Does Anyone have Time to Read Stuff on Social Media?

I write extensively on lead generation and business development and have been doing so for around 4 years. But it struck me the other day that the vast proportion of stuff that I produce isn’t read by all of the intended targets for that content.

Given that each blog post takes a while to produce and it takes time to disseminate that information through social media channels, it could be extremely worrying. Every minute counts and organizations need to focus on what makes them money.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I track the number of things to assess whether my strategy is working including:

• • • Website visits
    • Specific visits to individual blogs posts
    • Visits from the various social channels
    • Views on LinkedIn for my posts
    • Growth in Twitter followers and Facebook likes
    • Comments on any articles
    • Level of retweets

The above isn’t everything but illustrates the level to which I go to evaluate what I do. Yet one could definitely argue that the level of genuine engagement can sometimes be relatively low for some articles. So why do I bother? That’s an important question for many business owners and marketers. In my case, the reality is that the fact that a large proportion of my followers on Twitter, Facebook, etc don’t read my posts doesn’t matter. What matters is the following.

1. 1. 1. I get a significant number of inbound good quality sales leads directly from my website
      2. I get the same through phone calls following a visit to the site that was promoted via the first page Google ranking
      3. My web visitor numbers are around 230% higher than last year and they spend 30% longer on the site
      4. My business and personal reach has grown through people sharing my messages through my content
      5. My credibility has grown. One prospect kicked off the call by saying ‘you guys obviously know your stuff’ – that helps the sales process somewhat!
      6. I am increasingly added to groups on Twitter and LinkedIn that extends my reach further

I could go on. However, the point isn’t that everyone needs to read everything you write. It’s about reaching the right people with the right kind of content that encourages them to engage and share. It’s probable that I haven’t got it right. My shares and retweets aren’t in the thousands. However, the numbers are growing steadily and so are my sales leads!

So, does anyone have time to read stuff on Social Media? Maybe not. But it’s a numbers game like most marketing and lead generation exercises. Do I care if a large proportion of people don’t read my content? Yeah, I do actually and that’s what I need to work on. However, in the meantime, I’ll focus on the sales leads that my work does deliver on a regular basis.

If you’d like to know how GSA Business Development can help generate growth for your business through social media lead generation or you’d like to book one of our new business development and marketing strategy workshops, contact us now on 0845 658 8192 or use the form on this site.