Sahail Ashraf — June 12, 2017 It’s a more common problem than you think, and it probably affects more brands than you think too. It’s that awful situation where a brand literally ‘gives up’ on social media. The ROI that their agency promised them has not materialized.
Their social accounts are essentially dead ducks now. And their understanding of social has fallen apart. They just don’t get it, and resign themselves to the fate of trying more conventional methods of marketing and advertising.
It’s more common with small businesses, where budgets are tight and it’s tempting for a business to ‘take a shot’ at building up a base of fans and followers. That shot usually revolves around one payment to an agency, or even just asking one of the employees to manage the Facebook page. None of this works, so giving up is the only way to go.
We don’t agree with that kind of thinking. And we have pulled together a couple of measures that can get you back in the social media game sharpish. The methods don’t do anything other than reignite the social media presence you have.
They give that presence a little vigour and a little purpose. But like all things on social, these ideas are only as good as the evidence they bring. So make sure that if you’re trying the below out, that you always test their effectiveness with solid metrics.
Spreading things wider
Whatever your industry, there is sure to be another angle that you can work with. And that angle may well serve to be the boost that your brand needs on social. For example, if you make paint for cars, you can also create social media content around driving cars. Or how to get the best tires and where from.
There are hundreds of little areas in which you can stretch out and bring forward an expert eye on some concepts. Don’t forget that your audience is there because of your main product first of all. But if you start posting about stuff that is connected to that main product, you are showing that you have a love for the whole industry, and you’re prepared to get that out there.
It is actually rather fascinating to see what brands could do with this. And the more ‘left of center’ content you come up with the better. In fact, to add even more fun to it for both you and your customers, just focus on spreading happiness through seemingly unconnected content. It doesn’t have to be about what you do.
Try it with your industry. Find something that your competitors aren’t talking about and be brave. Offer up a new slant on things and we can pretty much guarantee that your brand will be noticed on social. Don’t go overboard, but remember that the brand that is different is the brand that makes a splash.
Just be different to everyone else and talk about stuff they aren’t talking about.
Calls to action
Every marketer knows what this is all about. But doing it on social is a slightly different kettle of fish. If you’ve struggled to gain engagement and you know you have been working on solid calls-to-action, it’s not the calls that are the problem. It’s what is around them.
Use calls to action, but make what is surrounding them on the screen as unobtrusive as possible. This means brevity when it comes to text, and professional but low-key images around the call. This doesn’t take a long time to get right, and when you have finally managed to ensure that a bunch of your posts feature calls to action that don’t have a lot of distractions going on around them, you will get the knack if it.
With calls to action, try to make sure they are given top priority for the customer. They are what the customer has to see, ultimately. So focus on bringing them more to the front. The pretty graphics can stay, just have less of them. And because you are on social, the message has to be short, with a killer call to action to round it all off. Remove distractions, and push your real message.
In other words, less is most definitely more when it comes to calls to action on social media.
Embrace video
But not just video, live video. This is one of those areas that will become even bigger within the next few years. Shooting and streaming live video is exciting, it’s fun and it’s also very effective.
The straight-up video work that a brand can do is not stale or old, but it is even more effective as a medium when it’s in the moment. This is because it feels genuine. Being genuine is one of the most important qualities a brand can have right now.
One of the very best ways to get this done is to hold a question and answer session with your audience. Being there and being live with the answers to questions from an audience shows that you want to help. It also shows you have knowledge and experience. This of course builds trust between your brand and the audience.
The way to make this part of your marketing toolkit is to get started. The excitement that comes with your first couple of live video sessions is more than enough to make the process and the work worthwhile.
It will be shaky at first, of course. You will be nervous and there will be mistakes. But getting used to the work is part of the fun. And throwing up a raw, in the moment video on Facebook Live makes the brand current, real and trustworthy.
The three areas in this post are not new to social media. But they are all valuable. They require a certain approach. If you commit to this kind of work and make it part of what you do, you will be able to reinvigorate your social media marketing. And this will give you the results you want. It just requires work.
It’s understandable if a small business feels that the challenges in creating a presence on social media are too great. But rebooting things in the way outlined in this post does bring quick results. Expand the content topics, tighten up your calls to action and shoot as much live video as you possibly can. And then wait for those results to come in.
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