Social Media Marketing
By Cheryl Salazar, The Partner Marketing Group
Social Media Marketing, do you love it or hate it? And, how many of you are feeling the same way I do about social media? The constant stream of drivel—according to Miriam-Webster is ‘to talk stupidly or carelessly’—is definitely what social media is starting to mean to me. Talk about information overload! Whether you personally love it or hate, your business needs social media.
My Facebook feed has become so irrelevant that just last week I deleted the app off my phone to just be done with it. And there are days I wonder if LinkedIn isn’t far behind, although I continue to hope the business connections I have honor the nature of that property. I really don’t have time to scour YouTube for information unless I’m in a pinch and can’t find the manual for my oven or some such thing.
The Business of Social Media Marketing
But, back to the business of social media. Your brand needs it. Your marketing team needs it. Your sales team needs it. According to this Social Media Marketing Trends 2016 infographic on Marketing Profs, North America alone boasts 213M users and we’re not the leaders either—that honor sits squarely with Central Asia at 773M users. Globally, about 31% of the population uses social media so it’s obviously not going away. It’s a marketing tactic that needs to be embraced, but the silver bullet is in HOW you go about doing so in a meaningful, sustainable and strategic way. The key to doing that is engaging content. What do I mean by that? It’s content that is:
- targeted
- relevant
- personal
- interesting
What advice would I give you with regard to the above categories?
Targeted Content
So much content is very generic and appears to be rehashed over and over again. It seems like a simple idea, but measure the performance of each of your posts with your target market(s) and produce more of the ones that show the highest engagement. All too often content is posted and shared and that’s that. Know your market and what they read, watch and share. Content that resonates best are often lists and educational pieces, such as ‘3 ways to…’ and ‘How to…’ posts.
Relevant Social Media Content
This is perhaps more of a challenge, to deliver the right content at the right time. The beauty about writing blogs is they can be ‘evergreen’ and have a long shelf life, whereas social media has a short one. If you have a blog that consistently produces traffic and results, remember to socialize it on a semi-frequent basis. A client of ours wrote a blog comparing CRM On-premise and CRM Online about 3 years ago that is still consistently delivering qualified leads. Look at your library of blogs for ones that resonated, spruce them up a bit, and republish them.
Make it Personal
Social media can be so impersonal because we’re throwing ‘stuff’ out there in hopes that someone is going to read it or maybe even share it. Few organizations succeed in getting mass engagement, and most don’t need for that to be the primary goal anyway. Consider narrowing your target and appealing to the smaller groups you’re really trying to reach. Share personal stories (case studies are always good) and content you enjoy with a few people you’re trying to connect with. It’s the establishment of that direct personal connection that matters, not always how many likes and shares you get.
Is Your Social Media Marketing Interesting? 
This post definitely grabbed me today and I was completely absorbed for at least 20 minutes while I read through it. Now we can’t all afford to employ artists to draw cartoons for us, but consider investing more time and dollars in creating original, creative content that resonates. The investment is often worth it. Whether it’s a cartoon, a short video or a compelling infographic, you will capture the interest of your audience and they’ll come back looking more of the same. Less is definitely more in this case.
If you need help getting started, give us a call. We can put a targeted, relevant, personal, interesting social media plan in place for you.
