Consumers have short attention spans these days, and it’s little wonder given their constant bombardment with messages. This can make it hard to have your marketing message heard on social media, so here are three ideas to get some traction.
With an ever-increasing number of online platforms, businesses now have so many choices when it comes to social media. These wide ranging options can also provide a false impression thought – one that says so long as businesses engage with the networks, everything will fall into place.
This is not the case. So although it’s important to create a social media presence, it must be purposeful and strategic otherwise a business’s message won’t get through. Social media needs to be interconnected with a brand, and it shouldn’t have a separate existence to other business activities.
With so many social media platforms being used, it can be difficult for a business to get its message across. These three key points will help your brand message be heard in this crowded environment:
1. Develop a strategy
I can’t stress this enough. It is vitally important to have a clear strategy around your reasons for using social media and the goals you hope to achieve. This needs to happen right from the beginning, before you even start to engage with the platforms. The strategy needs to combine other business and marketing goals to be part of the overall marketing and communication strategy – everything should be interconnected for maximum effect.
Social media platforms should then be linked to the main business website and vice versa. This way you’re able to maximise exposure to potential customers with a clear, consistent and valuable message.
2. Social media is a marathon, not a sprint
Social media is about building relationships, which takes time. It requires consistent posting, constant engagement and learning to listen to what individuals are saying. Limit yourself to only one or two platforms in the beginning as this allows for better two-way engagement. As perspective and valuable results are gained, your business presence on social media platforms can be increased if in-line with your overall strategy. Spending time having a two-way conversation will be more productive in the long run, than forcing a message in a one-way direction will ever be.
This two-way interaction can cause many businesses to worry about negative feedback, and this is a valid concern. The good news is that most negative comments can be rectified and turned into positive results if they are dealt with promptly and appropriately. I’m constantly surprised by how many businesses mishandle negative comments. Of course, there will always be individuals who post nasty comments just for the sake of it but any comments that are constructive should be taken seriously. If one person has taken the time to express their views, you can bet there will be ten others who feel the same way.
3. Make it different
Obviously the usual things apply when on social media: Such as adding value, having a clear purpose, completing your profile, showing personality and so on. But to stand out, something about your offering needs to be diverse. There are a number of simple ways this can be achieved and here are some ways to experiment:
- Use humour.
- Have a cleverly designed infographic.
- Create funny stories or slogans.
- Use motivational quotes.
- Use vibrant colours, easy to understand language.
- Use bold graphics, images, phrases, or titles.
Once you have a concept to promote, any number of tools can be used to make your message stand out. It’s just a matter of experimenting and seeing what works. With consumers having such short attention spans and being constantly bombarded with messages, what used to work may not have the same traction it used to. Businesses need to connect on the level of those using social media, so experimenting with new ways will provide more opportunities to get your message to stand out.
