m a r k e t i n g
TAKE THE
QUIZ: ARE YOU A SOCIAL SUCCESS OR A CRASHING BORE?
STEPHANIE DALE
Managing Partner DMC Advertising Group
Social media marketing, or SMM, is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media platforms in order to achieve marketing communication and branding objectives. Basically, it covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos and images for marketing purposes, as well as paid social media advertising. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram are just a few of the most popular.
Utilising these platforms means that reaching out to your target audience has never been easier or more affordable. Everybody’ s doing it. They are all free platforms to enable you to market your business and engage directly on a one-to-one basis with your audience.
Be aware: the concept that engagement is easy, free and quick is totally false and a pitfall causing many businesses to stumble.
So many people believe that using social media for marketing purposes is a simple process of throwing together a few catchy posts, maybe an image or two, a couple of videos and you’ re done. Not true. Finding, relating to and engaging with your target audience is a slow and methodical process – like all quality relationships, it takes time to develop.
WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?
The first step in the journey is to find your audience. Who are your customers? What do they look like? What are their rituals, habits, likes and dislikes? What‘ language’ do they use? And most importantly, what media platform do they support? It’ s important to know what is important to them so that you are able to engage with them at a relevant and personal level. If you know these things you are able to find your target market.
DON’ T BE A BORE
Your social media platforms need to be tailored to your consumer base, not based on your own personal interests. Honestly, your consumers don ' t care about YOU. They care about what you can do for THEM. Post stories that they can relate to. Follow the 80 / 20 rule. That is, 80 per cent of your content( or more) should be relevant to THEM, while 20 per cent or less can be specifically about your business, products or services, after all no-one likes a person who just talks all about themselves.
The frequency of your social media activity is equally important. Don’ t continually berate your audience with what you believe are witty, relevant and interesting‘ tid-bits’ of information. If you do, you run the risk of having followers leave you because they are simply overwhelmed, no-one likes continual chatter.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Be mindful of your audience and understand the time of day that they are most responsive within the preferred social media platforms. You can identify this with the analysis tools available within each platform. You want to ensure that your posts appear while they are actively online.
USE ONLY ONE PERSONALITY
Choose the‘ voice’ you wish to speak in and stick with it across all your online channels, including your website. If you choose to use a professional, efficient, no-nonsense style then do not start posting up funny anecdotes. It confuses your audience and dilutes the relationship.
HAVE A PLAN
Do not blindly post anything and everything when you get a spare moment. Just like any other marketing initiative, you must work to a plan with clear goals and objectives that are measureable.
DON’ T FORGET TO ANSWER BACK
Reply promptly to comments, reviews and questions. Great customer service can make or break a company. Happy customers are more likely to come back and establish a loyalty to your brand. Not only will these customers be loyal to you, but they will also be your best brand ambassadors by word-ofmouth advertising.
DON’ T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ
Many companies boast high numbers of followers as a mantle of honour, something to aspire towards, the‘ holy grail’ of social media marketing success. As an example compare Coca-Cola and Red Bull:
Brand
Facebook Page Likes
Facebook % engagement
Coca Cola 102,716,864 20,862 0.2 % Red Bull 47,117,210 1,854,234 4.0 %
While Coca-Cola has a much greater following in terms of numbers, they are static followers, not engaging with the brand which indicates that the social media presence is not relating to them in an ongoing fashion. By comparison, Red Bull has fewer followers. However, they are actively engaged with the brand, commenting, viewing and sharing the posts. This is the key objective of social media marketing and if you take a moment to review the Red Bull Facebook account you will note that they have effectively captured their target market by speaking to them about their interests, extreme sports, not merely a string of product posts. In fact, the only reference to their product is the logo.
Like it or loathe it Social Media Marketing is a major part of today’ s marketing mix. You cannot afford to ignore it. Your audience is already using it in one form or another and they are looking for relationships with likeminded organisations with whom they can relate. Ignore them at your peril.
For more information, contact Stephanie Dale on 02 9912 4400, email sdale @ dmcadvertisinggroup. com. au or visit www. dmcadvertisinggroup. com. au
18 Australian Window Association