How to Keep Your Customers Tuned into Your Social Media

Curiosity is one of those human behaviors you can count on when you are marketing your business. People want to know what's new, better, and different. They also want to know what doesn't work. They love to see the underdog win, and not surprisingly, they love to see the perennial leader fail. Of course, most will not admit to this, but we all know it to be true nonetheless. Our curiosity is what moves us through life. We usually just want to know what's going to happen next. We want to know if everything works out? – (and it usually does) That's why we stay tuned to life, and why reality television shows are successful.

Why is there so much attention now with the reality series Jon and Kate plus 8? It depends upon your perspective. My daughter says the kids are cute. I personally haven't watched even one complete segment. Nevertheless, for the few minutes I have viewed I was impressed with how their lives are presented in an unpolished and stripped down manner. I'm sure there are plenty of scenes we would have liked to have seen that were cut, but what we do get to see seems real. You get the impression that you have stepped inside of their kitchen to witness the laughter, the whining, or whatever happens to be going on at the time. In my opinion, there is exactly the right amount of tension to keep us engaged.

You may be wondering what this has to do with social media and how you can use it to grow your entrepreneurial business. Thank you for being curious. You may think your day-to-day business operations are uninteresting. Then again, you are the entrepreneur and business owner. Do you think one of your prospects would be interested in how your company safely and carefully manages your operations to deliver a quality product while being responsible to the community? This is the type of information that makes social media so powerful for building a business. It isn't what you do that we are interested in but how you do it. When we go to a nice restaurant we enjoy a great meal. But isn't that meal more special and memorable when we get invited back to the kitchen to see the drama, tension, and the energy that led to its creation?

So take us back to your kitchen. We all know it's not spotless – any more than our kitchens at home are. How does your staff interact? Is there tension and a bit of whining like in Jon and Kate Plus 8? I'll bet there is. You don't have to show us everything, just as they don't. Give us a sense for the fact that it is honest to goodness work to create your product and we'll appreciate it more. We work too and we know the process is never seamless, save for a few glorious days that we all celebrate. Show us one or two of those, too. Just keep the cameras rolling, document what you can, and deliver it all in such a way that keeps us engaged. If we stay tuned long enough, the possibility of our becoming a customer is a likely result.