Patience Is The Key To Winning Business On Social Platforms
I’ve been following Marco Essomba for a while on LinkedIn and his story is, in essence, a great case study of someone delivering stand-out results on a social platform through strategic patience and building a personal brand.
Almost all of my own business for our Reach Creator brand comes from social platforms. That’s LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Groups, Forums and Slack Channels. And so often we hear other entrepreneurs dismiss one as ‘not working’.
‘This platform doesn’t work’ is the modern day equivalent of ‘these leads are no good’. One lead buyer is killing it, another is saying the supplier is ripping them off, and getting nothing. The difference is in their strategic approach to the leads. Succeeding in social is no different. It needs patience. It needs a strategy.
Becoming Known On The Platform
The first step I had the pleasure of watching was Marco’s ‘brand building’ phase on the platform. Almost every day he turned part of his journey, or a recent piece of startup or tech news into a poem and published them directly onto the LinkedIn platform.
You can read one here — https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fundraising-poems-me-april-15-marco-essomba
The more people saw his content, commented on it, enjoyed it and liked it, the more often they’d recognize him in their feeds and respond to future content. As well as the LinkedIn algorithm, no doubt, giving greater and greater exposure to his posts.
Increasingly Sharing More In Depth Thoughts
As Marco’s exposure on the platform increased further he switched to sharing more long-form and strategic pieces in the digital security space. This continued to establish him as not just entertaining but a thought leader in the space, as well as making it more clear to his connections and the network more broadly where his expertise lay.
You can read one of those here — https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-proven-cybersecurity-tips-effectively-fighting-ddos-marco-essomba
The ‘End Result’ — Significant Business And Exposure
As a result of focusing on sharing great content, building his brand and expertise, and not just firing out spammy direct messages and trying to sell with every post he was able to:
- Hire key staff
- Close major deals
- Improve his professional knowledge
Replicating These Steps On Other Platforms
Not surprisingly, LinkedIn is not unique in being a social platform on which this exact strategy works.
Chatting to relevant people, sharing entertaining content and starting valuable discussions. Building your brand and people’s recognition of your name and contribution is the first essential step no matter where you move after achieving success on LinkedIn.
On an industry forum, for example, the first step isn’t to start replying to everyone with ‘I can help with that’ it’s to think of some unique posts to share and start discussions of value. It’s helping less experienced members to solve their problems. It’s to show that you’re a new, valuable contributor to that community.
But across all these platforms, you have to have enormous patience. You’ll feel like you’re giving, giving, and then giving some more. Sharing real actionable advice that makes other people money, or improves their day, without getting anything in return.
Then one day. The business just starts rolling in and people throughout the community view you as an expert. Don’t give up before that day, keep being social, it’s one of the only ways you can connect with and reach the biggest hitters in your industry consistently without huge ad spend, attending and presenting at conferences, or going all Roger Sterling (Mad Men) and bumping into them on purpose in the first class lounge at the airport!
Do you have any social stories you’d love to share? I’d definitely love to hear them!
