Mike's Number ONE Rule For Connecting With Your Audience

If you're following along on the social media pages for any of the brands under the Insurance Soup umbrella - Career Agent Concepts, Career Insurance Agents, Tacobot, Agency Elephant, and more recently, The Collective Agency Council - you've read posts or watched videos that share a unified message from Michael McCormick.  

It's a common sense message, but with many things that straddle the line between our business lives and our personal lives, this piece of advice is easier said than done.

It is this: When you're striving to connect with a business audience on social media, there is nothing more important than being your authentic self. 

Check out Mike's post below for some more in depth thoughts on this topic.

"Your personal stories, thoughts, and ideas have more impact on your audience than your memes. The memes may get you the quick and dirty engagement. Your stories, thoughts, and ideas are what creates the "know, like, and trust" factor needed for easier sales.

Sure, you may share stuff that pushes some people away, but those same words will draw others in very close. Some of the people on your friends list will bounce. And its ok. They are freeing up spots for others who are really into you.

When I first started using social media with intent for business this was a difficult concept to digest. I wanted to be universally liked. The problem with being someone who is just kind of universally liked is that you are not loved.

When I started really sharing my life on here.... my thoughts... my wacky ideas... I lost friends.

Elementary school, high school, college, early jobs, etc...

They weren't REAL friends in my life today. They were just avatars of relationships long gone that I did enjoy keeping up with. But that is not why you are using social media. You are trying to build a business and an Agency.

If the kid who sat next to you in algebra that you reconnected with winds up walking, it's ok.

Organics is both a long term and a short term play. When I started sharing, it wasn't always sunshine and unicorns. But over time the people who didn't like me peaced out and the people who liked my sharing, my antics, my sense of humor came in closer and my edgerank, over time, began to grow more and more.

Now most of my posts are good for 50-200 likes and a lot of what I share is no different than the stuff you post, but my audience is dialed in.

I'm not just a random person in their feed. I'm the person who consistently makes them laugh or think and the people who follow me have a genuine understanding of who I am and what I stand for.
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The memes are great. They're funny, witty, and sharp, but they are not allowing anyone to get to know you.

Salt and pepper your content with who you are.

Build the audience who feels like they know you.

It's not a short play, but over time you will have a ton of people who love to engage with you on your social media platforms.

And ultimately, you're more likely to close more deals."