Sabrina Andreucci - Social Media 101
Post a lot of social media content for business success. [FALSE]

Post a lot of social media content for business success. [FALSE]

We get this too often, a new client brief asking for 3 posts per day per platform and generally the brief is asking for at least three platforms. We hear you, social media is about being social, it about engaging, it’s fast paced. Live fast die young – with reference to social media posts that is.

 

The reality is that people don’t unfollow brands who don’t post. They unfollow brands who post too much.

 

If you were to post three social media updates per day, across three platforms, that’s nine posts per day. That makes 63 posts a week (including weekends) and a staggering 270 individual social media posts every month. Keep in mind that ideally all of these should be well-thought-out valuable pieces; is there even that many things to say in a month? There are exceptions in the case of media houses or publicists where it is part of their brand mandate to provide ongoing, updated news and content. Oh and of course influencers who mostly document their daily lives.

 

The key focus is value. Quality over quantity, meaning less really is more. It is realistically impractical for brands to post this amount of social media content when considering the cost implication of designing, uploading and promoting all of these posts. Time is money and putting out such a vast amount of content requires a lot of resources that most businesses don’t have access to. Ideally, we are all about getting as much bang for your buck by being razor focused with the content in making sure that every post is contributing toward driving strategic business value. Content should be designed to align with over-arching marketing strategies and business objectives while also not spreading the brand too thin by trying to be everything to everyone on every platform. Decide on key messaging and then direct these posts through the channels where your customers are more likely to be and where they prefer to engage with your brand. Social media at the end of the day is about the user, not about the brand – think about how you use the platforms.

 

We have proven success with as little as 2 posts per month for some of the brands we work with. If you find yourself being overwhelmed with working out what to post next on social media, reach out to us and let us support you with a best fit strategy.

Social media can’t drive sales. [FALSE]

Social media can’t drive sales. [FALSE]

Effectively the fundamental function of any advertising, be it on social media or other mediums, is to drive brand awareness. By virtue of people being aware of the brand, it is more likely that sales will happen. It’s like having the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it then no one is going to buy it. Rightly so, a mediocre competitive product might just gain more sales thanks to a great marketing plan, and even so just by pure brand awareness.

 

Marketing and PR are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the functionality of a well-executed social media campaign with brand awareness often-times being the start of the sales funnel.

 

Ultimately, every business wants to drive sales and in all cases potential clients require between 6 and 8 brand touch points in order to gain trust and convert to a paying customer. Social media is not the silver bullet in speeding up a sales cycle or marketing campaign, however with multiple touch points, digital strategies allow for a more organic sales cycle as opposed to a linear process, meaning that potential clients at any point within their journey could slot into your sales cycle.

 

With this in mind, sales is not always the only measure of success and it is key for businesses to identify where within their customer journey there are areas where they can drive conversion.

 

Social media has the ability to underpin and support the entire customer journey and with the added benefit and ability of razor focused targeting, your brand is able to speak to the right person at the right time with the right message.

 

A data footprint is collected online and everything can be tracked from impressions, to clicks to conversions making social media the best way to measure success of campaigns, it really comes down to what the objective is.

 

Whatever your business objective whether that growth, maintain or sustain sales we are able to assist with a tailored digital solution to support this.

My product / service can’t be sold on social media. [FALSE]

My product / service can’t be sold on social media. [FALSE]

There are a few select products and services that are seemingly difficult to promote on social media, agreed. These might be B2B type products, highly engineered, technical or intangible while also only appealing to the very niche of industries. Your business might operate solely out of long standing and nurtured relationships. This could be relevant to highly regulated industries or even banned products. What about morbid industries like funeral homes or crime scene clean up. The reality is that however obscure, niche or intangible your product or service may seem there is in most cases a way to advertise, and dare we say it, on social media.

 

Niche product / market

Niche communities are really the silver lining of social media. People gather in topical groups and discussions to share their common experiences, beliefs and opinions. With the incredible rich data available on social media, businesses are able to tap into these communities and speak to their ideal customers. The best part is little to no wastage.

 

Exclusively business to business

Social media is also increasingly becoming a space to embrace business to business exchanges. With the inclusion or LinkedIn, businesses are able to target granular to decision makers. That’s not to take away from the other platforms, since at least for now….

 

Technical or intangible product and services

It is fair to say that everyone is open to receiving value on social media and in most cases, businesses hold a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise that can indeed be highly valuable. Content on social media that provides users with value are posts that are served at the right time, with the right message, to the right person.

 

Few select customers

For companies with reliable customer relationships, you are able to speak directly to these customers via the intimacy of their timeline or social media feed. Smart, innovative and creative strategies allow brands in highly regulated industries speak to their ideal target markets.

Social media excels in connecting niche communities. It’s about finding the right platform and the right communities to speak to about your product or service.

This cuts down on wastage and create a more valuable and valued experience for customers. There is no reason for your business to not be on social media, and if you would like to brainstorm more on how these platforms can be used to benefit your business, reach out to us to set up a meeting, we look forward to hearing from you.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA IS JUST A PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO COMPLAIN. [FALSE]

SOCIAL MEDIA IS JUST A PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO COMPLAIN. [FALSE]

We will agree with this statement, yes, social media does in fact expose businesses to negative feedback and customer complaints.
The challenge is however that these seemingly bad conversations will happen whether the brand is on social media or not. Ideally you want to be there to address and manage the outrage, or at least be aware of it.
In most instances, consumers turn to social media as a last resort. We often-times find that these frustrated customers have already followed traditional protocol and sent an email to some dusty inbox only to be responded with a generic reply. They have called through to the customer care centre only to find themselves in an ongoing carousel of being put on hold. You might find, in some cases that the person had reached out via private message on social media, before… taking it public!

Customers are demanding more from brands

They have gained a sort of public power. Anyone with a social media account is a journalist of sorts and with an easy swipe open of their lock screen can direct a complaint to any brand or company for the world to see. Of course, once one complaint has been aired, it gives licence to other complaints to come out into the open. And so one seemingly innocent online complaint could turn into a viral storm of trending hashtag(s). The true reality is that consumers, you and me, just want good service and value for money.

Customers want to be heard and ultimately valued

People use social media to level the field between them and big corporate and all businesses should do is turn a kind ear to listen, address and then consider whether maybe they should implement change into their organisation.

Yes, its scary. No one, not even big business wants to be exposed to a social media scandal, however rather listen, be active and address concerns before they turn to complaints especially since taking on feedback could make for good business returns.
If you as a business owner still find social media too daunting to even consider, reach out to us.

We have many years’ experience in this space while also taking into consideration consumer behaviour, social media trends and human psychology to assist and support our clients in managing their social media strategies and implementing crisis management processes.