In the beginning, social media platforms were a source of traffic for marketers. They were a convenient place to drop links to your most recent blog article or lead magnet.
And for a while, people were pretty successful using them this way. But like many things online, social media changed. It “grew up” so to speak.
Places like Facebook and Youtube? TikTok, Reditt, and Instagram? LinkedIn? These places are not just random websites for you to drop links back to your content anymore.
Now there is a centralization of power happening on the internet. A few places where people spend a lot of their time. Central hubs that millions of people gather on every single day.
In fact, if you think about how much time you spend on the internet a day versus how many websites you actually visit, you’ll probably find that you spend a lot of time but only visit a handful of websites.
It’s almost like a consolidation of the internet itself.
But the point is, driving traffic from social media platforms to your own website or blog is probably less important than setting up shop right there on the social media platform and building influence there.
Get them on an email list.
The fact is, they probably are going to be spending most of their online time on THAT platform. NOT on your blog or podcast, or whatever you have going on.
So the best way to handle social media is to set up shop right on social media and build an audience right there. Put a central focus on getting them onto your list.
Your email list is where all the one-on-one conversations can happen that turn into sales. That’s where the white noise goes away, that’s where the follow-up happens. That’s where the money is made.
Use social media, don’t let it use you. Most of these social media platforms have algorithms in place that are designed to keep people on the platform. And they are really good at it. No point in fighting that. Build the following on the social media platform, get them to know like and trust you right there…
…and then offer them something for free and get them on your list.
It’s really the evolution of social media and the internet in general if you think about it. Ten years ago, people were hanging out in forums, visiting blogs regularly, and bouncing around everywhere.
Now, probably because of smartphones, most of the time people spend on the internet is just on a handful of sites, and there is a very good chance they get there via an app.
So be sure to be using these platforms in the right way. Next time, I have a very important question for you, so don’t miss that, but for now, let’s wrap this one up!
Dominus Owen Markham
