You can’t be a social media sceptic anymore. Gone are the days where simply having a profile is enough.
The digital channel is a tough nut to crack, but once you have, be ready to feast on the fruits of your labour. There’s just something so satisfying about watching those likes roll in, so take a look hither if you’d like to earn yourself some more:
Analysis is king
You might be great at content creation, writing and editing - but that’s only half the battle. You need to be able to track what’s working and why, and what’s not working and why, so you can quantify your results and refine them into something that really works. Your content will never operate at 100% conversion (wouldn’t that be nice?), but with analytics, rigor and a little patience, it’s not unheard of to hit 60-80%.
People love the word “free”
Reach far and reach wide, offer something free (even if it’s tiny) and expect a high rate of conversion. If you want to take this one step further, when your customer comes to redeem their free product or service, give them a chance to upgrade, i.e. offer a discount with a value greater than the free product. This way, you’ll get sales too.
Carefully define your channels
There’s a channel out there for every campaign, for every company - but each one has a super-specific audience and reach. It might sound obvious, but misjudging which post goes where could mean shaving vital points off your total reach and conversion scores.
Tie everything together
Include your social media info at the foot of your emails, and on business cards. This simple change can bring customers to channels they wouldn’t have been to otherwise. It’s all about removing barriers. They might not think to check, but you can always remind them.
Be yourself
I’ll illustrate this point with a story. The board game, Cards Against Humanity, is known for being highly inappropriate. That’s because the people behind the game are highly inappropriate. So, far removed from the typical Ps & Qs we’ve all come to expect from customer service and social media, they’re incredible at owning their rudeness. Take a look at this email response from one delighted user. And check this out, for users who chose to pay $0.00 for their pay-what-you-like campaign. Any other company would face a PR nightmare in light of this, but the CAH tribespeople encouraged it. They’re themselves, they’re honest, they’re funny and they’re different. Don’t be afraid to be overwhelmingly on-brand.
We could spend a day and a night to-ing and fro-ing about social media tactics, but hopefully these’ll give you a place to start the next time you go to publish a post or send an email.
Thanks for reading,
Louis