What It Means to Be Good at Social Media - The Muse

What It Means to Be Good at Social Media - The MuseWhat It Means to Be Good at Social Media While there are certain indications to suggest that youre social-media savvy- you engage regularly, you know how to use the platforms correctly, and you know theres real value in being there- in reality, theres no real cut and dry or objective way to assess your success. That can be frustrating since youre constantly being told to care about your presence. Yes, seeing follower count constantly on the uptick is one way to decide if youre good. But youre also misleading yourself if youre only grading yourself on that one metric. After all, the whole point of having followers is to have an audience to interact with your message- whether that message is getting people to purchase your life coaching services or one seeking restaurant suggestions for your upcoming trip to France. Im sure we all know someone who has an unbelievable amount of followers, yet rarely gets any responses. To put it mora succinctly If you want to excel at the game, you want to start thinking quality over quantity. And you probably know that already. After all, when is that ever not the case? What you might not know is how to get there or how to know if youre doing it right. Because Im no expert on the topic, I reached out to a couple of folks who are, such as Alex Honeysett, a brand and marketing strategist. She agrees that ...being good at social media has less to do with mastering the platforms and (way) mora to do with using them to have meaningful conversations and create real-life connections with people you want to know and create relationships with.And for the purposes of this piece, I also thought it crucial to chat with decidedly more average users. These are people who arent necessarily aiming to become online influencers. How they view social media strategy or presence is, as expected, more laidback but also full of compelling nuggets of information. Ben, a San Francisco media consultant, whod prefer that I dont use his last name, initially was reluctant to chat with me about his presence, protesting that he wasnt the best part to answer the question based on his numbers. He went on to cite the number of followers he had and which platform he was most active on. Id reached out to him precisely because I value the quality of his posts (not to mention, because of them, Im deeply envious of his baking skills). Although he says that he doesnt really think of himself as being particularly good at social media, Id argue that according to Honeysetts explanation of what constitutes a solid online presence, thats inaccurate. And, in fact, his ideas on what make a person good at social media tell the tale that he is good His content tends to incite a lot of commentary, and people are unarguably engaged. And thats the entire pointIn addition, I reached out to Allison Esposito, founder of Tech Ladies because shes both built up a presence personally and for her business. She inh erently grasps the importance of community and says that she...really looks at engagement more than anything else. I know people are getting value from the community when I see active conversations in the comments. Likes are a little less important but they are a decent at showing which posts are interesting to people... If you dont quite know where to start, Honeysett suggests asking yourself what you want people to know about you and then posting accordingly. Thus, if you want to share industry knowledge and connect with people, know which platforms might work best for this, and then understand what youre hoping to get out of the relationships you create. Knowing this will help focus the conversations you have once the connections are made. You can care about more than one thing, but considering which platform is best for what topic can benefit you in the long run, particularly if you can maintain that focus on quality over quantity. For example, are you interested in landscape ph otography? Seek out people on Instagram and take time to send messages or comment on their posts. Building a voice and upping engagement comes from being real, a factor that Honeysett says is important. She goes on to say that, social media has a way of making our lives seem glossier than they really are and creating a keeping-up-with-the-Jones mentality. Im finding people are much more interested in sharing and commenting on posts that show the full spectrum of life versus show off, look-how-great-I-am posts (which, if were being real, is the majority of whats out there).By getting away from the glossy youll actually stand out, and the point of being online is to be yourself- not blend in with others. And this is, again, where homing in on your voice is key. Bens advice Find your voice and stick to it. If you want to establish yourself as a food blogger, youd better make sure your feed is full of food-related content, because everybody with a phone and an appetite posts pictures of their food at least occasionally.Julia, another person Im linked to on various platforms, says she really values the comments section on Facebook and Instagram. As a freelance writer, she frequently posts articles shes written, but shes also careful to post other things on her page. If a friends post speaks to her, shell post that. If she wants advice on the best way to train a new puppy, shell pose that question to her friends. Engaging with other peoples posts has shown an uptake in the responses to her postings. She saysI dont think too much about my voice, but I guess its there. And even though I dont love the idea of personal branding, I dont think theres any way of escaping it if youre actively online.But before you go on a commenting rampage, The Muses Social Media Manager, Allie Hunt, explains, one of the main objectives is to engage with others. And the genuine way to do that, she says, is to take time to really listen to what people are saying, rather than just jumping in and sharing your content or opinions.So, stop obsessing over numbers if thats where your heads been, and focus on engagement. If you focus on this, the numbers will grow by default. Paying attention to numbers and racking up followers may get you some quick wins- but without the engagement. And without that component, whats the point? If people arent reacting to you, youre not using your platforms effectively. Thats the bottom line.Photo of person on social media courtesy of Sam Edwards/Getty Images.