Some of Your Social Media Content Needs to be Original
Social media profiles can and should be an extension of a business, firm, or individuals personality. This is especially true for trainers, consultants, and professional coaches who are the product and the face of their organization. While using social media to highlight valuable material or support a complimentary viewpoint serves as a valuable single source for information, it’s imperative that some of your content be original.
It’s rare that people are excited to get a second-rate knock off product. But that’s what many lazy social media marketing tactics illustrate. A trainer, consultant, or professional coach with no unique insights serves a similar function as a parrot, listening to something and repeating it right back. At first people will be captivated by the material but as they run into it elsewhere the novelty will wear off and credibility will erode.
I recently experienced this very thing from a sales training firm that I follow. One of their posts in particular grabbed me as both funny and poignant. I was about to share it when I noticed a contact on LinkedIn had posted the same exact graphic. At first, I thought they had shared it from the sales training company, but no, it was a carbon copy. It turned out the graphic was from another sales consultant’s page. I was shocked to find that several of their posts had been lifted directly from this consultant’s profiles.
I’ve paid little attention to this sales training group’s social accounts since. After all, why do I need them when I could follow the consultant they are copying from?
It’s great to share, retweet, like etc. content that your users will get value from but do it selectively. Have a schedule for producing original content that people get first from your accounts. If you are sharing someone else’s content make sure to customize or comment on it so that you’re adding something to the interaction. Regurgitation should not be your social media strategy.