Actually Actionable Advice: Using Social Media Marketing as an Opportunity

1. Actually Actionable Advice: Using Social Media Marketing as an Opportunity In the daily blur of grinding away at our checklist for social media, we too often forget what it means to be a human with our strategy. Instead of reading yet another formula made of standards, sometimes you need a refresher on how to see social media as an opportunity rather than an obligation; which is what this post is aimed at accomplishing. Here are a few things to consider on your current journey:

2. It’s not ?what you can do?… it’s ?what they can do with you? To serve as a starting pla?e, go ?he?k out ?our ?o?pa??’s Facebook ?a?out? se?tio?. Although this se?tio? is ?ot hugel? i?porta?t, it is indicative of what else is posted in other sections of social media. All too often we see social media pages that simply state: ?This is the official Facebook page for _____? then end right there, or pages that go with something unhelpful and uninformative to users like ?Worki?g for Dallas reside?ts for ?? years? Instead of usi?g phrases that do?’t offer ?alua?le i?for?atio? o? ho? to make the consumer a better version of themselves, try something like this: ?Providing Dallas families with safe memories for over 12 years through our leadi?g security syste?s? Address your audience, describe the benefits, and clearly describe what your offer is in as short, and concise a manner as possible. This should ?e ?our ?otto ?ot o?l? for ?our ?a?out us? se?tio?, ?ut for the majority of your posts.

3. This is the majority because you want to make sure that at least some of your posts are incentive/deal posts, of course. And by incentive, I do?’t ?ea? ?Follow us for ?ore great i?fo!? I really mean incentive. I? a? i??e?ti?e post, tr? so?ethi?g like ?New Service Coupons offered every Friday! Follow us to grab one and discover other free safety tips for you and your family!? Drop the business suite act already I know LinkedIn is the hub of all things professional, but the feeling of most social media platforms is really quite informal. Additionally, when most people use social media in their free time they generally are looking for some quick entertainment or to see what friends are up to. This in combination with the informality of most social media is highly indicative of how most people interact on social media – casually, in good-humor, and expressive. Do?’t ?elie?e ?e? This is ?h? people ?eha?e like the? do ?? a?d large.

4. As ?ou ?a? see, people are?’t reall? looki?g to ?Read a for?al arti?le meant to promote a produ?t I do?’t ?are a?out?… so ?ou ?ight ?a?t to go ahead and drop the boring business suit already. At the e?d of the da?, it’s all a?out ?ei?g hu?a?. If ?ou ?a? easil? laugh a?d e?pathize ?ith ?our audie??e, that’s the ?est ki?d of perso?alit? you could build for a brand. Being just another social media zombie is the last thing people are looking for.

5. Balance your creative and proven media U?less ?ou’re Ri?hard Bra?so?, ?ou’?e pro?a?l? alread? dis?o?ered that coming up with a new idea or new campaig? is hard ?ork a?d ?ou’ll burn out quickly if this is all you do. Finding a balance between producing something new and pulling from the currently popular is a proven strategy for success. The thi?g is, ?ou ?a?’t just steal a? idea off of T?itter’s tre?di?g list, and you have to strategically market yourself around that topic in a way that makes sense. And to do this you need to make the connection clear, meaningful, and appealing. The best place to get an in-depth view of this is a simple glance at Google trends.

6. And for a geographic view, I recommend taking a look at my personal favorite: the real-time Trendsmap With all the free tools out there, there’s ?o e??use for social media managers to not know what is going on in the world today. After you ha?e a pi?ture of ?hat’s huge, the? ?ou ?eed to for? a strateg? arou?d le?eragi?g that topi?’s ?o?entum. To get some ideas, use the pointers listed above and check out how other brands are doing this in currently trending hashtags, like this Coke sponsored post leveraging #ColumbusDay

7. Text-only posts need to finally be put to rest And preferably replaced by video. Images are nice too, as they receive 39% more interaction on average than a pure text post. However, videos have the largest reach of any form of media, and perform over twice as good as a post with only a photo and some text. That’s right, ?ideos reach over twice as far as photos, so a good bit of advice is to snatch up some video when you can that captures what your work culture is like, what your clients strive to achieve, or what your products or services can accomplish for those that use them. Even if you think you have a boring industry, there is always some good to be done in the world that could be captured in a series of moving images.

8. Rather than looking at this as a task, consider this an adventure into social media management like none other. From requirement to opportunity If social media management is nothing more than a requirement to ?our ?usi?ess, ?ou’re ?issi?g out o? the ?ost po?erful tool a ?usi?ess can have. It all starts from our point of view, then funnels down into our ability to use our knowledge to create something great. If you company is wrestling with social media instead of lovingly embracing it, try dropping us a message to see how we can change that. Image credits: https://pixabay.com/en/social-media-tag-cloud-network-803650/ Googletrends.com, trendsmaps.com Statistical data from: http://wersm.com/the-10-top-reasons-why-we-use-social-networks/#!prettyPhoto