Digital Marketing: Social Media Strategy

Social media lessons and ideas from real world experience - all from the Gamma Notes Small Business and Startup Marketing Blog.

Whether it's Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn, there's a social channel that's right for your audience. And, now, almost no one can do business without some online social presence.

I Ran A Social Media Strategy Experiment & Here’s What Happened

March 1, 2016 By Matthew White Leave a Comment

Let’s say you call a florist, and you have to leave a voicemail. Or, maybe you send an email. You wait for a reply. Nothing.

Earplugs should not be a part of any social media strategy — If your social media strategy was a person, would she be wearing earplugs?

Frustrating, isn’t it? You’ve probably been there before. It’s difficult to imagine someone being in business and letting inquiries go unanswered or ignoring opportunities to engage.

It’s also hard to imagine why you would have a phone or an email account if you didn’t bother to check the incoming communication.

But, that is exactly what happened in a recent informal experiment I ran using Twitter. True, it wasn’t exactly scientific. But, the process yielded some pretty useful insights for businesses and nonprofits alike.

So What Did I Do With Twitter?

I sent a variety of direct questions and shoutouts to businesses and other organizations. In most cases, these tweets were in direct response to being followed by the account.

A sample tweet might look like this:

.@TwitterUser thanks for the follow! I haven’t visited #Springfield in a while. What’s a good time to visit?

Conversational. Engaging. Easy to include others in the conversation. This is exactly what marketers might kill for.

And What Were The Results?

Users – even pedestrian users – were generous with likes. 54% of the tweets generated likes from some source. This seems promising.

The surprising part? Only 8% generated either a mention or a private message in response. Crickets.

Don’t Forget The Social In Your Social Media Strategy

As a customer or interested prospect, imagine getting a “like” for your question, but no answer. It’s the equivalent of getting an automated message for your phone call that goes something like this . . . “We’re glad you called!” Click.

A recent experiment: Would certain businesses and #nonprofits respond to questions and shoutouts? 8% did. #SoMe #Twitter

— Gamelan LLC (@GamelanLLC) March 1, 2016

Business people – and even content marketers – can get so focused on using social media for pushing content that the social in social media gets lost. With so much noise out there, incoming communication – what’s supposed to be the heart and soul of social media – can be forgotten. It should not be. Incoming communication is one of the most effective ways to gain new eyeballs and prospects.

Is Your Social Media Strategy A One-Way or Two-Way Street?

In a later post, I’ll explore some of the potential causes for this neglect of engagement opportunities, but there are some big question to ask yourself right now before moving on:

Is your social media strategy one-way or two-way? Whether you’re a business or nonprofit, are you actively monitoring and managing your social media accounts? Or, are you just logging in to push out a message or a link occasionally?

If you think your strategy is more passive or it’s a one-way street, you’re very likely missing opportunities to engage on a meaningful level.

Why and How: Web Site Marketing vs Social Media Marketing

November 13, 2013 By Matthew White Leave a Comment

To many, it may seem obvious that marketing via web site and marketing via social media require different approaches. Yet, if we think about how we’ve generated content for web sites versus social media, we’re likely to find that our messages really haven’t always been that different. Why? When we sell something, we tend to stick to the general message of “buy this thing.” As a result, our web sites and social media tend to carry loose variations of that message.

A Marketing Case in Point

Recently, while going through some web analytics for an organization I work with, I discovered a perfect illustration of how the purposes of web site marketing and social media marketing differ.

A web site new visits traffic trend graph. — On this web site traffic trend graph of new visits, take a look at how traffic ramps up before the event.

Take a look at the two charts on this page. Both capture a segment of time around a public event for this organization. The event is is easy to spot by the peak on both graphs – one for new web site visits and one for total reach on Facebook.

But, look at how traffic ramps up to the event on the new visits traffic report, then drops off. On the Facebook total reach graph, look at how reach suddenly spikes but stays elevated and tapers off.

Social media marketing can have a lingering effect. — This graph of Facebook reach shows how engagement spikes, then tapers off more slowly.

Why the Difference?

In the traditional marketing sense, one would think that all traffic would peak at the event, then drop off until the next marketing message blast goes out. But it doesn’t work that way anymore.

The reason is the way in which people use these two medium forms. Think about how you use a web site versus social media when you attend an event. Generally speaking, you’ll use the web site for things like address, directions, and tickets. In the days after, you’ll use social media to see pictures from the event, read your friends’ crazy accounts and share your own.

How You Can Use The Differences in These Marketing Vehicles to Your Advantage

Instead of gearing up for a major sales or marketing event then engaging in that collective sigh of relief once it’s behind you, think about how your marketing messages can differ before and after the event. Pre-event messaging has always been obvious. But, social media offers an opportunity to drive residual and lasting engagement.

In most cases, you can get more mileage than you initially think from that event or sales push. And often, you can find those different marketing messages by thinking about what you as a customer would be looking for from the medium.

Do you have an example of how this difference has been illustrated for you? I’d like to know about it. Please comment below or reach out on Twitter: @GamelanLLC.