By now most companies have established a social media presence. However, they often don’t know whose attention they’re getting, and if it’s the kind of attention they want. There is a lot of chatter right now about how NOT to use social marketing, (see "10 Ways to Screw Up Your SEO" by David McAnally, and "Top 6 Social Media Mistakes and How to Fix Them", by Kristi Hines). However most analysts have skipped over the most important element: the social element, the customers you hope to attract by engaging in social media in the first place! Who are they, where are they, and how do you reach them?
After reading several different top-ten or top -six lists, it seems to us like there are three key and all-too-common pitfalls in social media that need to be fixed to make sure that the social media element of your company’s marketing is getting to the audience you want:
1. Your social media is disconnected from your company’s message. Many companies simply start a Facebook page or Twitter account and assume that will be enough to keep the conversation alive between them and their customers. Well, SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) has been blindly sending out radio signals for 50 years, and we’ve seen the results: so far, no one’s responded.
But more importantly, what are you saying on those social networks? Are you promoting your new product, or are you tweeting about that new gizmo (worse, someone else’s product!) that you just have to have! Not connecting your message online with the rest of your marketing sends a mixed signal to your audience and makes them less likely to engage in your brand.Having a social media strategy is key to make sure that what you are saying in the social media sphere is coherent with what you’re saying in the rest of your marketing message. See the article on "7 Steps for a Successful Social Media Strategy" (More top-ten style lists!), or read our own take on it in a blog post from April.
2. Not connecting with the right audiences. Who is your audience? Who do you want them to be? It is important to make sure that your content is reaching the correct people. The audience that you want to connect with via search engine is usually the same people you want to connect with using social media. Both these can be accomplished with good SEO (search engine optimization). Using Activity Streams or tracking the user data from RSS Feeds can give you a better idea of who’s already engaging in your brand. In an article for Association Media & Publishing, Jacqui Cook suggests deciding who you want to impress. Then go to Google, use keywords you think they might use, and see what comes up. And don’t confuse terminology and keywords with industry jargon.
3. No value-add for social media users. Good customer service is good marketing. Think of social media as a customer service. How does your social media serve your customers?
As Harris Diamond wrote in a column for Forbes Magazine, “Brands today are actively harnessing social media platforms to create content and communities to find their brand loyalists or advocates… The new model of targeting brand ambassadors is about two-way, open, social engagement and not just top-down and inside-out pushing of products.”
What’s in it for your customers to engage in social media with your company? What do they get out of it? By offering insider information, early releases, and other perks, customers will engage and remain loyal to your brand. Company CEOs (or their assistants) often tweet previews of a speech right before a conference or event. Diamond points out “Once identified and engaged with, brand advocates do the marketing campaigns for them.” It can’t get much easier than that!
So there you have it, three pitfalls that many companies make when trying to find their social media audience, and how your company can avoid them.
