Everyone has a social media strategy, but not everyone gets value from social media.
Social media was once limited to the realms of red-bricks academia, but today it is as commonplace as chewing gum. You could argue that there are in the region of 20-30 mainstream platforms, but that number could run into the 10s of thousands when you start to include the niche.
In total, it is estimated there are now 5.17 billion social media users around the world, with people spending 37.5% more time on the platforms now that they did a decade ago.
This is an opportunity few marketers would want to pass on. In fact, Sprout Social suggests UK firms alone will spend in the region of £9.95 billion on social media marketing.
Social media is a vehicle to audiences. It offers anyone a chance to speak directly to their customers more cost effectively as you own the channel (assuming you have a social media profile of course), while maintaining 100% control of the message (it is you who writes it after all).
So why is it so hard to do properly?
Content, content everywhere, but not a point to make
If you log onto any social media platform, there is a myriad of content to engage with. Some of it is good, some of it is bad, and some of it is downright ugly.
Does it work to directly promote your product on social media? Probably not. How many people stop on the street when a leaflet promising 21% APR on a new credit card is thrust in their face?
Is it effective to tell people how happy one of your other customers are? Maybe not. How long would you talk to someone in the pub if all they did was tell you how happy other people were after speaking to them?
Do celebrating “National Days” drive engagement with external audiences? Not sure, perhaps if there is a strong link to the business that is not overtly self-serving.
This is not to say there are not good social media campaigns. There are companies who invest in social, and every part of social media, and deliver highly effective results.
Microsoft’s “AI For Good” campaign is an excellent example.
Microsoft used bold content, addressing real world issues to engage interest with the end-user. It focused on deployments of AI and how it delivered benefits. These teasers posts encouraged people to click through onto the Microsoft website, where additional tactics can be applied to shift the right people along the sales funnel to products and services that can facilitate the adoption of AI.
Microsoft didn’t try to do everything at once but understood how to appeal to people.
What is the point of social media?
For many companies, the purpose of social media is to hook interest. It is not a place to make a sale, but somewhere to entice the audience enough that they are more engaged with the possibility of purchasing something from your company.
This is where many companies fall – without the underlying content, the audience remains largely disengaged with the brand itself.
Let’s look at what a social media marketing approach would look like with bad content.
Firstly, you have the post itself. This is a window into the company – a short and snappy engagement opportunity. If you are promoting a poorly written post, then copywriters can only do so much. The resulting promotional post on social media is likely to be poor also.
This will likely mean a low click through rate.
But then again, a copy writer might work wonders and create a highly effective teaser which sparks interest with the audience. Then you might have a higher click through rate, but this leads to the second challenge – does the actual content live up to the expectations?
If the content is poorly written, it isn’t going to achieve anything. The end-user is unlikely move to the next phase of the sales funnel, or there an even worse possibility – you lose the trust of that individual. They feel mislead and won’t engage with any future promotional activity of that brand.
Content works, invest in it
According to research, 95% of decision makers are more likely to welcome sales outreach from companies who create meaningful content. 71% believe “Thought Leadership” is more effective than traditional marketing, while 53% state brand recognition is less important when companies provide value through engaging content.
Having a voice works. It sets you apart from competitors and creating meaningful engagement with potential customers demonstrating you are more than a vendor.
This is not to say there are not other drivers behind social media strategies, there certainly are. Companies can use for customer services, highly effective for brand awareness, and second to none when it comes to building communities.
But one of the most common uses is to take potential customers on a journey, with the ultimate objective of growing revenues for the organization.
Using social media marketing as a phase in the sales funnel is not a new idea, but more often than not, the best ideas are old ones delivered effectively. And thought-provoking, well-designed content, written purposefully and attentively, is a fundamental building block of this strategy.