The 1 painfully obvious reason nobody follows you on social media

The 1 painfully obvious reason nobody follows you on social mediaThe 1 painfully obvious reason nobody follows you on social mediaThe social media worldis in need of some serious tough love.I have been immersed in the world of digital marketing for a long time. Ive run social media accounts for both big brands and small brands, as well as individuals and thought leaders. I have guest blogged. I have been a ghostwriter. And I have built a company focused around building industry experts into thought leaders- specifically on the internet.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreI have been doing this since I was a teenager. Back before Facebook popped, I was one of the most-read gaming bloggers on the internet. More recently, I hit 25,000,000 views on Quora. I have over 50,000 followers on Instagram. I have had articles published in every major digital publication Time.com, Forbes.com, For tune.com, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, and more. And I have worked on the growth strategies of several established YouTubers andsocial-media influencers.Do you know what Ive learned through all of this?You either do social media the right way or dont do it at allIt is astounding to me how casually people say things likeGuys, we need more Instagram followers, orWe need to be on Snapchat. Everybody is on Snapchat.Why? Why do you need to be on Snapchat?Is that where yur customers are?Are you going to provide them any value?Do you have the resources to sustain that value for the long term?Let me explain, in plain language, how social media worksSocial media is like a fanthe thing you put in your room in the summer when its hot outside. The more you post, the more the fan whirs and spins and provides air. If you dont post, the fan stops. And when the fan stops, it is no longer worthwhile, and you throw it away and go find a new fan.This is issue No. 1. People think of social me dia as a campaign. They think, We will be really, really active for a while, and then we will eventually get to a point where we no longer need to do it so much.Wrong.You stop, and your followers leave. And actually, the bigger you get, the harder you have to work to continue raising the bar for yourself.Issue No. 2(and this is more important), is that what schrift of content you post determines whether your fan (were back to the fan metaphor now) fires out nice, cool, helpful airor stuffy, annoying air that smells like the inside of an airplane.Think about how much material there is out on the internet to look at. I could go look at sports cars, or I could look at attractive models, or I could go binnensee what Kanye West said on TV that caused some celebrity to freak out, or I could watch Justin Bieber fall on stage, or I could watch Donald Trump bloopers, or I could watch an amputee squat 200 pounds, or I could. The list goes on and on.Do you really think, then, that anyone cares about your two sales reps standing in front of a poorly designed step-and-repeat event banner, in a photo that is so darkly lit you cant tell if its a guy and a girl, or two girls, or whatalthoughit doesnt even matterwith copy that saysSo proud of our teamAnd internally, the company or brand (or agency working on its behalf) that posts this atrocious piece of contentis saying, This is great. People love to see the people behind the brand.Youre right, people do love to see the people behind the brand.Just notlage like that.I eagerlyawaitthe day the masses start to realize that creating really great content is not easy. And to say, We need to create great content and post on our social media, without allocating any budget or any talented resources to those efforts is pretty much the same as saying, We need to all start playing guitar without signing anyone up for lessons and expecting that the next day your Facebook page will ring out with high-quality videos of your entire team play ing Stairway to Heaven.Do you want to know why nobody follows you on social media? Even if you post every day, do you want to know why you arent growing at all?Because you are not providing enough value to your followers. Not even close.Lets take, for example, how to structure an amazing Instagram post1. PhotographyFirst and foremost, unless the photo is breathtaking, dont even bother. That needs to be your mentality. Now, will they all be breathtaking? Probably not. But thats the standard you should hold for yourself and your brand. Every photo mattersand contributes to the larger portrait you are trying to paint. With every photoyou are competing against all the other millions and millions of photos out there. Stage it right. Craft it right. Edit it right. Do it right.2. First ParagraphPeople think Instagrammeans short captions. Wrong.Provide. People. Value. Lets say youre a window manufacturer. Which is more helpful to a customer, a caption that says, Another beautiful day or a c aption that says, The difference between double-pane and triple-pane windows is the fact that double-pane windows and off you go. Teach them something. Show them how to do it on their own. Give them a reason to stop, look at the photo, and actually take away a valuable piece of information.3. Second ParagraphAdded ValueAre you done? No After youve already taught them something valuable, encourage them to go somewhere else to learn even more. Maybe you just posted an amazing blog about how to install your own double-pane windows. Put that link in your Instagram bioand let people know that if they need more help, they can click that link.4. PromotionAt the end of your post, in a very clean, professional, signature sort of way, give yourself and your business a little shameless promotion. Let people know about a sale that is going onor where they can sign up to receive discounts in the future, etc. Its best to do this every few posts, instead of every day.5. HashtagsAnd finally, includ e a handful of relevant hashtagsso that your page can gain a bit of visibility. But be classy about ittheres no need to go overboard. Just a few are all you need.Imagine this level of detail, every single day, twice a day, for one or two years straight.On one platform.Thats how you build an audience.The problem is that 99 percent of people dont want to put in this much effort, or they hire agencies that promise daily posting but do little more than fulfill that measurable requirement. And yet 100 percentof people want more followers, want more business, want more engagement, want more likes, want more blah blah blah.Facebook ads, in particular, have done a scary thing. They have led people to believe that all these things can be bought. And in a sense, they can.I am a firm believer that if you cant see growth organically, without an ad spend, then what youdoend up spending on ads is masking the real issue. Its not your ad spend thats the problemits your content. And content that per forms well without an ad spendis content that crushes it with an ad spend behind it.So, just like you wouldnt take a flyer designed in 12 minutes by your half-cousins high school senior,plop it in a magazine, then wonderwhy your revenue for the month hasnt skyrocketed, stop sitting there wondering why nobody is following you on social media without putting the necessary amount of effort into the equation.Social media is hard. I would knowIve been doing it for a long, long time.But in all honesty, social media is just a tool.The real challenge is understanding how to be heard in a noisy market.How do you do that?You provide more VALUE than anyone else.This article originally appeared in Inc Magazine and was republished by Minutes.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from nesthkchen Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mista kes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people