Marketing Smarter with Social Media

Social media is an invaluable piece of the puzzle for any worthwhile marketing team. After all, with social media, a brand can directly address their customer base, creating lasting impressions that will lead directly to a better relationship between customers and a company. 

However, with that knowledge, there is an issue of where, precisely, one should expend their efforts. Should a brand focus on one main platform for social media interactions, creating a more tailored approach, or should they try to cast a wide net, allowing them to reach as many people as possible?

Before that discussion, it is worthwhile to think about what companies are really trying to achieve with their social media platforms. Ultimately, as the writer Chris Lake puts it, we are trying to “[drive] engagement and interaction. The goal of any social optimisation strategy is to provide the right tools so that people can engage with your brand / people / products / services onsite and offsite” (Lake 2009). A good social media strategy, in other words, should serve to connect with our customers, wherever they may be. 

Going a bit further than that, it’s important to remember that just creating content for the sake of creating content isn’t good enough. Indeed, “content without conversation is just broadcasting, or just advertising. It goes to the listener/reader/viewer/visitor... and stops there” (Novak 2010). 

Of course, not everyone agrees with these writers. In an article, Michael Greenberg states that, “The reality is, if you aren’t already generating a fair amount of content, it will be difficult to keep up any sort of cadence and maintain your content promise. Plus, most e-commerce marketers’ websites are specifically geared towards conversion” (Greenberg 2009). 

While the author’s arguments are compelling, they ultimately leave me cold. As a marketer, I can design a great ad but if it doesn’t resonate with our customer base, making them “like” or click on it, I’ve surely failed at my job. Imagine, if you will, just the sheer volume of “content” floating around. Every brand has several channels and all attempt to put “stuff” out in the world on a regular basis. But my question would be, so what? If a tree falls in the forest and nobody can hear it does it make a sound? If content gets pushed out onto Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and nobody likes it, does it really matter? 

Here’s the example I would use: let’s say, for example, a store is having its grand opening. It decides to focus all of its resources on creating posts for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. It creates one standard image across all of these channels, and shares it repeatedly. Maybe it gets good impressions at first, but shortly thereafter, people start to tune it out. Sure, they’re churning out content, but without actual “conversations,” nobody cares. How many ads have you seen that simply go in one ear and out the other because you didn’t care about them? However, if this content is interesting to you, you’re much more likely to interact with it which, importantly, creates a lasting impact. 

What’s all this mean? In short, when generating content or deciding on what platform you use to advertise, the answer is to be smart. There’s no “one size fits all” solution to any of these issues. Rather, it’s important to understand your audience, find out where they hang out, and tailor a communications plan that will result in conversations with that audience. 

Consider, if you will, a beach clothes company advertising on a site such as LinkedIn. Surely, plenty of users may see our ads for shorts, bathing suits, and flip flops. Some may even buy them. But LinkedIn users aren’t on that site to look for beach gear. They’re there for networking, business information, and the like. So why would they want to look at our products on that site? 

In other words, listen to Brian Solis, who said, “Don’t just participate solely in your own domains. Participate where your presence is advantageous and mandatory” (Solis 2010). Venturing outside your comfort zone is scary. It can be pretty easy to just fall into the trap  of keeping on Facebook because you are familiar with those tools. However, by pledging loyalty to one (or two) platforms, you may be missing out on your customers who hang out elsewhere. 

 The best way to answer the question of where to allocate resources is to just know your audience. Take a look at this chart, which shows the demographics of users on Instagram. 

Looking at this chart, some things become readily apparent. Based on general demographics, the “average” Instagram user is a female under 50 years old making under $75,000 a year. What can we learn from this information? 

Imagine, if you will, you were running a life insurance company. Your target audience is likely be one that is interested in providing money for their families should they, unfortunately, perish in an accident. These people have families that they want to take care of for the rest of their family’s life. When this company considers a marketing mix, it would be a waste of resources to advertise on Instagram, since their “generic” user has no such use for these products. 

On the flip side, imagine a marketing department for a small cosmetics company. You know your target audience is young women, but you also have decided that you’re happy with your content on Facebook. This is, obviously, a mistake, as your customer base is probably using Instagram as well. 

Having said that, it’s also important to note the kind of content that works well on different social media channels. Instagram is image based while Twitter is text based, to use a very obvious example, so different approaches will be required on different channels. However, by identifying your audience, figuring out where they like to spend time on the Internet, and generating content that they want to interact with, your strategy will ultimately be successful. 

Granted, it will not be easy, but it is necessary. 

References

Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. MultichannelMerchant.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/1020-content-social-marketing/

   

Lake, C. (2009, October 30). 35 social media kpis to help measure engagement. Econsultancy Blog. Retrieved on March 23, 2012 from http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/4887-35-social-media-kpis-to-help-measure-engagement.

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Solis, B. (2010). 21 rules for social media engagement. Mashable. Retrieved 

January 2, 2011, from: http://mashable.com/2010/05/18/rules-socialmedia-engagment/