27
Jul
Hey Guys!!
It’s been a while, no in fact it’s been ages – welcome to our brand new spanking blog!! Ta da…..
So, what’s changed in the Social Media world since we last shared our pearls of wisdom with you all? Well apart from new platforms popping up and more things you need to pay for to reach your own let alone new audiences the reality is.. not much! Now before you click the exit button in the top right hand corner thinking I’ve lost my damn mind, let me explain that even with ongoing changes the fundamentals of Social Media still remains the same.
Here’s 5 things every Small Business needs to know about Social Media in 2016.
Yes we know, you think your business is pretty amazing and you want to tell everyone on Social Media who’s willing to listen. As tempting as it may seem please don’t be that guy at the party that talks about themselves all night long (yawn). You would think that in 2016 businesses would have grasped the 80:20 concept with 80% of your content focused on adding value to your community, but what does this look like?
In practice this means that you have to really understand and cater to your audience. For starters before talking about your latest product ask yourselves the following questions:
As a business that wants to win on Social Media your aim should be to fill your potential customers information gap through educational, inspirational or even entertaining content.
Pretty much every idea under the sun has already been done, so one of the only things that separates you from every other business is your story. Everyone has a different story to tell that is unique to you and your business, leverage your story within your content so that it cuts through the Social Media noise. Where have you come from, what have you overcome and what is your ‘why’? A human story that people can relate to will help consumers, bloggers and journalists to identify what you do and where you are potentially going. Businesses that act their story as well as tell them gain a much bigger advantage, it can also be the catalyst for collaborations and press coverage.
Just take a look at some of your favourite entrepreneurs. The majority of us have never met Richard Branson, but we know he is dyslexic, created Virgin Megastores, attempted to cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon and owns one of the world’s biggest airlines, all thanks to the content his team put out through tweets, quotes, blog posts, books and interviews. We all know that Virgin has had to evolve over the years into the mega brand that it is today, that’s great storytelling if you ask me.
When you’re creating content it is essential to consider the context of where the content will be posted. People use different social networks to consume different types of information, LinkedIn is great for thought leadership articles, Twitter is ideal for short and snappy updates while beautiful pictures and fun gifs is the name of the game on Instagram. The key lesson is don’t use a generic approach to distributing your content, take time to understand the differences between the platforms and adapt your content accordingly so it fits natively. This will ensure you give your content the best chance to perform at it’s best.
We’ve spoken about human stories so now let’s touch on human engagement. Similarly to offline networking social networking is all about building and nurturing relationships so if you don’t already, put yourself out there and get talking to people.
Allow your company’s personality to transcend across your Social Media and avoid scripted or robotic responses when you are either engaging with your audience or replying to incoming enquiries.
Have you ever received a call from someone who you felt was reading straight from a sales script? Did they even get your name right? Remember what that felt like? Well no one likes that, especially not on Social Media.
If you’re outsourcing your Social Media Management or working with a Social Media Consultant it’s important that they take the time to really understand your company, it’s culture and of course, your tone of voice.
Finally, it’s important to note that you will only see results through consistency. Just like building a business, Social Media is NOT a quick fix type of job. You’re establishing key relationships, which takes time, and you will only begin to gain your audience’s trust through the familiarity of valuable content.
Struggling to see how either of the 5 points listed above relate to your business? Either leave a comment stating where you need help and I’ll respond with suggestions or fill in the form HERE for a free 30 min consultation on how your business can adopt the points above.
