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Social Media & Content Marketing - 12 tips to stay ahead of the pack in the ever changing world of Social Media & Content Marketing
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Social Media & Content Marketing
Content marketing is a device used by companies to educate, inform or entertain customers or prospects by creating attention or causing behaviour that results in leads, sales or advocacy.
Social media is used by customers and prospects to communicate among themselves, and increasingly with companies. This communication can result in leads, sales or advocacy, but is often less structured and conversational, and can be reactive too, as social media is increasingly used as a customer support channel.
Social Media & Content Marketing are two different entities, however when used properly they work together to produce a great marketing tool. Today I will be guiding you through some of the tactics to use in order to increase traffic (and of course sales) on your website, and how this can affect your overall brand.
Social Media is the new telephone
Content Marketing is the new brochure
Which social networks to participate in?
● Who is using it?
Whilst there are hundreds of different social media networks out there, it doesn't mean that you have to join them all.
One way to assess whether to use a certain network is to look at the statistics; the number of users on each network.
You also need to understand where your customers are in order to choose correctly.
● What are they using it for?
● When are they using it?
● Where are they using it (mobile vs. desktop)?
● Why are they using it?
● How long are they using it for?
Where can I get this information?
1. Ask
This seems the obvious way of finding out which social media networks your clients are on, however it the least utilized.
If you have a contact us form, an online lead generation form, an email newsletter sign-up, or a shopping cart, why are you still only asking for name, address, and email address? Add data collection fields for Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and any others you participate in.
Where can I get this information?
2. Email Behaviour
Make sure you add the links to your social media accounts in your emails. Have you added the ability for email recipients to share content on Twitter, Facebook, pinterest and others? If you send email routinely, you need to integrate email and social.
Many email providers have the ability to track clicks from your newsletters, showing that a click was made on your facebook or pinterest link. With each click you can build a picture of where your customers are hanging out.
B2B & B2C
Businesses selling directly to other businesses and businesses selling directly to clients should have the same base of networks:
● Twitter● LinkedIn● Google+● Company Blog
Businesses should then choose to participate in the remaining networks only if their customers are active on those networks, and if the platform is beneficial to the overall business sector.
B2B & B2C
A clothes retailer should look at networks such as pinterest, or instagram due to the fact that those networks are more photo sharing platforms.
Whereas a law firm should be looking at spending more time promoting its business through Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and its company blog as they are more likely to be sharing information rather than images.
For example:
B2B
The major network in the B2B space is Twitter, with around 650 million members, and around 135k signing up daily.
You should also have a great LinkedIn profile as many businesses will want to know more in depth information about your company before they decide to purchase your products/services. LinkedIn is a must for B2B companies.
Google+ Places is another great network to participate in as it allows you to connect with customers in clearly defined groups.
A company Blog should also be used to provide your 'created' content directly on your website.
B2C
With facebook still being the largest social network coming in at around 1.35 billion members; businesses selling directly to clients should not overlook this one.
The recent changes to facebook however make it necessary to use paid advertising to promote your posts; this should therefore be built in to your overall marketing budget for the platform as even though the cost may be relatively small for one post, it starts to get costly when you are promoting a large number of posts over the course of the month.
Build a group of followers.
Once you have found out where your customers are, created your pages and posted your first few updates; it's now time to build and grow your audience.
In order to do this you need to get your best customers to become part of your social media audience.
Dust off that e-mail list and put it to good use!
● Invite your customers to check out your new page
● Use competitions and questions to get the conversation flowing
● Join in on the conversation and look for opportunities as they arise
Provide Value
Provide value for your customers once they are connected with you.
If you take care of your customers and show them that you care about them by providing useful information related to your business sector; they'll reciprocate by singing your praises to their networks.
This enables you to grow your audience organically without having to be too excessive on the paid advertising.
Look at what industry leaders are doing
Make sure that you are following your industry contacts and clients.
Take a look at their profiles to see what is important to them.
Comment and respond.
Getting the 'content mix' right.
Ok, so you've got your networks set up and are building a following, but creating content needed to sustain growth can become a gargantuan task.
The mix needs to pull in content from many locations in order to be viable.
