Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2012 | Page 40
Grow Market Lead
Social
media
By Melinda Caughill
The Three C’s of
Social Media
Finding the perfect blend of customer,
content, and channel
In social media, just because you can
doesn’t mean you should.
Graphic created by Third Person, Inc.
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ouTube, Pinterest, Facebook,
Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon... the sheer number of
today’s social media channels
can make a marketer swoon. Add the
burden of creating unique content to engage with the right customers at the right
time—while still managing all the other
responsibilities of one’s job—and you’ll
have to pick your poor marketing professional up off the floor. How can
anyone manage in today’s
monstrous social media
landscape?
First, start by acknowledging that
no one can do it all.
Even for brands as
large as Coca-Cola
and Apple, there are
simply too many social
media channels for one
company to create meaningful, engaging presences on
all of them. And more important,
nor should you.
If you strip away its shiny new exterior, at its core social media is just like any
other marketing strategy. This means that
to get the ROI you need, some channels
are going to work better for you than others. And, frankly, some channels, even if
they’re the hottest thing going, just aren’t
going to work for you at all.
So before you jump on the bandwagon
of the latest social media channel, make
sure that the cart is heading in a direction
that will take you toward your marketing
goals. You can do this by determining your
unique mix of the “Three C’s”: customer,
content, and channel.
Franchiseupdate Iss u e III, 2 0 1 2
Customer
The best marketing strategies start by
understanding the customer. The same
is true with social media—if possible,
even more so.
For example, if you own a pool installation franchise, you already know your
ideal customer lives within a 50-mile radius of your showroom, is married, and
has children between the ages of 4 and 24.
However, for your social media
strategy, you don’t want to
stop there.
Let’s say you learn
that your pool customers are also very
likely to be boosters
of local high school
sport teams. Now,
instead of being a
nameless company
that sends out junk mail,
you can become an active
part of an online community
that shares scores and highlights of
recent games, promotes team fundraisers,
celebrates collegiate drafts, etc.
The bottom line on social media is
that it’s more important than with any
other marketing medium to be able to
answer the customer’s question, “What’s
in it for me?” To be able to answer that
meaningfully, you have to know your customer better than you ever have before.
Content
The best content for your social media
strategy isn’t dictated solely by your
customers. It also has to be right for
your brand. But what kind of content
is that?
To answer this question, start imagining your brand as an actual person. What
kind of personality traits would that person
have? What topics of conversation would
he like talking about? What would endear
him to others?
For example, let’s say your company,
ABC Tax, provides personal tax preparation services. If ABC Tax were an actual
person, he’d be a confident, competent,
yet friendly sort of guy. He’d be the type
you’d trust to go through all of your personal finances, then hang out with you at
the neighborhood picnic.
Once you’ve personified your brand,
it becomes much easier to create content with a consistent tone of voice and,
in turn, build a successful social media
presence. For ABC Tax, the social media
content strategy would help the average
person understand complicated tax rules
and regulations, while throwing in the
occasional plug for a community event
or local hotspot.
Channel
Even with a great strategy, clearly identified customers, and quality content, it
can still be very difficult to gain traction in social media. Don’t make it even
harder by posting your content where
it doesn’t belong. Instead, take the time
to determine which social media channels are best suited to your content and
your audience.
For example, if you have a lot of video
content, make sure the channel (or channels) you choose makes it easy for your
target audience to both find and view
your movies. YouTube, Vimeo, and Viddler might be good places to start.
Finally, don’t limit yourself to just the
household names like Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, and YouTube. Depending on
your content and your goals, a smaller
niche site might be the perfect place to
engage with your target audience. Sites
such as social-networking.findthebest.com
can help you find social media channels
that might be a good fit for you. n
Melinda Caughill is partner, Strategic
Marketing at Third Person, Inc., a marketing,
advertising, and web design company based in
Milwaukee. Contact her at [email protected] or 414-221-9810 x302.