The World is Getting Social
With a large part of workforce shifting to working from home, social media use has become even more widespread. There’s never been a better time to market to a captive audience. We see YouTube influencers at the Met Gala. Your Mom might even post too many selfies to Instagram. That’s how far it’s come.
You might think, that’s so simple! What a cheap and easy way to gain customers. The truth is, meaningful content is never simple. It takes work to create something that will resonate with people. I’ve seen so many wanna-be influencers mirror the content they see online, sometimes with even better quality than the ones they’ve copied, only to barely see the engagement needle move. They’re lacking the thing that made those influencers famous in the first place. A hook.
In order to find this key differentiator, we need to take a critical look at the product. As we always say at Action Mary, the product is the cause. When we’re assessing a client, there’s always a story, and in its center there’s a heart.
Along with the heart, we need to find the identity. How does this company look? Where does this company stand? What is the voice? Every piece coming from a brand should look, sound, and feel like it’s speaking from that identity. This means everything from the fonts, colors, words, personality, images, email messages, voice and more. If everything is centered around the brand and the vision is strong, the brand will stand out front and center with recognition.
Once we’ve found the heart we can begin to do the work. Start by examining which channels are the right fit for you. It can be a whirlwind out there. I’m sure there are voices in your ear saying “We have to be on TikTok!" and "Everyone will think we’re a loser if we’re not on Twitter!” This is simply not true. Executing social content very well on one channel is much better than doing an okay job on all channels. Also, budget should be a factor in determining where to place your bets.
Speaking of budget, if you’re expecting the lights to automatically go on once you publish your first post, you have another thing coming. The success of business accounts on social media platforms depends highly on advertising. You’re going to need to spend on engagement, traffic campaigns to get people to your site, and more to really see the numbers grow. It’s very important to build these ad campaigns and measure the results, day to day, week to week, and month to month to determine what’s working and what’s not. You'll need to identify and create your prospective audiences for the best results. There’s no simplified solution for this no matter what the latest digital marketing ad may have told you.
This is an exciting time for digital marketing. We’re finally seeing the line between physical and virtual media beginning to blur. It’s up to us to stay up to date and involved in the processes, and shift when necessary.