I've found that a mix of the following content works well for many businesses:
20% Created content (Content Marketing)
40% Curated content
10% Promotional content
30% Community involvement
Content CurationCuration involves finding the best information that will be of interest to your target market, and providing this information through your networks.
● Interesting industry news
● Content created by influential people in your industry which will be of interest to your target market
● Useful resources which are relevant to your target audience, these can be in the form of: blogs, tips, news, key industry events, training, videos
● Statistics, research and news
● Infographics● Tips and tricks
● Compile a number of resources and put them into categories relevant to your target audience
Only use Created content on your website
Tread carefully when curating content; It's fine to keep this on your social channels however not on your website.
When a potential client comes to your website and finds information from another company helpful they will most probably go straight to the source and not purchase from you.
Keep created content on your website in the form of a blog.
What is Content Marketing?
“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action”
Content Marketing Institute
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behaviour.
Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling.
It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent.
The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.
Never create a post, video, eBook for the sake of it
In the current climate surrounding content marketing it is easy to loose sight of the primary reason for content creation...
Creating and delivering consistent useful information that will help your prospects come to a buying decision.
Don't think “I need to create 2 more blog posts this week”
Think “What challenges are my customers and prospects facing, and what would they find useful to aid them in the buying decision”
Develop a marketing planOnce you've dipped your toes in the water and tested out what works best for your company, you need to make sure to create a plan so you can continue to build on your initial efforts.
The plan needs to set out your content mix taking into account your findings from the initial engagement on your networks.
Take a look at the analytics most networks provide to see which types of posts gained the most engagement.
Once a plan has been set in place, it needs to be re-visited on a monthly basis (at least) in order to assess what is and isn't working. The plan can then be changed accordingly.
Get involved in the conversationSocial Media. The clue is in the title 'SOCIAL' don't just push content at your followers; make sure that you are joining the conversation, offering your expertise on the subject will help to set you as an industry leader.
Make products and services easy to find.
Once you've engaged the potential client and directed them through to your website, make sure that your products and services are easy to find so the user knows how to take the next step.
NetiquetteWhen a potential lead comes through on any of the possible channels:
● Social Media● E-Mail● Blog response● Contact form
You need to be making sure that a response is given quickly.
People generally want a response the same day, most would expect that you reply within 48 hours. If your response time isn't that quick, think about how can you make changes in order to speed it up?
Quickstepping around potential land-mines
We discussed the importance of responding to leads within 24-48 hours, however in some cases this might not be enough. If you have a negative comment posted about your business it is imperative that it is dealt with quickly.
Having negative comments posted about your brand can dramatically effect how you are perceived by others, however if dealt with in the correct way it can be positive; showing potential customers that you are listening to the needs of your customers, are quick to respond to any problems and provide a great level of customer service.
● Find out exactly what the problem is● Do your up-most to resolve the problem● Help out in any way that you can● Turn the problem customer into one that will sing your praises● Make the whole process visible on social media to show potential customers your
awesome customer service
What about those darn Cats?It's true, you cannot switch on any social media platform without seeing this:
Attribution – 4hdwallpapers.com
...or this:
Attribution – lovethispic.com
It's easy to think that you cannot compete with a million hits on a funny cat picture...
Do you have to?
Ask yourself, do I want a million people liking my content who have no idea who I am, and care even less about my business?
Or, do I want 100, or 1000 people liking my content who are actually switched on to my business and are interested in the products / services I provide?
Be patient!Rome wasn't built in a day. It takes time to expand your following on social media, it is something that isn't given, it has to be earned.
Keep providing great content, offer excellent customer service and get involved in the conversations.
Tom's top 12 tips...Decide which social networks to participate in
Build a group of followers
Provide value to your customers and prospects
Look at what your industry leaders are doing
Make sure you have the right 'content mix' for your industry
Only use created content on your website
Develop a marketing plan
Get involved in the conversation
Make products / services easy to find
Deal with and negative comments quickly
Don't focus too much on those really cute kittens!
Be patient!
What we do...Social Media Management
Content ManagementWebsite Design & Build
Graphic DesignBranding
Printed Materials3D RenderingPhotography
