Better Social – 8 Tips

Social has been with us for a while now, and every so often I’m reminded that as much as it’s new, social has been around the block. What prompted my thought(s) on this was a white paper I came across produced by StrongMail titled “Email in the Age of Social Media”. Now the name doesn’t tell us much, but the paper is dated August 2009.

In any event, after a review, I decided to share with you some tips that will make your social media content better, but this hasn’t changed much since 2009. Yet what I find most intriguing is that given social media’s “age” and “acceptance” with large companies and brands, it’s still quite amazing that mid-size business and many B2B marketers have avoided the natural move to social. This technology change has left many standing still in the marketing sphere. I’ve referred to this void, not as a generation gap, but a technology gap, and the youth have accepted and prospered, while many older marketers have missed the opportunity.

Social has without fail delivered “eyeballs”, lots of views, lots of activity and in spite of Facebook’s manipulation of the stream, marketers are aware that their customers on active on social.

The white paper notes “Social media adoption has hit the mainstream, which makes it highly likely that a good percentage of your customers and prospects are already engaging in conversations that you could be benefiting from and help to influence”, all very true in 2009 and still true in 2014.

The tips provided in the StrongMail white paper are as follows, with a few of my own insights mixed in. Keep in mind, not much has changed as the basics of human interaction haven’t changed much either, and we are talking social:

1. Know your audience – every good marketer gets this
2. Create compelling content – not news here, just tougher than ever
3. Spark the conversations – Dale Carnegie said “create interest”
4. Measure, Track, Analyze & Optimize – not as easy as it sounds
5. Constantly Seed – we’d be suggesting make a plan and work the plan
6. Make it effortless to connect – I’d be recommending “excite them”
7. Segment Influencers – find them, engage then, develop them
8. Stay Engaged & Engaging – sounds like a sales job

It’s my opinion that StrongMail nailed this down in 2009 and it’s true today. Current stats indicated that only 53% of small business have a current website (the CMA says 43%).  Even more alarming to a digital marketing specialist like me is the notion that those who don’t have one 41% say they don’t need one, and 80% suggest that it’s used for general information.

Most of our readers know that we think your website should be exactly like your cash register for many businesses.

Now if we are at 53% adoption rate for websites, one has to ask how far behind are those same business when it comes to social? Here are some updated stats for social media.

As I wrap this up, these tips are great and have remained fairly consistent over the last number of years (as they should, after all being human is what this is all about). As such, use these tips as a guide when engaging with your social followers. B2C, B2B if you’ve got a business you need to get your social on, and while I’m making recommendations, get your website and ecommerce strategy laid out. The most important tip, or “tip of the day” is get your social on, the next five years are going to see explosive growth online.

Michael Bickerton, Raven5 Ltd, Oakville, Ontario March 2014

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