Social networking is not about farming followers, it’s a way of creating value and cultivating relationships. What does social networking mean to your business? Social media dialog with customers for sure. What about reading your content and remembering? Appreciating your help? We believe it is all of these things. And while a social media strategy is essential, so is value in social media enablers.
In the ever-changing landscape of social networking, you might be wondering if you are getting the most success out of your business’s social media community engagement?
Here we define social media community engagement as the process of gaining website customer traffic, attention, and interaction from customers through social media sites.
Have you ever thought about how to build positive social media community engagement? Does it include the details of success enablers to your social media?
This task starts with what customers want and need. Most people want to: feel needed, be valued, be appreciated, be fulfilled, share emotions, laugh and be happy, succeed, and be inspired. Make them feel something that feels unique to what other brands are blasting at them.
To do this you must know who your community is. You must know how to catch and hold their attention.
Social media has been around for a decade now, so it should be easy to figure out how to leverage it, right? Not so fast. New ideas? Definitely not that new, but good refreshers. There are recommendations on how to beef up social media marketing everywhere you turn. But which ones will make the grass grow the best?
How many times have you seen companies requesting people to friend them on Facebook? Like farming followers were the name of the game. Sad but true. The truth is that social media marketing tactics are really about cultivating relationships with potential customers. Fan ‘skins’, by themselves, are of very little value.
In part it is true, but things get complicated by all the misinformation circulating about social media. From leveraging tactics to tracking issues, you are bombarded with conflicting messages, including whether social media marketing is worth using at all.
Here are 10 ideas we use most often with our clients. We believe they are the ones most critical to the success of your social media marketing and community engagement:
Be yourself
Readers can easily see through marketing speak. Be passionate about what you do and let that show through your personality. Ensure people see you as a real person and not a mouthpiece.
Useful and/or entertaining
Try to add value to everything you post. Be useful or entertaining or you will be ignored. Share tips, tricks, and insights. People’s time is very valuable and they are looking to learn and enjoy new things from you. Make listening to you worth their time.
Creating value business definition … engage people
Answer questions readers ask, ask questions of others, and thank people even if it is just a few words. Communications is a two-way activity, isn’t it?
Transparent
When you are communicating in the world of social media, say who you are and who you work for. Don’t be sneaky with your comments. Avoid ghostwriting. Be genuine and real.
Do you prepare?
Prepare
If you are going to participate in social media, be prepared, and know generally what to expect. Be engaged with people. That really is the only way to understand the online culture, tone, best practices, and protocol. And remember, things are constantly changing, so be prepared to learn as you go.
Post consistently
Social media is a time-consuming effort. You must spend time in a consistent way. You cannot post and then depart for a week or more. And, oh, by the way, it takes persistence to achieve success.
Readers expect new content regularly and if they don’t see it, they won’t be back.
Listen carefully
Pay attention to feedback from your audience. Appreciate suggestions; it will make what you do even better. Always acknowledge inputs.
Creating value … focus externally
Don’t be 100% internally focused. Collaborate with others. Link to other blogs, videos, and news articles. Share the best of what you discover.
Creating value examples … learn continuously
Be real and honest. Don’t be afraid to admit mistakes or change your opinion on things. Be quick to make changes when you do.
Enablers for success means to enjoy yourself
People are easy to read, aren’t they? If you are not enjoying what you are doing, others will notice and won’t interact. So why participate in that mode?
The bottom line
There are a lot of misconceptions about social media marketing. Just because you read something in a blog post or hear something from a credible source doesn’t mean it is true or true for you and your business.
Always do your research, and continually try to improve. Social media marketing is here to stay, and it can drive a lot of business for you, assuming you are leveraging it correctly.
There is more opportunity to fail in social media than to succeed if we treat it like any other marketing vehicle. Social media requires us to get away from being promotional and sensational and instead treat our customers with special attention. Special attention to being social, building relationships, and creating trust.
A crucial point to remember is that you can’t dictate change by mandate. You can’t overpower, but must attract people and empower them so that they can take ownership of the cause and make it their own. You need to accept that people will do things for their own reasons, not for yours.
Most of all, remember that every action has to have a clear purpose and be directed at influencing specific institutions. So before taking any action, ask two questions: Who are we mobilizing, and to influence what?
Social media gives us a great opportunity to listen in on what people are saying. We’ve long known that word of mouth is incredibly powerful, now we can actually track it. Social listening tools are still somewhat primitive, but they are improving quickly and are already being deployed to help monitor conventional marketing efforts in real time.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your social media better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
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