I recently read that a Google Executive said “Social Media Is Like Teen Sex…Everyone wants to do it, nobody knows how. When it’s finally done, there’s surprise it’s not better“. I laughed and laughed when I read this because it’s exactly what I’d been thinking.

Teen Sex

Now I’m not going to go into the particulars that would have my Mom (and Dad) swoon but I was just like every other teen who thought that Sex was the end all and be all of all love stories. Unfortunately for some in my high school it was the beginning of motherhood but I digress. That’s exactly the attitude I run into each and every day when I talk to business owners about Social Media! At a recent Executive Roundtable I held with business owners in Atlanta, 9 out of 10 people said that their biggest priority was to get a bigger online presence. Their biggest challenge? To get new clients, of course. They were convinced that social media was the sex to their teenage business!

Nobody Knows How

Maybe unlike other teenagers, I was quite old and innocent about the actual mechanics of the deed when my older sister had to take me aside and give me a step-by-step explanation of how sex actually worked. I’m here to say years of Elementary and High School Sex Ed never prepared me for the full picture. Similarly, small businesses are wondering how to crack this mystery of having their social media actually go out and get them clients. They feel like if they have profile pages that look great and actual activity that pumps out amazing content that they can go on ahead to the beach or the bookstore and let the leads line up for them on their own. Unfortunately most business owners just don’t know how to do social media. So they make this the scapegoat for their business woes, never mind that they’ve refused to call a single new prospect in the past year!

When It’s Finally Done

I must admit to a certain surprise and disappointment with sex afterwards because our society builds it up so much that I pretty much expected fireworks to go on everywhere and my life to change and everything to be different. Clearly that didn’t happen. I was still very much the chubby blond with the frizzy hair who had acne. This brings us to how business owners feel after spending their dime on social media campaigns and to their surprise that prospects aren’t lining up to hire them every morning. I’m here to tell you, there’s only so much you can expect from ANY marketing tool if you aren’t clear on which industry you’re targeting and what pain point you’re going to be paid to be a specialist in. These are not things that social media can tell you. YOU’RE supposed to be telling your social media guys what those are. And yes, you’re supposed to invest in figuring that out. Invest money in the strategy, time in the methodology and energy in the implementation of the research that you need.
Don’t be like a teenager expecting your life to change after sex when you think about what your business needs to grow. Figure out who to target, what you’re a specialist in and then go out and have sex (I mean social media presence).
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