Last week we held a social media marketing workshop at the One Twelfth, Inc. office. We started the workshop with an introduction of its importance, which in case I haven’t drilled into you by now, can have numerous positive and negative effects.
However, after explaining all the positive outcomes that come from a successful social media marketing campaign our client was still skeptical about investing in it. BUT WHY?
Not Recognizing the Value of Social Media
For the most part, most clients who are not big brands have two beliefs towards social media marketing that can hurt them in their online presence.
1. Social media is not an effective use of my assets.
If your company is a startup or small business, every penny allocated to marketing is crucial. Because, most small business do not have a lot of time or money to spend on digital marketing, they do not think that social media marketing will have enough weight on bettering their business. This is a big misconception in my opinion. If done right, social media can help acquire leads and or receive feedback from existing customers.
2. Social media is important so I just post.
Some small businesses realize that being involved in social media activities is important but they fail to realize the importance of the content that they share with their audience. It is not enough to just share articles from external sites and write blurbs that have no thought behind it. CONTENT IS KING. That being said, here are a few important tips in content creation:
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- 1. Find your voice and style. Remember that you may be the writer but you are writing on behalf of an organization or brand. We always encourage to post with intention to convey a brand value in the message.Write for your audience. Go back to marketing basics. Bisect your market. What are the demographics? etc.
- 2. Create a social media content calendar. Be consistent in your posting. I strongly urge that you post either once a week, twice a week, three times, whatever is manageable, but make sure that you do so throughout time. Set aside time to create a week or month’s worth of posts.
- 3. Back up your message with visuals. In the realm of social media, it seems that most people respond well to visual stimuli. Are your photographs aesthetically appealing? Do you have videos? Infographics? How are you adding value to the posts that you are providing to your community of readers. This is where you need to invest assets (time + money).
- Social media is an ever-changing atmosphere. Everyday something new is coming onto the scene or already existing platforms are being updated and improved. Pay attention to what is happening with social media because whether you care about it or not – people are consuming information and interacting via these platforms.
Of course, in the timeframe of a four-hour workshop we can only cover so much with a client, but these are the basics to get you thinking about what you are doing to improve your online presence.
