What SME’s need to know before diving into Social Media Marketing
Nowadays every Internet User has an average of 5.54 social media accounts.
And people are joining networks quickly!
All these numbers can not be ignored when it comes to Marketing in the 21st century. Almost every single target group has a social network where they hang out and spend a lot of time. This is the perfect opportunity for you to reach out to them, to interact with them and to find out what they want.
But there is something you will always have to keep in mind: These 135 minutes are voluntarily spent, people use their free time.
They want to enjoy this time and if you interrupt what they are interested in, then you’re out, they will consider you a disturbance and not an enjoyment. To put it with Michael Brenner’s words:
“Stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.”
You don’t want to try and make a sale because it will simply annoy your customers. The purpose of social media is not selling! It is important to bring this message across.
But if you are not going to sell on social media and instead try to become what people are interested in the question “What are people interested in?” will arouse.
To answer this question you have to know your customer base very well because obviously the interests are very different. So before you can start engaging with users on social media you will have to do some proper research. We have a few questions that you should answer first:
- Who are your customers? (Age, Gender, other interests)
- Where do they spend their time? (Online and offline)
- What kind of people are they? (Graphic or text based? Do they prefer colours or black and white?)
- What do they want to see / hear?
The more you know about your customers the better you can interact with them and meet their expectations. Social Media can be used for lots of different purposes, you could start a survey to find the answer to these questions and improve your marketing strategies. You can use Social Media to briefly update your customers about new products or services but remember not to make it sound like an ad. What will help your reputation is to answer questions or help your customers when they have an issue with one of your products. That way you will have great reviews that will help future customers make the decision to buy from you.
But if you post something, remember: Social Media is not a platform for you to keep talking about yourself and your products (although sometimes you should do that as well), but it is a conversation which means you have to listen to your customers’ stories and complaints, perhaps every now and then retweet/reblog/… some of their posts, it can make their day!
Which lastly brings us to the question what kind of content you should post. Well, quite obviously it depends on the platform you are using and what is ideal for your brand and your customers.
Do you wanna show a physical product from all angles? YouTube is great for that but there are different types of videos your customers might want to see. Do they wanna see a daily routine of your business? Or do they enjoy seeing how you can style and use your products? Make sure to keep an eye on the reactions that you get and if necessary adapt
After all communication is what social media is all about! So much time people spend on social media you do want to use it! Just remember it’s not necessary to have an account on every single platform.
Just use the ones that are right for your business and your audience and focus on these so you don’t waste your time on a channel that will barely bring you any business. Because social media is not about making sales but allowing people to get to know your brand so they might make a sale in the future; it’s an investment.
Just use the ones that are right for your business and your audience and focus on these so you don’t waste your time on a channel that will barely bring you any business. Because social media is not about making sales but allowing people to get to know your brand so they might make a sale in the future; it’s an investment.
If you want to learn more about Social Media and its use you can check out our FREE DEMO that will help you promote your business on whatever channel you want to.
Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide
Share this post
