As the social media landscape consistently evolves, many marketers are looking for a specific set of golden rules to follow to be successful. Unfortunately, there are no set 'best practices' to follow because even best practices have limited shelf lives. There are, however, guidelines. If you want your company to successfully compete in the latest social landscape, here are seven actions you can take:
Become the top persuader. Understanding the power of persuasion is your most important tool. You persuade your team that you can help its members achieve success, and you persuade your customer to buy your product. Your role as an influencer plays a major part in social media and in the art of persuasion. Before you influence, you need to figure out the winning message that will sell. When you do that, you can unleash the groups that sway your customers.
Use a variety of distribution channels. The key mistake that some new social media marketers make is to focus solely on social media platforms to carry their message. This does half the job. Although it gets people's attention, it doesn't get them to the sale. For example, imagine that you have just tweeted about a solution for weight loss. Unless you provide a link to your product and a place for discussion and reviews, you have a missed opportunity. Draw a map of all your channels (blog, website, newsletter, and so on), and use it whenever you plan a new campaign. You need a link to all your venues.
Reinvent your strategy to emphasize value. Value is a secret weapon in this economy. When you boil away all the other ingredients of a product sale, you uncover value. This is a tricky concept because value is in the eye of the beholder. Understanding what imparts that value should underlie your entire marketing strategy. Think about your current social media marketing campaign. Are you focusing on features and benefits or on how the product makes your customer feel? For example, some companies focus on making people feel smart and sexy when they buy a certain model car. By the same token, others may focus on models that emphasize safety and responsibility. If you understand the value, you can establish a bond with your buyer.
Market to inspire. The globalization of our world via the Internet has given us a window into the lives of others. It's hard to ignore the poverty and disease that plague much of the world's population. Many companies are seizing the opportunity to use their businesses to help make an impact. Social media encourages awareness of the connection we share with others. Think about how your business can participate.
Create and curate content. Offering engaging content is a big part of any social media marketing campaign. You need an editorial calendar that lays out your topics, creation tools, and deadlines. You also need to focus on curating content already published on the web. Becoming a trusted source of information is key to getting your customers to visit often.
Know when to resist the next shiny object. As you well know, new web tools pop up daily. The best way to avoid being distracted is to write your objectives down. The last thing you want to say to yourself is, "Everyone is using such and such, so we should use it." Place your objectives in a prominent place and refer to them often. If they change, revise the document. But whatever you do, don't try to do something on every social platform - you'll quickly discover that you don't have the tools, training, and - most critically - the resources to support all the tools.
Be prepared to be wrong. This is a tough one. In your role as marketer, you want to lead your company to successive victories. Social media marketing is not a sure thing. You need to be prepared to experiment and change course using the feedback that you get from customers. You may start with a small idea and develop it into a full-blown campaign. It is unlikely that you can start out with an expensive, large-scale effort and not have to make adjustments along the way. When management and staff start out with the notion that they are testing and experimenting, changes in direction won't seem as shocking. This cuts down on wear and tear of the psyche for everyone. It also limits the risks to your core marketing efforts while you learn this space.
