How do we communicate successfully on social media without pushing our customers away?
We’re all aware of how annoying it is to be spammed by adverts every time we log into Facebook or Twitter for a chat with our friends, so its no surprise to learn that consumers are avoiding obvious ads and marketing like the plague.
This brings up the all-important question for brands; how do we communicate successfully on social media without pushing our customers away?
First of all, ads need to evolve to push content and create conversation that people want to share and engage with. New platforms are constantly emerging for brands to tell their story, and we are increasingly seeing transparency of brands and a behind the scenes perspective. Today’s consumers are hyper-informed about new brands, products and services and where to get the best deals and value, therefore creating a conversation about your brand is vital for getting noticed.
Social media is all about the two-way conversation. A popular approach is using customers who are creating content of their own in collaborations with your brand to become part of their conversation. Social word of mouth is more powerful than ever now that consumers have a much larger audience to communicate with. Nielson data says that more than a quarter of social media users are more likely to pay attention to an ad shared by one of their social connections making it increasingly important to have a content marketing strategy.
OBSERVE – make your content informed. Listen to what your consumers are saying to each other. Watch which places they are being tagged at or are hanging out at and what are they consuming. Use this insight to dictate what you are going to contribute to their online social scene.
FEEDBACK – Take on board what feedback you are receiving. If a particular post on Facebook is getting a high level of engagement, create a follow-up post or a competition or use it as a basis for an upcoming event or campaign. Monitor which posts are not getting any response and question why. Maybe they need to be communicated in a different way or maybe it’s just not content that your audience wants to see.
CURATION – creating something unique and your own is increasingly important. Using platforms such as Pinterest or Tumblr get an increased amount of unique visits. Tie it back to your brand, have a voice and a point of view.
So there you have it… our 3 key steps to successful content marketing. Having an engaging flow of content, either collaborated with consumers and fans or created by your brand will need to be increasingly relevant and engaging to ensure sharing.