Video Transcript
Public service announcement.
Social media marketing is way more than just having your nephew post on social media for you.
1.) Company Networking
It goes beyond just posting on Facebook. It’s a marketing platform, but beyond that, it’s a social networking platform. So the first question you should ask yourself is: How is your company networking? Why do you network? And the answer is usually some similar topic to – I’m trying to build relationships with people and my industry or my target markets industry to sell to.
That’s basically how it goes: people will be referring to you to get their business. So similarly on social media, there’s an outreach component. You go to a chamber of commerce event or you go to your fishing group that you normally have. So that’s the same objective you build those relationships and try to drive business. Secondly, how do you network? Do you just go to a mermaid convention and expect to sell your services on breeding underwater? No, probably not.
So, it just doesn’t make sense. The disconnect is too large. So you need to understand your target markets, your target industries, and your target goals and then follow those same goals as you would if you were not working. And thirdly, you need to be able to convey your message. You need to ask yourself, “Are the people, or am I, who is posting on social media, conveying my business’s message.” “How am I effectively putting my brand voice, how my effectively putting my brand message in the correct people’s hands?”
So when you network – if your brand is very tech heavy or very laid back, you’re probably going to present that as your networking or meeting new people. So, you need to think of your brand first and you need to think of how you’re engaging with these people on a day to day basis. When you go to your chamber of commerce events and you’re a very laid back company and you or representing a very laid back company, there’s a good chance you’re probably gonna be pretty laid back.
2.) Content & Context
So, the second thing that you really need to think about when doing social media marketing is the content and further the context of the platform. So context is everything. You’ve probably heard it from a million and a half people by now if you’re going to a special event – let’s bring up the mermaid event from before. If you’re going to a mermaid event you’re probably not preaching about poaching mermaids – it just doesn’t make sense! You’re on the wrong platform.
If you’re going to a ComicCon or something where the demographic is people that enjoy comic books or reading anime, that kind of stuff, if you’re going to those events you need to figure out how to get attention at those events and you figure out how to sell that demographic – so presenting your foot forward saying that people who look at comic books are annoying is probably the worst way you can get attention there or maybe it’s the best way you have to gauge it depending on why you need that attention so context is incredibly important depending on the platform.
The content must convey the value that you’re presenting. So if you want to sell something to people who are reading comic books – say maybe on a reading light. You’re selling a reading light to people who are reading comic books. You need to figure out how you can attract attention with the content you’re providing.
So, if you’re just handing out a bunch of lamps, that might be a good way to hand out a bunch of lamps, but you’re not getting people to buy into the idea and understand why they need to purchase your product. So building that value in your content is incredibly important. Make sure you’re disrupting patterns and you need to convey why this is important for their attention. You’re trading their attention, their time to pitch to them. Do you like being sold to? Probably not. Nobody really likes being sold to. So you have to build value and disrupt their pattern to get in front of them and then bill that value so that you can sell to them.
3.) The Purpose
Finally, the purpose of all this. The purpose is, no matter what you say. to make more money. You wouldn’t do something in a business if you weren’t making money from it, and some people are going to say, “But all I want is attention. All I want is more awareness.” Okay, well, why do you want more awareness? To drive demand generation? Do you want awareness to have more people refer to you to make more sales? It has to go back to money. It always goes back to money. So there always is this purpose of generating cash and figuring out how to build that return on this investment. If you’re spending money on it there needs to be return and a lot of people say, “Well, you know likes and shares, how can you build a return on investment from likes and shares?” The thing is, you have to figure it out. That’s a super important aspect of social media is, “How do you turn these likes and shares that you’re getting into actual cash value? How do you get people to like you with their credit card or with a dollar bill? That’s what you really have to figure out.
So where is the action on your page? So if you the objective of your page is to build awareness and then ultimately there’s a conversion aspect to it like “Message us now” or “Call us now” or “Book an appointment.” Those things are where you can understand and it determines how you’re getting that return on investment. Remember, awareness is super important, but only if it’s directed awareness. If I was going to sell something at that mermaid campaign and I’m selling underwater reading lights – it doesn’t make sense! Why would I sell there? I would much rather sell at the target market area – at ComicCon, right? So ultimately, you need to determine your action that you’re putting it together and figure out how you can transfer those likes and shares, that attention you’re building, into that return on investment. That’s how you calculate it from the action and the sales that come from that action.
So, again, social media marketing is way more than just having your nephew post for you hopefully these 3 tapes will keep you in line and get you moving in the right direction.