No, Autoposting Blogs Isn’t Your Social Media Strategy

We’ve spoken at length about the importance of social media as a business marketing tool. We even include it in our other marketing services. Our blog service, for instance, includes the setup of a third-party tool that will automatically post your blogs to your business’ social media pages.

Having said that, it can be too easy for an MSP to have this function and just call it a day from there. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that effectively using social media for your marketing requires more.

Let’s start by reviewing what blog autoposting really entails.

A Brief Rundown of Blog Autoposting

Of course, we have a full rundown on how social media autoposting works, but the takeaway is that we can set you up with an external service that takes your blogs and shares the link to them on your business’ social media pages.

This isn’t a service we offer, it’s just something we set up as a courtesy when you subscribe to our blog service. From there, it’s up to you to maintain, which typically means keeping your social media accounts connected. Other than that, it runs on its own.

This is useful, as it takes away another responsibility from your team members and helps you to accomplish more with the time you have.

Having Said That, Autoposted Blogs Are Not a Social Media Strategy

Having a business social media presence that you only use to share blog content from your website is like having a Swiss Army knife that you only use for the can opener—while it does serve some purpose, you’re vastly underutilizing the capabilities at your disposal.

Social Media is Meant for Socialization

Nobody logs onto Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to be marketed to.

Let’s consider why any social media user follows a page: they’re looking for some level of engagement. When the extent of your activity is simply a link back to your website, that engagement simply isn’t there. Let me ask you if a page only ever shared a link back to its website that you could easily navigate to for yourself, would you see any incentive to follow them?

No, not likely. Your business’ social media profiles need to be treated as an opportunity to have a conversation with your target audience, the people who have chosen to follow you because they have an interest in your business’ services.

Let’s also consider the reason why a person logs into their social media account: nine times out of ten, it isn’t “to be advertised to.” Doing nothing but sharing blogs is, unfortunately, doing just that.

What Your Business Should Be Doing on Social Media

Don’t get us wrong—sharing blogs on your social media is just fine, so long as it isn’t all you do on your business’ profile. There are a litany of other things you can and should do to engage with your business’ social media following:

• Show off your company’s human side. Human beings are social creatures, in that we seek out relationships of all kinds. Not many people actively want to do business with a faceless monolith. Your business’ social media gives you the opportunity to show off all the people who make up your business, giving a face to the people that your clients will work with by sharing your company culture.
• Provide evidence of your results. We’ll be the first to admit that a lot of an MSP’s services can sound a little vague, so you want to mix in some more concrete proof of what you do. Did your team complete a particularly impressive infrastructure update? With the client’s permission (of course), share some before and after photos on your profile.
• Share your expertise through anecdotes. It’s one thing to repeat the same platitudes on your social media without context. Back up your data. Use complex passwords. It’s quite another to tell a story or share an experience that reinforces the lesson you are teaching. These don’t have to be long—a sentence or two is plenty—but they can make what would otherwise be just another sound bite into something with impact.
• Talk up your team members. Speaking of the people you have working for you, don’t be afraid to brag about them individually. Whether you’re celebrating their professional accomplishments or simply helping your audience get to know them a little better, it helps to humanize your company even more and make people feel more comfortable reaching out.
• Crowdsource. If you have ever wondered what it is that your audience really wants to know about your company and its services, or wants from you, social media is a great outlet to find out. You can be upfront and ask your followers to explicitly tell you what their needs are, not only collecting valuable insights for you but also showing them that you are engaged with their priorities.
• Find teachable moments. A social media profile gives a business a great outlet to casually share advice with their followers. Sharing best practices not only helps to start conversations with some of your more promising prospects, but it also reinforces your status as a provider—after all, you’re sharing valuable insights for free, so just think about what you offer to paying clients!

In Short, Exclusively Autoposting Blogs is Squandering a Great Opportunity…

…and we hate to see such a great opportunity squandered. If you’re just not sure how an MSP can go about using social media, we’re here to help get you started with our Social Media as a Service offering. Each month, we’ll provide you with daily posts designed to pique your followers’ interest in your services while still giving your blogs the exposure you want them to have. Give us a call to find out more about SMaaS and our various other marketing services for MSPs, and how they can help your business grow its engagement. Dial 888-546-4384 today!