Mauricio RomeroMost of our clients ask which is the best social media strategy for their businesses, one with which they can generate new clients and a community.
They know that social networks work well in order to better serve customers, sell more, and socialize. But the right way to do it still seems like an indecipherable mystery and the results, a myth. The truth is that if they do it correctly, good results and sales can be expected.
The objective of this blog is to share with you the 3 things you must carry out during a social media strategy for your business. They are the three "C":
- Content
- Conversations
- Celebrations
These 3 concepts are always present when answering the main 5 questions that we get asked:
1.- Which is the goal of Social Networks?
In order to answer this question correctly, I have to mention both points of view: the user's and the brand's.
For a user, social networks are just that, social. It is a site at which they will try to socialize. Think about the intention that you have when entering Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest... What you wants is to start a conversation with a friend, or to see how he is doing on his vacation. You probably want to look at pictures of your other friends just to catch up with them and with what they are doing. We can also belong to a thematic group which posts about things that we care.
In addition to seeing how our closest friends, our acquaintances or coworkers are doing, we also use social networks to look at interesting articles that come our way. It is like looking at the social section of the newspaper and finding between each photo and event, news that could interest us and that are also related to the concerns or interests of our friends: "Your friend x was interested in this topic and wants you to learn more about it as well".
That moment is when we interact according to how shy or bold we might be, or to the degree of interest that we have in the matter. If we like what someone posted, we'll give it a like. If it attracted our interest to a certain degree, we will read the article, and if we really liked it, we will shared. If we were interested by it, we will start a conversation by leaving a comment. And if we were really hooked, we will probably even make new material (create content) with which to share our point of view or opinion, publishing it for the whole world to see.
As from a brand's point of view, social networks have become another mean for paid advertising (for both brand owners and social media owners). In other words, another way to sell ads. It's what social networks live from. Both businesses and brands are very interested in networks since many of us are addicted to them. Each time we connect to a social network, we spend an average of 28 minutes on them. And we check them 2 to 3 times a day, spending a total average of 45 minutes a day on this.
Brands are interested in being where their audience is. As we all know, we hardly ever spend any time on the radio or television anymore, we do not read the newspapers either.
But, if our intention when connecting to a social network is to socialize ... wouldn't it be annoying to have brands interrupting us with ads?
There is a right way to do it, with good content and avoiding (please, do not do it!) selling content! or at least, it should not be your main offer. It seems that brands and advertisers have an inability to be social and to connect in a conversation with their clients or prospects. So many years of interrupting with content that didn't interest us (what we now call SPAM) has damaged their ability to be a little more human and to connect with the people of a social community, in a creative way.
This is why social networks should be a place at where brands, companies and organizations offer content that is useful and interesting to their prospects and clients. These contents should try to give an answer their main questions and, by doing so, help them to know more about a product or a service. This content should help them get an idea of what works best for them as consumers, as well as to create a sense of trust in our company.
2.- In which Social Network should you be present?
We have already seen that it is important to be present in social networks because everyone is now subscribed one social network or another. Therefore, it is important to be present in most networks.
The right way to do it is by being present at the social network where your target audience, your buyer persona, or in other words, your potential customer is. Now let's be honest, social networks offer now an advantage that previous means of communication lacked, which is: publishing in them does not have a cost unless we want to advertise a specific statement to a specific segment that still doesn't know us. So if it does not cost, why not be present in all of the social networks? Well maybe not in all of them, but at least in the main ones, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +. (MAKING A CORRECT USE OF EACH ONE)
3.- How to manage a Social Network?
Imagine that a social network is like a cocktail party. At this party, when you meet new people, you start a conversation. The polite thing to do is to get interested in them and ask questions like: What do you do? What do you like? What do you think about this topic? Well, the same must be done in your social networks, you must start a conversation.
We just talked about answering the questions of your clients in order to start socializing with them. Here is how: Imagine that you are at a cocktail party... write down all the questions that you think you'd get asked about your profession during a regular conversation. Now start giving an answer to these questions in your social networks. This is a way to start a conversation about your company and what it does, without being an invasive seller.
