#SocialMedia Lessons from Traffic Lights. Yes, Traffic Lights
And I’ll say it again – traffic lights. You know, those rectangular shaped boxes on poles that flash the red, yellow and green lights on the road? How can anyone learn anything from that thing? I did.
#1: The green light that everyone loves
Most people begin their journey on social media networks hopeful and they foresee increase in enquiries, sales, visitors and building a huge database of customers – they have a green vision. You’ve read success stories, attended seminars and workshops and you think you have all it takes to get you started. You created a blog, a Twitter handle, a Facebook page and all is well and green. You’re ready to roll..
#2: But the light ain’t always green
In fact, you’re likely to bump into a series of red lights when you’re just starting out – even if you’re doing everything right. It takes more than having the right plan / strategy on social media simply because you’re dealing with people on social media networks, commitment and consistency plays an important role and strategy does not.
#3: And there are times where you need to slow down
Are you pushing it too hard in your networks? Could it be that your followers cannot keep up with your countless tweets and updates enthusiasm? Slow down! Observe how are they reacting to you and talk to them for a change. You’ll be surprised of what you can find when driving at a slower speed.
#4: And beating the red light will cost you.
When faced with a red light, many at this stage resort to buying fans, followers, visits or comments which only brings temporal pleasure – such as how you may feel after beating a red light at the junction. You may feel good because there’s activity happening again but it’ll never last and it may bite you in return as purchased followers are never your followers to begin with. They probably are bots anyway and when this happens, you’re just buying numbers, not true followers.
If that isn’t enough, you may also lose all that you’ve worked so hard for, rammed down just because you couldn’t wait for the lights to turn green. Whether it is purchasing too many backlinks that backfired on search engines or driving away real followers with bots, you do not want to risk that.
Red lights are the perfect opportunity to evaluate what you’re doing on social media because you’ve got nothing to lose. It can be a time where your readership or interaction dips in numbers and it is the perfect time to identify the cause.
Remember, red lights don’t stay red forever.
I enjoy reading your post. The comparison of social media into traffic lights. I like the way you explain.
Hi Lisa, glad you found the article enjoyable :)
Niiiice, I was wondering, I was skeptical, I was dubious, but you did it – you pulled a social media analogy out of traffic lights!
Go Jan!
And you’re quite right- however, I always look at orange lights as “go faster” ;)
In the red lights – be productive and learn. You can’t do much else anway!
In the green lights, make hay while the sun shines.
And in the orange lights, prepare for the red, so you can be most productive!
Haha! You made it sound like a news report / announcement :) Glad you found it interesting. I must admit it was a little difficult to pen down my thoughts on this topic initially. Orange lights as “go faster”, huh? Haha! I think that is true to many even over here! Thank you for the great additional yet so simple advice. I think it cannot get any simpler that that – the importance of maximizing your potential at each “light”. Thanks for sharing, Kiera :)