The move towards social media as a marketing channel has been great for customers who've come to expect that these brands will entertain them and offer instant support over social networks. While creating content for these channels, make it a point to spend enough time thinking through each post. Start by asking yourself just ONE basic question: What is the value that this campaign will bring to your audience? I can't stress enough the value of reiterating and testing, because I often see brands missing out on some great marketing opportunities just because they didn't spend enough time working on their content. Customers will appreciate the fact that you value their time and don't make them answer a series of questions before you offer help. Measure everything you do - This ties back in to the first two principles - being able to create value with the messaging you send out and the experiences you provide to your customers over social media. I often come across brand managers who measure the success of their social media marketing activity by looking at metrics like follower count. Did they improve turn-around-time for offering support to your customers? Merely tracking follower growth numbers to measure success of social media activity will not take you far. If your brand can provide your customers with valuable experiences through social media activity, and do so with a human touch, there's no reason why they would not choose to remain connected with you.
As social networks have evolved and gotten more popular over the last few years, most brands are using them to reach and engage new audiences online. We’ve come a long way from the time when brand managers would ask questions like “Do I need a Facebook page for my brand?” They now know that not only do they need a Facebook page, but also a Twitter handle and an Instagram account that represents their business. They often go a step further and create content and campaigns specially designed for these networks.
The move towards social media as a marketing channel has been great for customers who’ve come to expect that these brands will entertain them and offer instant support over social networks. However, as brand managers work to fulfil these expectations, they sometimes miss focusing on these three key principles that should be guiding their brand’s strategy on social media:
1. Add value, not noise – Social media streams are a crowded space where people want to engage with other people (as well as some brands) who matter the most. While creating content for these channels, make it a point to spend enough time thinking through each post. Start by asking yourself just ONE basic question:
What is the value that this campaign will bring to your audience?
Answering this question at an early stage can help you shape your campaign and decide the direction it should take. You can then spend time on crafting each piece of content that you’ll publish.
Just like all the other marketing copies you write for your brand, social media messaging can give you best results when you reiterate it to create multiple versions and test these versions with a small audience to see how they respond to it.
I can’t stress enough the value of reiterating and testing, because I often see brands missing out on some great marketing opportunities just because they didn’t spend enough time working on their content. Or worse, they didn’t think it through and ended up making a social media faux pas just because they wanted to make a…
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