It has been a few years since social media became popular.
I wouldn’t say mainstream since a huge number of companies haven’t gotten started yet.
Another good portion have recently acknowledged its importance and are taking action at the moment.
When it comes to their first steps, the mistakes don’t differ much from those brands and companies that have started using social networks a while ago. It consists on a race for followers, fans… eyeballs.
From their perspective, it makes sense that they want to prioritise attention/reach. At the end of the day, that’s how TV, radio and newspapers work.
By now, most of these companies will feel frustrated. It turns out, attention is pretty scarce these days and there’s too much noise and competition. Money is not the solution either. Brands like Tipp-Ex (BIC Group) that have ample budgets might capture that attention initially but arrive to the same frustrating point later on since, after the momentum, they don’t talk to people.
It is not sustainable to win an attention race. Here’s what your company can do instead…
Race to care, or better yet, out-care.
Think about this…
- Did you set up a company email to get as many emails as possible?
- Did you make a business phone number available to your prospects and customers with the intention of getting as many calls as possible in the first place?
You did it because people also have emails and telephones and therefore, they become clear communication channels for your company. Then, if you’re good at handling email and phone queries, you’ll be able to serve more customers. Does it make sense?
Step 1: Take the project as an experiment. Think about your customer persona and ask yourself: where do these folks hang out? (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). You might not know 100% yet (maybe yes) but try to define that first.
Step 2: Create an account in the defined platforms and try to understand first, how do they work (don’t just join Facebook and Twitter because everyone is doing it. It might not even be for your company yet). If you understand how to communicate through the platform, it’ll be easier then to understand how to conduct conversations.
Step 3: Get help if necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the platforms and tricks that might help you stand out.
Step 4: Think about the type of content you’re going to share to serve your audience, to help your customers resolve their pain points, until you start getting questions from them. Content marketing is a world in itself so do your homework about what are you going to talk about.
Step 5: Ensure your profile/s are fully completed before engaging. Finally, start publishing your company updates.
Step 6: When prospects and customers do talk to you (big milestone!) be there to answer and provide helpful information!
The steps above are a super simplified way to approach social media in your company or organisation but, I can guarantee you that you will find it much more useful than publishing random posts in networks you don’t understand yet.
What do you think?
