Why do some people show fancy cars, expensive trips, and champagne drinking escapades on social media to promote their services and business?

In a recent conversation with a business-owner they expressed that seeing this online gave them a ‘yuck’ feeling. They felt it didn’t resonate with them - it seemed self-serving and egotistical.

However, this person’s social media looked successful. A decent following, strong consistent engagement and business seemed to be flying.

The question to me was “Do I have to do the same to have success on social media?”

The answer – “NO!”

And I’m dubbing this – ‘the mirror theory’.

Who are you really adding value to when interacting with your audience?

Note here, how I didn't write; "who are you talking to when speaking to your audience?"

Key point here being 'adding value' and 'interacting'.

When looking at our audiences it's easy to simply describe the audience as;

25-45 Year Old, Female, Young Family, Suburban, Health and Fitness Lover (yes, I'm describing myself!).

Truth is, we want to dive deeper by asking these simple questions:

• Who are your customers? Are they; wholesalers? B2B? consumers?
• Where does your audience hang out? Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Offline, Family, Events, Location?
• What are their information sources? Google, Books, YouTube, Friends, Family?
• What do they look like? Actions? Trends? i.e. 32 year old female who works out, has a young family and likes to eat healthy food.
• How do they speak? Formal, informal, corporate, friendly?
• Preferred form of communication? Email, text message, letter, video, telephone?
• What marketing channels do they hang out on? Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Offline, Messenger, Offline, YouTube?
• Would you name them? Sometimes it can be helpful to give your customer group a name, i.e. Mrs Jones which the internal company uses.

Now, having answered these questions, write a paragraph about your audience covering all of these items above. Does it give you a better picture?

For example;

Our business to business audience primarily hangs out on LinkedIn and at industry events. Information sources include Google, industry related friends and network. Traditionally fairly formal language as the industry is 'serious' with industry experts.. There are two forms of preferred communication; the older end of the audience spectrum prefer phone calls, where as the younger audience prefers email.

Further understanding allows us to make communication decisions to suit the business and audience. It's now possible to decide where the interaction is going to happen and how we can easily target.

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