There are a few things that one can do to have a successful
campaign with social media communications, one is to target your audience. There
are three critical elements that must be in place for a company to be able to target
an audience and have an effective target marketing strategy.
- Placement:
- Patience
- Practice
Placement
Placement is simply having a social media site from which to
post from. Social media marketing content is about building relationship, the
same way that traditional customer service is. When a customer comes in with
questions, the relationship has a chance to grow. Online, through social media,
the very same interaction occurs. A firm must have the social media outlet such
as Facebook, where customers can ask these questions. So build a Facebook Fan
page, a Twitter Business account, or a YouTube channel for business. Customers
are on these social media outlets and businesses should be too.
Patience
Patience is the other extreme of the above example. In the
brick and mortar location a customer will ask a question and walk away without
a sale. Typically another customer will walk through the doors and the business
has a chance to engage them. The business representative effectively layers the
sales presentation through conversation and then closing. Online businesses
typically have two different locations for the interaction listed above. Social
media outlets for conversations and a business ecommerce website for closing;
if a business has a website, all the social media activity drives to the site.
This divides the natural progression of the sales conversation. At the brick
and mortar location the social conversation of the clerk or salesperson builds
the relationship and lays the foundation for trust which leads to a closed sale.
Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter act as this relationship building
and trust laying foundation, then the customer goes to the website to purchase
the product. Ecommerce essentially severs the two layers of the sale into different
locations. The patience comes is over the aggregate of the campaign. As a
social media manager, one must constantly provide a voice for the firm even
when it may seem as if it is not directly related to sales. The sales conversation is driven by the trust
building and then the close, not the other way around.
Practice
Practice is the breakfast of achievers. All great achievers
have practice under their belt. If a company wants to achieve greatness on Facebook
or Twitter, they must simply block some time out and post several times a day.
Once customers respond, they must address them thoroughly and thoughtfully. If it is not in the marketing plan and
marketing objectives to improve your conversation, then the social media
development of the firm is in need of change. Companies ask “how are businesses
using social networking.” Effective companies are using it the ways prescribe
above.
Target Acquired
A business's best source for what their target audience is
online is their current customers who are looking online. Following these three
steps will enable a firm to target the social media channels and demographics
that will effectively lead to success in social media marketing.
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. (For more information on this see the video)