“I bet I can chop more wood than you in one day”, said one woodcutter to another. With that one statement, the race was on.

Each man took up their positions and for a while they were neck and neck.

After an hour, the one woodcutter heard the other taking a break. “This is my chance!”, he thought, and sped up his efforts to widen the gap. Ten minutes passed, and he heard the other woodcutter start chopping again.

Then, about an hour later, he heard his opponent, once again, take a break. He continued working, revelling in his impending victory.

All day it went on like this. Each hour the one woodcutter stopped for ten minutes and the other continued to work without breaking.

At the end of the day, the woodcutter, who worked without stopping, was certain of his win. But, when he looked at the two piles of wood he learned he was mistaken. The other woodcutter’s pile was MUCH bigger.

His opponent had won.

“How is this so?”, he wondered out loud, perplexed. “How is it possible that you cut more wood than me when I heard you breaking every hour?”

His opponent answered: “Simple. Each hour I stopped work and, while you were cutting trees, I sharpened my axe.”

Sharpen your social media axe

What does chopping wood have to do with social media? Effort isn’t a predictor of outcome. Skill is. Just because you’re “doing” social media doesn’t mean you’re going to have mountains of customers flocking to your business with signed contracts in hand.

If one of your complaints with social media is that it’s a huge time suck…listen up. When people complain of lack of time, the real problem is usually a lack of focus (and here’s where skill comes in).

In social media, just like in archery, if you draw back your arrow and shoot, you can hit stuff. But the goal should be to spend less time hitting stuff and instead focus on your intended target.

If you’re like most businesses I talk to, your target is sales. That’s it. That’s all she wrote. Sales.
S-A-L-E-S.

But, I bet if you asked those businesses how much revenue they’ve generated from their social media efforts many would be rendered nearly speechless. “Ummm…I’m not really sure. That’s kind of hard to track.”

No, actually it’s not hard to track. Unless, that is, you don’t have a strategy, a plan or measurement tools. Then, it’s flipping impossible to track.

Effective social media is a craft, honed by a well-oiled strategy and consistent application of that strategy.

If your goal is sales, effective immediately, stop thinking about social media as a bunch of sites to share content and instead think of it as a sales funnel. This one mindset shift will be the difference between wasting time and making moolah.

Putting the FUN in FUNnel

Ask yourself:

What am I doing to attract (the right) eyeballs to my content?

Look, no one ever shared a blog post, Facebook update or tweet because it was mediocre. If you want people engaging with your content it should be something that excites them. Want more eyeballs? Start here. Focus on content that meets the needs of your potential customers (What are the most common questions you get asked about your business? What are the biggest challenges for your market that you can solve? What little nuggets of information can help make your potential customer’s lives easier?).

Create a calendar for your posts so you’re not posting content on the fly.

And, sure, you can wait for your content to get in the right hands organically…or you can pay to get it in the right hands almost immediately. Paid media (like Facebook ads, google adwords, etc) can help you drive targeted traffic to your content tout suite.

How will I convert those eyeballs into leads for my business?

Want to know the #1, best way to create leads? It’s not FB fans. It’s not Twitter followers. It’s not even blog comments. It’s your very own email list. Period.

So, how do you get people to jump from your social media page to your email list?

Give away something of immense value in exchange for their email. This, in the world of marketing, is often referred to as a lead magnet. It can be an ebook, a video series, a white paper, a special offer, a free trial, etc. But it’s something your target audience wants and needs.

What will I do to nurture a relationship with my leads?

Oh wow. Now you have a whole bunch of emails. Now what?

This is where the fun begins. Because they haven’t yet chosen to do business with you, but they’ve now recognized you’re someone who can add value to their lives. This is the courting phase. And your job is to make sure they don’t get bored of you, or worse, think you’re a creeper.

This part of the funnel is all about getting to know them (ask them questions, send them a questionnaire). What keeps them up at night? What would they like to learn more about? What are they not getting from your industry that they wish they had?

Use this knowledge to continue to drive really, really great content. Ahem. Are you seeing a pattern?

How will you turn happy leads into even happier sales?

You now have a growing email list of engaged leads. Don’t be afraid to sell to them. The key, though is not to sell to your cold Facebook fans or blog readers. It’s to sell to the people who recognize your value and have already engaged in a trusted exchange with you…your email list.

Et voila. A sales funnel…that is focused on S-A-L-E-S.

If you’re simply using social media to pump out content and hoping this will result in a big pile of potential customers, you’ve got it all wrong.

Spend the time upfront sharpening your proverbial axe.

Because when you’re sharp, you’re not dull.