Many businesses have kicked off their social media activity and then struggled to make the impact that everyone keeps telling them they should be. They are sharing pictures of their plush offices or the Friday morning bacon rolls on a very regular basis, also posting the ‘deal of the week’ or the odd bit of industry-specific information here and there, then waiting for the phone to ring with new sales and enquiries from customers and clients.

The reality is that it takes a lot more than this to make the right kind of impact and the work is in not only creating content and shouting loudly about it, but building communities around this content and growing loyalty and trust in those who follow you and your brand.

Think about car alarms. If you’re in a city centre, there is hardly a day goes by when you don’t hear one going off. When was the last time you actually stopped what you were doing and said, “Wow, listen to that car alarm! I’m going to go and find out where it is and see what’s going on”? When they were first developed, the sound of one blasting would often cause a commotion with a crowd gathering around the car to see what the problem was, but after a while, as people got used to the sound and frequency of alarms going off, they began to be ignored.

The noise generated by social media is now starting to work in the same way. Most businesses have their website, Facebook page and Twitter account and a great deal of fuss is made about the content that is created in the early days of their online presence. But as time goes by and the level of contact and engagement with followers on a regular basis dwindles, so do the interest of followers and the impact of the page decreases. That key marketing message you want to share to your followers six months down the line of creating your pages becomes just another car alarm and falls on deaf ears.

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, whose ideas have shaped the way we interact online as businesses and consumers, wrote ‘The Impact Equation’ back in 2012 and its key premise still holds true today, perhaps even more so – we need to be thinking about a mix of things to make people truly care about what we have to say when communicating with them online. A good idea will get us so far, but add an audience that trusts you and a following that can help spread our ideas and we are much more likely to make the kind of impact that gets results.

Take this idea to your own digital marketing efforts and think about where you are right now. Are you engaging with those who follow you and building their trust in your products and services over and over again? Are you regularly communicating your ideas to your followers or only when you have time? And do you have followers who actually read your content rather than just pass it by in their bulging news feed? If you feel you are hitting the right spot on all of these points with your target audience, well done and keep it going! But if you would like some help in getting better results than you are today, let’s talk about how I can help.