Now imagine that you have been invited to a party with your friends... Would you ever say: "Hire a person to go on my behalf, he will know what to say about me"?Well, this might seem crazy and yet, it is what most companies do when outsourcing their social networks campaigns to other companies.
If there is a reunion, the best way to go is to actually show up yourself and socialize; Make a display of your abilities as a communicator, of your personal charisma and charm. By doing so, you can make friends and clients. The same should be done in your social networks. You should show customers who you really are and generate thus an affinity with those who will be in the end, your future customers. Make your social networks inhouse.
At that reunion, you shouldn't just talk about yourself! you should also tell interesting stories and anecdotes for everyone to enjoy. The same must be done with the content you create for social networks: Tell useful and interesting stories to your community of followers. Talk about the needs of your community, not just about your brand.
With this questions, the first two "C" become more clear.
4.- Which content should be shared in social networks?
As we've seen, if the content about what we do is told in a simple -colloquial- way, and it is useful, interesting and entertaining, it will turn into a good topic that might generate interesting conversations, just as it would during a cocktail party.
What we shouldn't do is to start talking about things that have nothing to do with me or my brand. There's this example that I constantly mention: kittens and babies. Every normal human being loves kittens and babies. If your community manager only publishes kittens and babies because people love them, he will of course get lots of likes and the material will get shared a lot yet, they have nothing to do with the essence of the company or the brand so...What's the point of having such a "strategy"?
You should also avoid purposeless contests, contests done just to have people participating. Believe me, if you launch a contest at where participants can win an I-pad, I can assure you it will be a total success but ... Did it help you sell anything? I mean, who doesn't want an iPad? The contest was packed with people who were probable not even your potential clients.
Finally, we still need to mention the last "C": Celebration. If we are in a social event, we must make our friends shine, make them feel like a celebrity. This the right place to do it. Have you ever been to a party at where someone says "let John play the piano, he is really good at it1"? We must do the same showing off our customers success.
By doing so, we'd be passing a "social test" on what we've achieved for them and on how we've helped them. We must of course, do this creatively so it doesn't turn into something boring. By doing so, our clients will feel flattered and our prospects will see that we are a real, humane company and it will all generate trust. And remember, we do business with the people who trust us.
5.- How to start conversations that will generate sales in Social Networks?
I will once again take the cocktail party as an example. How many times do you think the following has happened?: After having a chat with that cute girl of the party, after realizing that there is chemistry between the two of you and that you've had a great time, you go and ask her to marry you and she answers "yes!".
Do you think that's ever happened? Maybe it has (nothing's impossible!) but most likely, it hasn't. It is the same with a prospect, you can't just go and straightforwardly ask: will you buy this from me? It doesn't work that way.
We must continue those conversations with a lot of grace in order to build a real relationship and not just a sale. Because if we are invasive and do not approach our customers cautiously, we will only end up bothering our prospects.
That is why the right way to do this is by means of the frequent questions that they ask, since they let us see their interests. Based on them, we can create a relationship and nurture it, both inside and outside of the social networks.
In other words, we will have to ask for the girl's phone number in order to continue with the relationship. We afterwards ask her out, see if there are other more things in common that we may have, we create a friendship and maybe later, we can ask for a more serious relationship. Do the same with your social networks prospects and I assure you that you will have potential prospects who will become clients.
These techniques we are talking about are a small part of what a whole Inbound Marketing Strategy is. When we, at DataBranding, carry out a social media strategy, we see it as yet another tool that helps us attract and delight prospects and customers.
Social networks help us better identify the community's interests as well as their purchase intention. Did you ever see, in a face-to-face purchasing, how sellers knew how to detect the purchasing signals? That moment when clients touched the article and made a gesture, or when they watched carefully analyzing the product that they liked. It is still the same, the only thing that has changed if the way in which clients send these signals. They are now digital sales signals.
You must therefore understand the need of training your sales and marketing teams in order to
- detect these signals
- start a conversation
- help your prospect and then (afterwards)
- see if they want what you sell
Inbound Marketing not only helps with social networks content, but it also helps during the second phase that we talked about: to continue the relationship outside of the social networks and close that sale. A social networking strategy is a technique that must be carried out along with other Inbound Marketing tools in order to be effective and to close a sale.
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