We often get asked Why isn’t social media working for me? Many will blame their social media advisor and let’s face it, while a good advisor is pivotal to your overall success, they may not be the only answer. If you need help in choosing a Social Media advisor, please see our article Is your Social Media advisor the real deal? from last October.
The following article by Deborah Lee gives a bang on analysis of Social Media Strategy and may even suggest a few key points worth revisiting if you’re not seeing the results you’d like. If you don’t have a Social Media Strategy or aren’t sure what that’s all about, it’s okay – you’re not alone – just give us a call for a chat. Enjoy.
–
A Social Media Campaign is not the same
for every business model
If you’re anything like me, you will have created a number of accounts on various social networks because people told you that “you have to”.
And in a bid to give credence as to “why” you needed to do it, I’m betting that you told yourself how you’d use these accounts to drive traffic to your site, raise awareness of your brand and increase sales. These are common goals and so it makes perfect sense to utilise social media in pursuit of them.
The problem arises when businesses think that simply relaying their messages via social media is enough. It really isn’t.
This is the key to why most social media marketing campaigns never get off the runway
We hear too many comments like these …
“We need a guru to run our social media management- where can we hire one?” Take advice by all means, but why would you not put your in-house experience to good use?
“Let’s work out how to make our stuff go viral on YouTube” If you’re going to do this then ensure that it results in increased enquiries and sales. One does not always beget the other.
“If we get a gazillion followers on Twitter, we’ll have made it” I can show you companies that will sell you a gazillion followers. A gazillion fake followers who will contribute nothing.
“We must pay and get a really cool Facebook page designed” Cool! How will you monetize that?
“If we comment on the top blogs we’ll drive traffic to our site” Maybe some, but not enough to pay your bonus in the first year.
What may be a more productive approach would be to base a campaign around what potential customers might want.
For the most part the poor old consumer isn’t even considered in those first few heady days of planning and plotting a social media campaign. The talk is all of the mechanics and not of the goal.
So, questions such as these might be more advisable:
- “How and where do we connect with our audience?”
- “Who is our market listening to at the moment and why?”
- “What do they need to hear us say?”
- “How do we communicate our competitive edge without making it an obvious hard-sell?”
- “How do we canvas opinion and take action on the feedback?”
- “What is the best way to convey our commitment to customer service excellence?”
- “How do we demonstrate our proactive approach to customer care?”
The central focus for any social media campaign should be demonstrate what you do well, say why you do it well and then remind people that you do it well
And rinse and repeat.
A marketing message allegedly needs to be seen seven times before it registers. Stay focused on getting it over and the peripheral dressing can be worked out in-between.
Something to think about and if you need any help, please give us a holler over at MAC5.ca