It’s been over a decade that I’ve been using social media for business. I’m what they call an early adaptor. But that’s just because I know a good thing when I see it! I came to the party early primarily because it allowed me to share my knowledge with others, which is a huge part of my business philosophy – help where you can! It’s also largely why I wrote But Are You Making Any Money? Over the years we’ve added different social media platforms as they’ve emerged, but no matter which one we use (and we basically use them all at this point) it’s a great way to reinforce your brand story in an authentic personalized way.
As a regular contributor to Wedding Business Magazine, a trade publication written by and for professional wedding planners, I was asked to offer advice last month on using social media to promote one’s brand. In the October issue, top wedding and event planners were asked how industry pros use social media for their business. Here are the questions I was asked:
What social media platform could your business not live without?
Probably Facebook and I know that sounds weird. The reason I say that though is that while Instagram (and many other hipper platforms) have totally taken over the world, and images are king, I’ve found that my core audience is still popping in and out on Facebook to share family stuff, etc. It’s that organic part about being included in their feed that I think “reminds” people without selling, that we’re out there.
What do you see other professionals doing wrong most on social media?
Not being consistent. Consistency is the simplest note – I didn’t say the easiest – and it’s probably the hardest. I have no idea why, at least for lots of people, like me, it’s so hard to just keep “showing up” as Woody Allen said. But, it is. You’ve got to consistently, basically day in and out keeeeepppp posting. The other challenge I see often is not having a distinctive brand, let’s say on Instagram. And then, super importantly, people don’t use calls to action. If this stuff is for business, you’ve got to tell them what you want them to do next!
What one piece of advice would you give someone starting out, when it comes to finding their voice on social media?
Determine your goal! What do you REALLY want out of social media. Do you want real, paying business out of it, or is it really Instafame you’re after? Or do you just want to vent? Any answer is really fine, but get clear and then be very specific about what kind of growth you want to achieve (yes, an actual number of followers/likes, etcetera for a specific time period) and detail a plan to get there.
How Social Media Can Help Your Brand
The most important thing to keep in mind is that social media is CONSTANTLY changing. It’s important to keep current on best practices to ensure that you’re doing all you can to keep your marketing campaigns and initiatives fresh. Adweek monitors the latest and greatest trends in marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Facebook users like photos. They upload more than 350 million of them every day. Take advantage of this by sharing photos to drive engagement. Starbucks posts photos to Facebook from Instagram, and many of the brand’s photos are taken by customers — not the company.
Top brands are also using Facebook Live to share interviews, press conferences, exhibits, demonstrations and events with followers in real time, which also provides for immediate feedback. The NFL has used Facebook Live on draft day so that fans can see player recruitments, apparel brands stream fashion shows, celebrity chefs prepare recipes live, and pretty much all news services broadcast top stories. Live content is an excellent way to reinforce your brand story with immediate results.
Cross-post between Google+ Hangouts and your normal YouTube videos — the video and any comments automatically show up in the Google+ news stream. For example, Toyota used Google+ Hangouts to create an interactive, visual experience — the Toyota Collaborator, which enabled 5 people to design their dream Toyota and take it on a virtual test drive with Google Maps.
Make Your Social Media Investments Work For You
You wouldn’t purchase a new $2,000 machine for your business without knowing exactly how it was going to help you. You’d probably have metrics and charts and ways to evaluate how it all worked before you ever brought it home. So, don’t make a social media investment without identifying these same metrics. A Twitter or Facebook account may be free, but you pay with the time you’re investing. Even more if you advertise on their site. Develop a plan.
- What are you goals for social media?
- Which sites will you invest in? How will each be used?
- Who is the point person for all activity?
- What metrics will be tracked to judge ROI?
- What tools do you need to automate certain tasks and/or make it more efficient?
These are just a couple of the questions you’ll want to think about in order to develop a successful social media strategy. If you don’t know what you’re doing there, you won’t know if you’ve reached your goal. And you might just be throwing away your investment.
Remove barriers to social media entry: For your business to be social, your team has to be social. That means everyone from your CEO to your newest receptionist has to board the social media train. How do you get them there? By removing barriers to social media entry.
A barrier to social media may be a lack of education about tools available or it could be the fear that goes with learning a new platform. Create educational resources that help calm their fears and remove that barrier. Another barrier may be that you expect employees to tweet after-hours, instead of while on the job. This may involve reassigning tasks to free up time or other things to help address those. But your business will never be social without knocking those walls down.
Find Your Target Audience
Aspiring to be universally popular is impractical, not to mention a solid way to waste financial and manpower resources. You don’t see Disney promoting its teen-oriented shows to channels showing WWE showdowns, do you? They advertise directly on their channel, at supermarkets, department stores and bookstores where children, young teens and their parents go all the time—their target market, in other words. Identifying your target market is one step closer to understanding their behavior, anticipating their needs, and using that knowledge to improve your business.
Reinforce Your Brand Story
There is a belief that people either share or they don’t. Not so. You can encourage sharing and engagement on your website by choosing “Emotionally Intelligent” words. This means you select words that represent the personality of your brand. You want to appear conversational.
Here is an example – change a “Try it now” link to “Ready to give it a whirl?” This evokes an action. It also makes the click more of a personal experience for the user. Making it personal, in turn, can help users feel more comfortable about leaving a comment or sharing on your site.
Improving the quality of your content is another way to reinforce your brand story. Content format and length are important. Infographics, videos and concise blog posts are generally shared often. Think about it. Are you creating articles, blog posts or videos that are worth sharing? For example, make sure your titles are enticing – and in the voice of your brand. Be sure to integrate your sharing buttons closely with the content of your message. Most of all, make sure the content expresses the character of your products and services.
Incentivize when possible. People want to compete— and win. So, one of the best social media tips and tricks is to incentivize with gaming features such as ratings or votes. Lay’s, for instance, has asked customers to vote on new potato chip flavors for the last few years and the campaign has been hugely successful. These techniques encourage users to check back often, increasing site visits and potentially boosting sales. Ask followers and fans what they want to see from your brand. Don’t underestimate the power of feedback!
Track Results and Make Adjustments
You might believe that some brands are just more likely to win in social engagement than others, but that is rarely the case. Success often comes down to a more strategic process of testing and making adjustments – it comes down to social media tips and tricks! (Like these!)
To boost engagement on your social platforms, test which posts and what kind of messages encourage customer interaction. Most sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have analytics and other research tools to track social media traffic and better understand how people engage with your content. Simple changes can often boost social activity.
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