Confused by Social Media? Simply Your Social Media Strategy With These 3 Purpose-Driven Categories
I’ve seen a lot of companies and organizations take a passive-aggressive approach to social media. They seem to run hot with lots of activity and then cool off and lose focus all together.
It just plays out that way. In fact managing the social media channels for most any organization of more than five people it can be challenging. But it can be done when you bring some clear purpose and function to your efforts.
Don’t squander the resources you have by chasing down the latest shiny object revealing itself in the industry. Get some discipline and direction. Build a process of posting that keeps your social media marketing consistent. And keep that content relevant and compelling.
Here’s a simple way to get your Social Media strategy focused by organizing your efforts into three purpose-driven categories:
1) Branding and thought-leadership
To distinguish your brand, showcase your big ideas for your industry. It’s not bragging, it’s being innovative about how you explain yourself and your vision. And please offer some inspiration. We all crave a bit of passion now and again.
The take-away: Own an attitude- you’ll be much more memorable.
2) Promotions
Contests, games and give-aways done right are awesome ways to engage your customers and attract new ones. In fact social media marketing is really made for this. Plus a promotion can show tangible results quickly and boost your overall metrics. When done right a cool or even outrageous promotion can go viral and drive big time awareness. Also, remember to create an interesting prize!
The take-away: A promotion built around a super creative premise and prize can take you places. Local TV news loves the unusual! So think big.
3) Customer service
Wow that’s boring you say. I say wow you’re not leveraging this advantage? Answering customer questions and yes even complaints can be effectively done via social channels. I’ve seen some companies use Twitter as their virtual help desk, providing accurate answers in a super timely way.
The take-away: It’s OK to reveal your warts, it makes your brand more approachable and human.
Bonus Tip: Always have a bonus or something extra. Sure I just did that here and you can too. People love surprises and extras like the unannounced free desert. If you can keep it informal and spontaneous feeling. That’s really the value of social media. So dig deep and bring out something extra for all three approaches we talked about above.
