Back in the day, and yes I’m dating myself here, there was an ingenious advertising campaign devised by Wendy’s using the slogan “Where’s the beef?” Everywhere, from Saturday Night Live to the White House, people were asking “Where’s the beef?” and poking fun at investigating where the true value of something resides in comparison to face value assumptions. Back in the day, Wendy’s used the campaign to highlight the fact that Wendy’s burgers were actually larger than Burger King or McDonalds, and that these competitors had simply used larger buns to create an illusion.

Recently, I’ve been looking for the “beef” in my social media marketing. Like many small business owners I wear a lot of hats, and fortunately my passion for my business far outweighs the tremendous hours that are required. Particularly as a small business owner, I have to be discerning about where I spend my time and how.

Social media at times feels a lot like those competitor burgers – enormous yet not a lot of meat or substance. It’s a delicate balance to keep up with social media etiquette, find relevant and interesting content and even retweet and repost others’.

I’m fairly new at social media, having dragged my feet for years, but I could quickly see that you could spend all day every day attending to social media endeavors and still never quite get done, let alone have any time left over for your “real” job. I’ve enthusiastically embraced that social media is an integral and important tool for us to use. The reality of incorporating social media into my existing responsibilities created additional challenges. Social media takes a lot of TLC, patience, and dedication, and success doesn’t often happen overnight, or look like you expect it to.

Recently I found myself creatively asking my social media coach that old Wendy’s question, “Where’s the beef?” I began to list the justifications for my perceptions. Almost any small business owner could recite them in his/her sleep:

• There are only so many hours in the day.
• I’ve got to put my time where it makes the most sense strategically.
• Every hour I spend doing one thing means I’m not spending it doing another.
• [Fill in your own!]

By the end of our conversation, however, I realized that I’d unwittingly fallen into the same illusion that the viewers of the old Wendy’s commercials had suffered. I’d been looking at the numbers associated with my social media initiatives rather than the quality of those relationships themselves. In other words, I’d been looking for the big buns as the burgers rather than the beef itself.

Is it more impressive to say that you have 25,000 twitter followers than 5,000? You bet! In the course of two months since I started with social media, I’ve gained a few hundred net followers. Does that compare with the visions of what I could gain during that time? Not even close. The numbers had been how I was defining my success and had also over time become the source of my frustration.

But just as the bigger buns created the illusion of delivering bigger burgers, the focus on numbers is also an illusion. There are numerous ways to create a massive following, from purchasing followers, to setting aside my operational tasks and focusing exclusively on social media initiatives. That would get me the big buns I desired, so to speak. But that’s not what I really wanted. I didn’t want just big buns – what I really wanted was a good, high quality burger.

That’s what I need to remember, what every small business owner needs to remember when they start asking, “Where’s the beef?” Those efforts we make, every new social media connection made organically, adds the quality into the burger you’re creating.

“Social media is the vehicle, not the destination. You can’t just ask, ‘What’s the ROI of social media?’ You have to ask, ‘What’s the ROI of specific activities that we engage in via social media?” Hal Thomas

I’ve created new relationships with those in our audience who are genuinely interested in who we are, what we offer, and want to partner in ways that benefit both of us. The “beef” in social media isn’t really about the numbers. Yes, it looks impressive, but the true growth comes from the quality of the relationships you form. Within the past two months, we’ve found new columnists to write for us as well as new radio guests and those burgeoning relationships were formed easily and swiftly in ways that we never could have done without social media. The “beef” has been found and the quality of that beef will continue to feed my small business in ways that a couple of fluffy, big buns never could on their own.

Guest Author:

Christine Andrew

Christine Andrew is the founder and CEO of CoSozo, a wellness and empowerment media company she created in response to what was ultimately the terminal illness of two of her loved ones. CoSozo, literally Greek for “Healing Together” was founded on the desire to bridge the information gap between the alternative and allopathic medical worlds and empower individuals to make informed decisions that align with their own personal beliefs.

Christine held a long and successful career in the biopharmaceutical industry, primarily in the development and implementation of quality systems. As a consultant, Christine worked with manufacturers both within the U.S. and internationally to prepare for and successfully pass regulated industry inspections and also to develop systems and strategies to produce and maintain quality standards.

Today, Christine has what she calls “the best job in the world” using the powerful platform that CoSozo has developed to bring the spotlight to issues, information, and resources that can help people everywhere live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives.