You’ve got a Facebook page and some kind of a LinkedIn profile, but let’s be honest – you don’t really get it.
You have Googled and YouTubed your way through the basics of social media, and you’ve signed up to some god awful online resources – which have promptly resulted in you being subscribed to more than a dozen different eNewsletters that are now bombarding your inbox daily, offering you all sorts of semi-helpful advice, that you have neither the time nor resources to put into place.
And the end result is that you find yourself stressed and feeling like your skill set is somewhat inadequate when it comes to all this digital marketing stuff for achieving results in your business.
So the real question is: What does being seriously social mean from a business perspective, and what’s in it for you if you get the social media marketing mix right for your business?
Let’s take a quick look at some basic things you should be doing / checking:
Are you Seriously Branded?
Strong branding is one of the most important assets in your marketing arsenal as it improves and assists with recognition. And it’s more than just a memorable logo! Branding is everything from the way your receptionist answers your phone, to your email signature, your staff uniforms, your jingle, your tagline or slogan, your Facebook cover image, your branded hashtags, and more.
One of the keys to branding is repeated touchpoints. Having a strong brand isn’t enough, we need to build continual brand links with our current and potential consumers. Why do you think companies like Coca Cola and McDonalds (arguably two of the most recognisable brands in the world!) still advertise regularly? Because brand links in our memory will decay if they are not regularly refreshed.
Social media and its associated advertising options are a great, cost effective way to refresh these brand links in the brains of your consumers, but the biggest mistake that people make is not keeping their brand front and centre throughout an advertisement.
It’s not an advertisement for your business if people don’t know that it’s you! So you need to ensure that your brand is consistently on show, and that consumers can identify that an ad belongs to you the moment they see it, incorporating key brand elements, brand colours, and more.
Use social media advertising to strategically attach useful brand associations in the memories of your consumers. Think of it as different occasions and situations where people will be triggered to think about your brand. These are commonly described as ‘category entry points’.
Pro Tip: You want to link your brand to a relevant message that stimulates the thoughts that people have as they transition from person to potential customer or client.
Category Entry Points
So what are these category entry points? Here are some category entry point examples, linked to suggestions for a coffee brand:
- When – Timing? E.g. A coffee to kick-start your day.
- When – Activity? E.g. A coffee over your morning meetings.
- Where – Location? E.g. A coffee in the boardroom with your clients.
- Why – Emotive Situation? E.g. A coffee while catching up with an old friend.
- Whom – Who are they with? E.g. A coffee with the mums at Mother’s Group.
- What – What else are they doing? E.g. A coffee while marking student assignments.
- How – How do you want them to feel? E.g. A coffee to warm the soul, a coffee to energise your day.
Pro Tip: Match your messaging against all of these category entry points, and map out a specific content and advertising strategy to maximise your opportunities.
Check that you’re not wasting money on Social Media Advertising
Advertising is a waste of money if you aren’t going to do it properly. If one of your advertising outcomes is website traffic, the biggest mistake you can make is not health checking your website first!
There is no point driving traffic to web pages that aren’t optimised to convert your visitors to customers. Whether it’s signing up for an eBook, adding themselves to your mailing list, or actually purchasing a product then and there, we need to ensure that your website is optimised to make this happen.
More importantly, your landing pages needs to be structured in a way that meets the needs and requirements of all the different personality types, in the order that they like it. For further reading on personality types and social media, read our blog: How to talk to he DISC Personality Types using Social Media.
Perform a Digital Marketing Health Check
If you’re wanting to perform a quick health check on your digital marketing, review the following:
- Do you have written social media goals that you are trying to achieve?
- Is your Facebook Pixel installed properly?
- Are your Google Analytics set up with goals for your website?
- Do you have some data to benchmark against?
- Which social media platforms are you going to advertise on? You can choose from LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
- Are you split testing your audiences and running multiple creatives?
- Have you reviewed your social media strategy regularly?
Feeling a little overwhelmed?
The issue at hand for the modern day marketer or business owner is that many are attempting to save on costs by doing it all themselves. At best, they end being an average generalist, as they don’t have the skills or the interest (or the time!) to do it well.
Instead perhaps they should turn their focus to coordinating a team of specialists to do it for them, thinking about the added value they can get from retaining a social media agency to do it all.
It is impossible to be all things to all people, and whilst your current social media results might be ‘adequate’, surely a social media specialist could take them to ‘amazing’? And what is your time really worth?
Why would you retain a social media agency?
My staff are trained in all sorts of marketing theory and practice , they carefully construct content in ways that are designed to tick the boxes for all the different personality types whilst staying on message and on brand.
They gently nurture your online community, fostering the all-important relationships and touchpoints that are critical to brand recall at the point of immediate need.
What’s more, they are analytical in their approach and in their assessment of results. In doing so they will test and measure continuously, looking for that 0.2% increase in click through rate, or the ever-elusive lift in your engagement rates – all because they have the end goal in mind: conversions, leads and sales.
Being external to your business means that they are not swayed by internal processes or office politics. Their one job is providing the best possible business outcomes for the client utilising social media.
As a marketing manager or business owner, you need these people in your corner.
And my final Pro Tip: In pulling together a team to take your business or brand to the next level, the first question really should be “How seriously social are they?”
If you’d like to get in touch with a team of social media specialists, just give our office a call on 1300 65 85 43. Our team love to start with coffee ☕
