Why social media should be called Smart Social Media,
Most of us by now are pretty familiar with the term social media and its uses. However with the great expanse of possibilities that reach out to marketers and businesses over all, social media has really transformed into something that is much smarter than ever before.
Remember Seth Godin’s “permission marketing” wave? which was so prominently used by marketers for years, well that is old news now, you know that. With Social Media , permission marketing does not fit the equation, since of course, there is no need for the business to ask for any sort of permission.
Although still, everything eventually depends on the user-base whether they want to engage themselves in your content or not. Furthermore, its also up to the users decision whether they find your content worth sharing or not
The likes of Facebook and LinkedIn also helps its marketing users to find and allocate their precise audience which highers the chances of their content reaching the right audience, while lowering the chances of their content going unconsumed.
Here, the window of opportunity is literally the size of the wall which is being scrolled up or down by the user’s finger-tip fairly rapidly. To engage the user, you might try several different tricks like colours, movement, imagery, GIFs, or whatever makes your content more effective!
Marketers, the good ones at least, are making a point of spending a good amount of time on social media, not only posting content but at the same time gathering the noise that is on and around their content. Also, Social Media is a great way maybe ‘assess’ your competition and look at how they’re out and about conducting their business. Of course, willful marketers can always learn from their competitor’s strategy.
How?
If the business you’re assessing is your direct competition with a bigger fan base, look into their fan base and see what you can find that is common in all of them. Once you have a set of things that are common in their interest, you can target those interest and try to incorporate them within your own content. This is basic marketing if you will!
What else can social media offer you and your audience?. Information. That’s right. It has always been a thing that has been practically studied for a long time and well elaborated by Gary Vaynerchuk in his book “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” which metaphorically translates into “Give, Give ,Give, Ask!”
Social media does that for you for free. It is full of information, always, and if your content can imbibe Gestalt’s law of proximity and fit in with the rest of content, it might just do the trick for you.
Talking about content, once your users are engaged in your content, the point is to always give them a reason that drives them to your website.
How?
Good content and great CTA buttons. Your Call To Action Buttons play a major role in driving your audience where you want them to be. Here the CTA buttons are of course not those bright colorful objects that are seen flying around in a desperate attempt to snatch attention. But they are those tactfully positioned links that lead your reader to your website.
Remember, the idea is not to make a sale here, you’ll have plenty of time to do that once you get your audience interested enough, in what you’re trying to tell them.
How?
By building trust! Generally, people are used to content that is all empty promises, and have made themselves allergic to such content. The only tip-off here is ‘be as far as you can from such content’.
Again, the idea is not to sell, but to drive people to your site.
Social Media is Today and most certainly is Tomorrow too. If you want to keep your business “in the know”, let people find it where they’re most usually trending i.e. – Social Media.
