How to Communicate Effectively through Social Media

Have you noticed the changing nature of the social media realm? Is it just me, or has social media become more volatile than years previous? You only need to read comments on a politicians page on Facebook, or browse through the tweets related to a hot topic and you read the vitriol.

How do you communicate effectively in this social media landscape? How do you promote your business, spark interest in your product or create change in the moral behaviour of your readership?
Here are some themes I see in relation to social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Blogs, etc):

• Popular leaders/artists/musicians, etc, do not have a Facebook Group, they have a Facebook Page. A page allows them to control the posts on the page. A facebook group allows anyone to upload a post, and therefore they shy away from this.
• Any contentious issue is normally ignored by the owner of the Facebook Page. An initial post is created by the leader and then they go silent. Everyone knows they are reading over the comments (or in the case of many comments, quickly browsing over the main theme of the comments), yet they choose to be silent. I do not witness many brave Facebook Page owners with many followers, choosing to engage in discussion on their Facebook Page.
• Using the hashtag effectively on Twitter can help get some momentum going with your brand or community. #social media #effectivecommunication #leadership
• Cutting edge social media experts are great at creating viral ideas and themes. The classic was the social media strategy of Coca-Cola who printed a name of a person onto a Coke Bottle and then encouraged that person to place the photo of the coke can onto their Facebook Profile Pic. What absolute creative genius, to have the consumer, purchasing the product then doing the advertising for you! There were pictures of Coca-cola plastered across social media, and Coke were just sitting back laughing all the way to the bank. 
• Images tell a thousand words and they evoke a response from the viewer, that's why they are spread all over the social media world. Use images as best you can, to engage people with your idea or brand.
• To communicate effectively through social media, you need to prick people's interest. The  articles, posts and YouTube clips that spark the most interest all the ones that have a viral nature about them, e.g. the top ten places no one has ever visited. Most people can sniff at social media and determine what news article they should read and which they should avoid. Attempt to connect the people with interesting, inspiring, viral type social media, that gets people talking.

From a faith perspective, try to find the balance between serious theological truth and entertainment. If you head down too far with the former, you turn people off from even engaging with the theological truth you attempt to communicate. If you head too far the other way, you merely entertain a fast-paced consumerist culture and fail to have them grasp any of the truth of which you are sharing.

Social Media continues to shift and you must continue to wrestle with the challenges of communicating effectively within that social media, if you want to continue to engage people with your business, church, brand or product.

See also:
How to Grow your Blog Traffic by 300%

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How to Grow your Blog Traffic by 300%

This is not a trick blog, nor some marketing technique to sell you my latest book. What I am about to tell you in relation to growing your blog traffic is absolutely true. I'm not a 'blog traffic' guru, but this may be worth reading.

The problem with this post, is that many of you will not like the answer. I believe the assertion I am about to make to be true and though it may be able to be debated by you, I am sticking by it 100%.

When I have followed the following, I have increased my blog readership by literally 300% or more per post. I bet you are intrigued.

Now, I am not a scientist, nor do I work as a statistician and I cannot verify what I am about to tell with with clear, scientific, empirical evidence. Maybe this post takes a little faith.

In fact, to grow your blog readership by 300% takes faith. Let me explain the premise of my discovery...

How to Grow your Blog Traffic by 300%.

Call me crazy, but EVERY BLOG I have written, where I have sensed a CLEAR PROMPTING from GOD to write that particular post, has generally had 300% higher traffic than other posts.

If you are not into the faith thing, stay with me for a few moments. I am merely trying to explain to you MY story. See, I am a Christian, and I ask God to reveal to me what I should blog about. Sometimes I sense nothing, and I blog about whatever I am passionate about (leadership, communication, the Bible, etc). The blog traffic literally goes up through the roof, when I have a deep, deep sense from the Holy Spirit (some of you know what I'm talking about!) about what to write about.

I wrote The Most Important Truth About Leadership after I sensed that God had said something into my spirit. Now the way I write the post is not really different to any other post, and the timing and way I promote the post was not any different. Though the blog traffic of this blogger post, has gone through the roof.

I wrote The Church will Grow back in January 2012, to explain a little move of God we had in our local Salvation Army church. Next thing I know, the blog went viral.

Now, there are many bloggers out there passionate about increasing blog traffic. And this says something about increasing your blog readership, sure. But it actually says something a lot deeper about the nature of God, and this intangible thing we call success. Let me attempt to sum it up here:

Any Godly success, perceived rightly or otherwise, will be directly proportionate to the believer's faithful response to the Holy Spirit's leading in their life.

You could spend the next few years attempting to increase your blog traffic. Go for it. You could spend your time finding tips on increasing your blog readership and rating on the top of Google. If that's your cup of tea, then great.

Though why not take a moment, and grow your faith in the one who created you.

Handing over your life, your blog and all that you have over to Christ, might just be the single biggest, most important thing you have done or will ever do.

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Disciples in Training on Facebook keeps the discussion going.

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Social Media Usage in Australia - Latest Results

The 2012 Yellow Social Media Report was put together by Sweeney Research who interviewed a random selection of Australians about social media usage and small business.

A random 1,016 Australians were surveyed and they found the following:

• 26% of Australians use Social Media everyday
• 10% more than 5 times a day
• 9% a few times a week
• 38% Australians never use social media.

The most regular users of social media were found to be 20-29 year olds.

In relation to questions on small business, it was found that most Australians want the following offered to them on social media:

• 64% want discounts
• 54% want giveaways
• 48% want product information

Social Media is here to stay and leaders who wish to make a difference, take notice! 

Well, I need to hurry up and post this blog, so that I have time to leverage my social media impact on the world...