Do You Put The Social In Social Media?

Do you remember when marketing used to mean paying for the best T.V. commercial time spot or during prime drive time on a popular radio station? What about making sure your full-page ad was seen in the Sunday paper? While all of that still exists, marketing is now commonly done through social media channels. You can reach a large audience from anywhere in the world at any time, day or night. But posting on social media isn’t enough. You also have to be social. So, are you putting the social in social media? Let’s find out!

Before you start throwing your content on social media platforms like it’s candy at a parade, remember not every platform is going to be suitable for your content. You need to choose one, maybe two platforms to really focus on. You need to know where your audience is. Perhaps that platform is LinkedIn, and you also post on Facebook because there’s a lot of cross-over between the two. Maybe it’s on Quora and a Podcast. Whatever mediums you choose to post on, you need to be consistent wherever you have a large following of ideal customers. If you’re a software developer, posting on Tik-Tok probably isn’t going to land you a lot of business. Much like posting on LinkedIn won’t get you very far as an up-and-coming music artist. It’s not just about what you post, but also where you post.

Once you know where your audience spends most of their time, you can experiment with other platforms because you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket. Post different content on the platforms you're experimenting with to reach more people and create more content for your brand.

Ok, so let’s move on to putting the social in social media. One way to stand out, be social, and grow your brand loyalty is through creating an engaging community. As you post your content and people start to comment, share, or DM you, make sure you respond to them. You can turn these people into your biggest brand fans. Not everyone in your target audience will see your content, so you need to capitalize on the people who do see it and interact with it. Every business is looking for a good ROI (return on investment), but have you ever thought about ROR (return on relationships)? ROR happens when you cultivate the relationship between you, your brand, and the people engaging with your content. You can make them a VIP group, send them their own special newsletter, or create a group page if the platform you're on has that capability. Make sure you are responding to messages and comments daily. Go ahead, check your content and messages right now and respond…we’ll wait.

Great job! You’re on your way to building a community that will rally behind your brand and will possibly help generate some user-generated content (UGC) for you. This type of content is GOLD! This gives your brand credibility and shows people the quality of work you do. Building up your community is a phenomenal way to expand your reach, build lasting relationships, create repeat business, and stand out as an industry leader.

If you’ve never really thought about creating those relationships, you might start looking at other similar businesses. You want to see what and where they’re posting, how they respond, and what they do for their brand fans. Even though you should be looking at what others are doing, the best advice we can give you is DO NOT DO EXACTLY WHAT THEY DO! What works for them might not work for you. You might not post the same content, your brand voice could be different, your goals are different from what they are hoping to achieve, or their audience could even be different from yours. You never want to copy what another business is doing. Be creative, tell your own story, build your relationships, and strive to be different from the competition.

Yes, you can still look at what is working for them, but put your twist on it. Come up with a campaign that aligns with your goals and desired outcomes.

We want to see you succeed in being social on social media! After all, social media is the one place you can create your content for free and target your perfect customers. If you need help with your social media strategy, reach out to Boundless Media. We are here to help with a variety of services. From content creation to outbound marketing campaigns, we can help you stay social with your loyal followers and pick up some new ones along the way!