The Complexities of Social Media Marketing
There are two ways to look at social media marketing. One works, one doesn’t.
What doesn’t work
The business marketing approach, this is the more common approach. Because it’s easily understood by “old school” business owners. That is, your social marketing content is distributed with the intention of promoting the business. It’s just another version of print marketing, billboard, or a magazine advertisement. If we fail to adapt and embrace change, we fail our business.
This would seem to make sense. Prospective clients are on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You want to make them aware of you. You create marketing content to distribute on these channels, just as you would for a newspaper ad.
Even though you have explained your business on all the social channels and placed enticing ads, your social media marketing (SMM) efforts, somehow, haven’t produced any noteworthy results.
What Works
The second approach is an understanding you get while you’re on social media to promote your business; your prospects are not there to find solutions or products. They’re on social sites– extraordinarily– to socialize. To connect with their network of family and friends.
They are there to be informed and entertained. Facebook is a News Feed. Twitter a Timeline. Snapchat has stories.
In other words, each social platform has a kind of native language. With the second approach, you don’t just re-distribute content from your blog or PPC ads. You create content in the language of the platform. You tell your story in a way users of the platform will be receptive to. If you’re looking for a long form in-depth explanation or demonstration of your product or service, then, YouTube is the platform to use.
That, in short, is the best reason to retain a competent marketing agency to manage your social media marketing. We speak the language of the different social platforms. And we translate your promotional material so it fits in naturally with what the audience expects.
Competent marketing ensures your content is shareable, relevant, and value-driven. Which, ultimately, results in more conversions and sales.
You can be a business with the first approach; or you can retain a team of social media marketing pros– who are native speakers of social media language– to translate your promotions into social content.
Yes, prospective clients are on all the social platforms– in droves. Speak their language and it can mean a lot of new business opportunity for you. Don’t, and you’re a stranger in a strange land.
