Don’t get lost in a sea of Social Media
You have probably been in this situation - you are discussing your social media strategy and content marketing plans. Everyone on the call or in the room will start to list where they think your content should go. “Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TicTock, Snapchat, Twitter….”
We all agree, we should have our content reach as far as possible. However, every platform requires attention and will generate data that you will need to consider. You will need to respond to each of the messages and comments you receive. All of these activities will require time, focus, organisation, development, consideration and budget. Quickly you begin to realise, there is not enough time to do everything. So what can you do?
To make things easier to implement and to help your team - here are some guidelines to follow.
Define your audiences and people you want to reach
Understanding your customer is crucial. You and your team need to dedicate time to defining your audience personas. Personas are in depth categorisations of who you are targeting with your product or service. They will include details such as socio-demographic data, locations, preferences, buying behaviour and, importantly, their online media habits.
By having defined personas to target, you will be able to select an accurate and productive media strategy. This will enable you to select the correct platforms to use and where to spend your resources.
(Note - We will be releasing content in the future that will focus on how to define your audience personas…..)
Select your primary media platform(s)
So now you know who you want to reach and where they spend time online, you can allocate your resources. You will realise quickly that it will not be necessary, for example, to create and promote content on Tik Tok, if your audience personas are white collar workers in their mid 30s. Also, you will be able to choose the right platform for the type of engagement you are looking to create.
For example, if you wish to target a customer persona like the one mentioned above (white-collar workers, mid 30s to mid 40s in age, working in marketing / advertising industry, Ireland based and …..) you could choose the following social media hierarchy plan;
Primary media platform for content and direct response - LinkedIn
Secondary platforms for cross channel promotion - Meta (Facebook and Instagram Business) linking to LinkedIn posts or website
Tertiary Platforms for awareness - Twitter (post promoting content on LinkedIn only)
Once you have chosen your media platforms you can cascade your content efficiently through any other platforms you wish to have a presence on. You may want to still be present on certain platforms to maintain brand recognition and overall awareness. However, these secondary and tertiary platforms should not take away resources from the platforms where your target customers are most active.
You must engage with your audience
Now you have committed to engaging with your audience, you need to treat them like they are speaking to you in person. Social media users will ask questions, leave feedback and expect responses. They will remember the experience they have, whether they are positive or negative. In fact they are more likely to share negative experiences than positive ones.
You and your team should agree on tactics to deal with comments in advance. It may be best to only allow comments on your primary and secondary social media channels. This is another reason to use tertiary channels to promote your main social media channels. It is also useful to have a default approach for comments that require in depth responses. This could be prompting users to email a dedicated customer service address. This will aid confidentiality and ensure your social media stays on message.
Learn from the data
All platforms now have robust analytics and data sets. These should be monitored as closely as possible. The key things to track are whether you are reaching your desired audience(s) in the right locations. You must also monitor what type of content is performing better than others, and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
It is also important to monitor your traffic sources to understand the browsing experience of your audience. Are they coming from your website? Are they finding you on Google, either through organic search or paid search? Are there other marketing activities, such as PR or display advertising, that is driving traffic to your social media channels? All of these data points should help you make the next set of decisions for your overall social media strategy.
Don’t pay until your ready
Every channel will want you to sponsor posts or avail of their paid marketing services. These can seem extremely cost effective. But if you do not have your overall social media approach configured, you will not be able to ascertain the impact of your spend.
You will need to define whether you are paying for additional traffic to your posts, and subsequently your website. Or you may be paying to increase lead generation through form fills on your site, or direct enquiries on the social media platform itself. Either way, the end goal of your spend should be trackable in other to calculate the return. If you cannot do this in advance there is a strong chance your impact will be inconclusive and / or a waste of money.
Stay tuned over the next few weeks when we will publish some further tips on online advertising spend and how your team can make the most from your budget.
For more information on the above or to chat about your marketing strategies visit https://www.alcomis.ie/contact or contact phelim@alcomis.ie
