Talking too much and too loudly, The Bullhorn’s fans are slowly disappearing.
Social media marketing should never be the online equivalent as assault and battery. It’s about being social, about permission and trust. It’s sharing and giving and linking and connecting.
Except for The Bullhorn, who finds virtual ways to scream at everyone.
The Qualities Of The Bullhorn
The Bullhorn is a first cousin of The Desperado, but he upped the ante on his desperate need for social attention by turning the volume up to 11. As his name suggests, there’s some damaging noise coming your way. He insists on being heard.
- If once or twice is good, 100 times is better. One email newsletter garnered some attention? Let’s send a deluge and flood inboxes everywhere! He thinks more is better.
- Why wouldn’t you make use of pop-up technology? He doesn’t necessarily like pop-ups on websites he personally visits, but he somehow thinks they’re a great idea on his. Stop by for a visit and get slammed with an ad you can’t control.
- Variety is the spice of life. He uses a variety of colors, graphics, fonts, and techniques to make sure you know HE HAS A NEWSLETTER and HE WANTS YOU TO SIGN UP and YOU CAN ALSO BUY HIS TRAINING and somewhere in all of that is some decent content maybe somewhere.
- Facebook posts are free. And so he puts something on Facebook — and Twitter — constantly throughout the day. It’d be one thing if they were interesting or funny posts, but they tend to be completely focused on getting traffic and leads and sales only.
There is no tool or technique that The Bullhorn isn’t eager to abuse. He takes a value-neutral tool and turns it into a noisy weapon.
Avoiding The Bullhorn Phenomenon
The Bullhorn started out with good social media intentions, but along the way he latched onto one sole piece of social media advice: keep your brand present in your fan’s minds. Good advice, in moderation. But he’s an all-or-nothing kind of guy with impatience in his DNA, and so he ran with that advice over all else.
How do you stay present in your fan’s minds without beating them into social media submission? There’s no shortage of people vying for your fan’s attention. It starts with an understanding of frequency.
- Demand frequency. Take it easy on how often you push action or decision-making. Too many calls to action wear out an audience. Get their attention by not constantly making demands of them.
- Sharing frequency. Make sure you share great content, and if you can’t find any for the day, don’t share lesser content just to maintain frequency. Only great content, nothing else. Train your fans to trust you. Don’t give them a chance to develop a habit of ignoring you.
- Timed frequency. Share at an evenly spaced rate throughout the day. 20 posts in five minutes is too much. It’s seen as one content package, and most of it is ignored.
There’s thought out there that you can’t get your message out enough, but that’s not exactly true. Your fans can grow weary. Don’t ask too much of them through pop-ups, obnoxious behavior, or constant emails — exclusivity and scarcity go a long way in setting a brand as more valuable. Be present for your fans, but don’t become common.
After all, we quickly learn to tune out things that are common. It’s just more background noise from The Bullhorn.
