1. Time: do you have the time to invest into updating and managing your account?
2. Willingness: Are you willing to apply yourself consistently to build your tribe over the long-term?
3. Skill: could you do it better than others – or could someone deliver the result you want while freeing you up to do other business activities?

When it comes to social media, you can certainly go at it alone, or you could engage the likes of a professional, of which they are pros and cons to both.

I’ve seen a social media ‘specialist’ charge $12,000 to generate approximately 1,000 likes over 6 months for a finance and property company (that’s $12 per ‘like’) to generate exactly ZERO enquiries for the adviser.

I’ve also seen brokers like Aime Tennant at Future Finance Group use social media really well in an engaging and personable manner.  After trying to build an audience via her Facebook company page, she found it was easier to build engagement and responsiveness through her own.

These days, most of Aime’s posts are personable, though she drops in the occasional finance message which rarely gets as many likes – but reminds her audience of what she does – and importantly, drives consistent enquiries to her.

Quick Tips:

Trust can also be established very quickly (in some cases, instantly) – but for the most part, on social media, it tends to take time – and putting up posts of a ‘cat’ and saying “like me, it’s Friday” might generate some likes but will probably yield few if any enquiries.

You’re better off having a smaller ‘network’ (or community or followers) that are more engaged and responsive than a big list that barely knows you.

Finally, if you’re using a company page, try and make it personable where you can.  In other words, don’t hide behind the brand without showing people who you are, as it will reduce the connection and relationship.  Also, aim to celebrate client successes wherever you can.

With that in mind, social media can be a great tool to build your audience and provide value for them – just don’t get into analysis paralysis around counting all the likes for your posts.