What are you doing wrong, that your social media marketing team is not telling you?
Digital Agency
“This post first appeared on LINKEDIN“
The very first rule of social media: You talk about the ‘SOCIAL’ in it.
Why would anyone want to know who you are or what you do? Unless, what you do and who you are deeply influences or affects them….
The greatest pain area today for brands is that, ‘no one is telling us what we are doing wrong with social media’.
Today we are living in a world that has already shrunk into a global village. There is so much information, that we are past the scenario where we could discuss ‘information overload’.
It’s all about ‘relevant information’ which is easily accessible and about how the products and services would affect or benefit the end users. For this, you, as a brand, need to have a real content marketing calendar in place.
- What should your content marketing calendar address?
- Your posts about your latest products
- Links to your website where there are best deals and offers
- Content that might not be directly in sync with your brand, but does not seem too offbeat and if it is something that interests your end users, do ensure to add them to the calendar too
- A big spot for “CONVERSATION” with your social influencers and brand ambassadors online.
- Few minutes from your daily social calendar to engage your followers, fans, even others into real-time conversations
- How does a prospect or an end user perceive you online? – Do not SAY ‘WE’ stand for “XYZ”; instead, show it through actions as an organization, as a brand online.
For eg. lots of brands proudly displayed rainbow colors on their brand profile pictures recently across Twitter, Facebook etc to stand by their fans as the ruling for same-sex marriage was declared legal across USA.
How and what does your brand really stand for? Do you truly stand by your customers choices, both economical and social? Do your customers see you as a brand or a ‘face’ that they trust and believe in?
- As consumer behaviors rapidly evolve, so should your digital marketing plans and strategies.
Consumers need stories that are visual and audible.
Create stories about your brand; ask users to create a story on their own on a story-line that is in sync with your brand too. It is truly a powerful way to engage with your end users.
- Ruling out Social networking platforms or being there across every platform online:
Do not ‘be’ on every social site, why? There is so much of valuable consumer data available today, use it to understand where your target customers are active and be on those platforms only. Also, do you remember, there was a time when everyone said, Facebook is only for teenagers, do you see such similar trends and beliefs across Instagram, Pinterest too?
Do not rule out platforms just because you “HEARD” statistics about them from few sites. Test it out with your marketing research tools and process and give it a try as a secondary platform. Then plan well, test them out and keep measuring the results over a deadline.
- The myth: Email marketing works, nothing else will:
A lot of brands, even today, rely mostly on email marketing only. I am not saying don’t do it, in fact, we ourselves, as a digital agency use email marketing as part of the processes for social media marketing strategies for our clients, but, not just on gut feel, rather based on reports and metrics.
The core is to understand that, digital marketing is not just social media or Search engine optimization (SEO) or email marketing. It encompasses the entire digital tools, medium and or platforms including powerful, insightful consumer research insights customized to suit your brand needs.
- SEO is about coming first on Google for my keywords – This thought process is a strict no!
Today, SEO is much more than merely keyword ranking on Google. It’s evolved to a great extent to include social tweets, messages across blogs, forums, Google plus pages posts, Bing ads, facebook posts, LinkedIn updates and the list is endless. Optimization today, means, across platforms for your content and it needs to be relevant with the data, your brand’s products and services and needs to be constantly updated and validated based on the scores of algorithms from search engine rankings.
Today having a responsive website is core. Did you know, Google has published a post recently wherein it has shared officially, that the number for mobile searches have gone above web searches on laptops, pc’s etc. basically, your site and content where your share resourceful information, needs to be ‘responsive’, as in device independent.
- Only ADS and No Organic focus Or Only Organic and No Paid Ads:
As a brand, the mix today needs to be a blend and balance between both, pay per click advertisements (PPC) and organic reach.
- Social Media quality audit reports and consumer research insights: Who has the time?
Without metrics and insights, it’s like shooting a moving target in the dark with lot of noise all around you!
- Posting too much or too little?
There are tons of sites, links, posts and articles that give you the EXACT time you need to post on social sites. But, let’s be honest, isn’t the consumer of today always awake, somewhere across the globe. So when to post, how frequently to post, etc would again depend on the reports and social media statistics from your brand and if you are starting a social media campaign for the very first time it would then be based on relevant responses from similar industries. Also, keep close watch on how your end readers are consuming that content. Google analytics, Twitter dashboard analytics, facebook insights, LinkedIn impression metrics etc are a great way to measure the same.
There are for sure, some basic rules you need to follow, for eg. do not spam your fans and followers or bombard them with links and content throughout the day.
- Anything interesting is GREAT CONTENT to post online? – This is again a strict NO!
Today, as important as it is to listen to your competitors and consumers messages online, it’s equally important to listen to your own brands tone too from time to time.
Just because a Video is trending or a post is popular, do not simply share it on your brand page too. Read it, have a look, ensure it is in some way or the other in sync with your brand’s overall style and tone.
- I am the greatest and I am here to SELL, SELL and SELL!
The above line itself screams of audacity of an egotistical individual, doesn’t it? So that’s a simple and clear NO.
It’s obvious; we are all here to sell. But not all the time. Even otherwise, the greatest work as a sales professional is to first build a relationship before even trying to sell.
Social media is not about likes, hits, follows etc, it was, is and will always be about people. People buy from people they trust. Humanize your brand.
- What do I measure? Likes, Hits, traffic, viral / views of my content, follows on twitter, mentions, because I obviously can’t have real ROI?
Why? Why can’t you have real ROI? If your brand is able to connect with the end user, they have already created a bond and trust with each other. The next obvious step would be to also reach out to showcase what you can offer as a brand to your targeted users.
Always include actual return on investment (ROI) metrics with your brand campaigns for social media. Keep measuring them and see what and when it works the best, factors, timing, platforms, type of messages that appeal, these will tell you the lifetime value of a customer and customer acquisition cost too.
- Social media back up plan:
It’s content, it’s online and there are scores of trolls! It’s a real world speaking to your brand in real-time, there are bound to be glitches here and there. But always, ensure to integrate a ‘brand monitoring’ and ‘social media backup’ policy as part of your campaign so as to enable you to handle any and all situations when interacting and engaging with your brand users online.
Remember, brands today have a role much more responsible than ever before, i.e. to connect with the customer within.
Do share your comments, views and opinions on this, would love to hear from all of you.
Have a wonderful and insightful connect ahead.
Be Well
Founder & CEO
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