Using social media can sometimes feel like a waste of time! Does this sound like your experience? Are you fed up of posting information and not getting the engagement you want? You’re not alone here, it’s easy to get lost in the maize.
For your social media efforts to be more successful, there are 3 key activities that need to take place:
- Follow the RIGHT people. Your peers, people in your industry, Thought Leaders. (Don’t follow people who are meaningless and share no value).
- Listen to your audience to understand what they care about. That way you can then tailor your content to be more relevant and engaging for them.
- Distribute your content to these platforms – as well as from other businesses too!
All these work in partnership together.
This is the fourth chapter of my Content Marketing series, for a catch on the previous 3, follow these links here…
Importance of learning Content Marketing in your business,
How to create a Content Marketing Strategy,
How to create content that your prospects will love
Know where you are sending your followers to?
Listening and reading on social media is easy enough to do, but to join in and share YOUR story or your content you must be clear on where you want to engage with your followers:
- Your Website/Blog. This is your HOMEBASE effectively. This is absolutely the most important part of your marketing as ultimately it’s where you can direct followers to forge a deeper relationship with a platform you well and truly own.
- Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin/YouTube. I see many business start and set up pages on these social websites then realise they have no time for them and so they become abandoned. Having outdated pages here is worse than not having one at all. Commit to a platform that you know you have the resources to continue with updates to.
- A Plan. Plan to understand who you are targeting and why you’re targeting them. Plan what type of content (video, blog, podcast, etc) you will share with them, and how often. Be realistic about time & resources and only commit to what you think you have the time to do.
TIP: If you are new to any or all of this, just start small. Concentrate on the main social media platforms that are out there first, ie Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter. And watch where your target audience hang out most. Here’s some help:
- If you are targeting businesses – Use LinkedIn
- If you are targeting consumers – Use Facebook & Twitter
- And undoubtedly use You Tube for your videos.
Each channel is different. And although you can put the same content on all of these channels, it doesn’t mean that you should. This is where watching and listening is incredibly important to know how and what to share.
To help you out, here are some straight talking questions you need to consider:
What is my goal?
To be on every social media channel takes a lot of time and effort, so take a look at which ones are important. Once you’ve decided consider what you want out of it. More followers is good but ultimately and surely it’s all about the engagement. If people engage with you then this is more measureable because they are then “aware” of your brand, and you become on their radar.
What do you want them to do?
The important part here is that the social media channel allows you to then take the view to the next step in your Sales process, ie move them to your website or a landing page to subscribe, or to attend an event, or whatever it is you want them to do.
Be VERY clear on the action you want them to take. This is then measureable.
What type of content does your audience want?
By reading and listening you will be able to gauge the type of content that your audience likes to listen to. Think about how you can help them with their cause. What information and knowledge do you have that you could share – or do you know where to go to get this information to share it. And do they prefer images or videos, or even podcasts?
Set your own tone.
This is where your personality should shine! How do you want to come across? As a professional, Fun, Friendly? Or maybe a little bit controversial? (That will always attract attention).
How frequently will you post?
Consider the resources that you have and realistically how often you could post and share content. If you’re new to this, then maybe once or twice a week. Ideally at least a couple of times a day can work particularly well. Allow time to respond to people too. Don’t be surprised that the more you share the more response you’ll get. Ensure you allow time to engage as that’s the purpose! There are number of platforms you can use to post in one place, such as Hootsuite or Social Oomph or Tweetdeck. Find one that suits you.
If you still find this overwhelming or if you have any questions around social media, please get in touch. Don’t miss out on our series, just sign up to our newsletter here.
