Why it is important to balance your content mix in Social Media Marketing

Social Media platforms were not made popular by business activities. But the business world sought to maximise on the opportunity provided by the availability of consumers in platforms that make it easy to target audiences. This suggests therefore that in order to appeal to our targeted audiences, we ought to approach them with a content mix, that is at their 'social' level whilst attaining our business objectives. Our content has got to be witty, informative and timeous. Presentation should be brief enough to make an impact whilst the targeted audience is still paying attention. Our mix should be made up of general product information, professional advice, brand awareness and corporate values. If we are in the service industry, some of this information could actually be part of our stock in trade, but we should be prepared to share it for free. Only when we have detailed the usefulness of our products to our target audience and identified ourselves with their situation; can we then begin advertising and soliciting sales.

Many potential clients may not be aware of the full benefits they can get from our products or services. Detailed product information is one of the main differentiators between conventional marketing and content marketing. The availability of internet on our smartphones, has encouraged the average person to quench their inquisitiveness through researching. A content marketing strategy with the correct mix should leave us with a marketing edge if we present ourselves as both information and product providers. Our strategy should not be a one way communication system, but we have to listen to client responses. The information we get from clients is cardinal in product development and improvement of systems. If we analyse all this data efficiently, we should be able to outperform competitors and place ourselves at a competitive advantage.

A prosperous strategy should have a theme and program built around this mix. The frequency of the different categories on our content mix should be guided by a timetable specifying what information we are sharing on a particular day at a specified time. However this timetable should never be inscribed on stone, we should be flexible enough to adjust and be in sync with the best times as revealed by analytics. Our objective is not only information dissemination but also engagement. In this regard it becomes prudent to post during the times we are likely to receive most engagement. We could find that our content with general information is mainly responded to during working hours, whilst our content with professional advice gets most responses during evening hours. It might be necessary to switch around these times for a couple of days until we have identified the best timing. Our best timing is not when we only receive the most clicks, but when we have meaningful engagement. Without a dedicated timetable for the different categories in our mix, we may easily forget to provide relevant 'social' information that encourages engagement. An engagement, even if it is a negative response, has got more chances to be converted to a sale than a mere page view. A page view is an important lead that should not be ignored, but our efforts should aim at engagement.

How do you balance your content mix, mind sharing with your valued comments below?

How Organic Reach reduces your Marketing Costs when you have the best Social Media Strategy

There are generally two types of groups that you will reach with marketing activities on Social Media forums. The first one is the organic reach. This is the group that we reach out to through our normal activities. This group decides to follow us when they come accross our presence on Social Media Forums. They might also go out on thier own to look for us. In this group is included those that we reach through word of mouth marketing. Those already following us, become our brand ambassodors who either recommend us or share our content. This helps us expand our potential reach without any extra costs.

There is another group that we reach when we pay for advertisements or boost our campaigns; the paid reach. Normally we would not reach this group without Social Media Forums aiding us by broadcusting our campains to particular markets where potential clients, not following us can be reached. It is therefore cardinal to have paid advertisements and campaigns for a wider reach. But in order to contain and even reduce our marketing costs we need to present ourselves in a manner that will attract as many organic followers as possible. The more organic reach we achieve, the less marketing costs we incur.

Business costs need to be contained if we are to grow our bottom line. Reducing marketing costs, without a plan to maintain a competitive advantage is just as suicidal as reducing product or service qaulity. In order to remain competitive, cost reduction requires innovation. Social Media Marketing is one such innovation. A Social Media Marketing Strategy that disseminates appropriate content and is able to enlighten on our internal functions will help us attract and grow organic followers. We live in an information age where our clients crave to know more about our products and those that are in the supply chain. Choice between products and suppliers is now influenced more by direct relationships than reputation. Clients will relate better with us when they see a photograph of us doing our daily chores. Even a one minute video on how we perform certain functions goes a long way not only to inform but also build a relationship. Infact pictures and videos leave a more lasting impression than written words hence are more porpular. These are activities that we do not have to pay for, but if properly designed and strategically diseminated, can grow us organic followers.

Our Social Media Marketing Strategy should therefore be designed to attract and grow organic followers. This will inturn reduce our marketing costs. 

Should you be in need of a strategy to grow organic followers and reduce your marketing costs, do not hesitate to contact us.

Loopholes to avoid when measuring performance of your Social Media Marketing Strategy

A marketing campaign as part of a business process needs to be measured. It is easy to measure performance in conventional marketing methods. However when it comes to Social Media it is still hazy to attach costs to activities and apportion results to specific actions. There are various tools and applications that can be used, but there is still debate whether what they measure is a true reflection of a return on investment of a social media campaign. Campaigns can never be similar. Objectives and results will always differ. Target audience also differs even though we may be using the same forum. With a clear strategy it is possible to identify performance measures for our Social Media Campaigns. Activity in Social Forums, may tempt us to view popular campaigns as successful. But what is success for one campaign might not be considered such for another. There are two types of popular campaigns that we need to be aware of and how they can or should affect/influence our campaigns.

Firstly we have viral marketing campaign. In Social Media, a viral campaign is one that has almost everyone sharing it.  They fall in love with the campaign and are motivated to share it with the next person. The campaign is extensively shared at not extra cost to us. Sharing of company information is good for brand awareness. However the reason this information is being shared might not be in sync with our marketing objectives. Yes, we want as many to know about us, but we just being known, is no assurance for a competitive advantage. We can only attain the competitive advantage if the objectives of our campaign are met.  A wrong interpretation of the popularity of a campaign, might lead us to conclude that we are successful when in actual fact, those sharing our information might never be converted into actual or potential future sales. I am reminded of the ALS Ice Water Bucket Challenge that once went viral. The originators of the concept, wanted to raise awareness on people living with the ALS condition and also to fund raise. I had close to 100 followers on Facebook that I saw participating in the challenge. Of all of them, there is only one who donated to the ALS foundation. The rest just did the exercise for fun or for its popularity. Partly the managed to raise awareness but I am not sure if the fundraising objective was met.

Secondly we have trending topics. Trending is a buzz word for popular topics mainly on Twitter but also applicable across all other Social Media Forums. Twitter has a column on the left side of its main page where it shows trending topics. Whilst it is possible to have our campaign trend and even appear on the front page of twitter, this might not help us meet our objectives.  Recently we had the official opposition party in South Africa run a campaign to promote their newly elected leader. He is a young vibrant man and CNN actually called the "Obama of Soweto" referring to his home area. The campaign #askmmusi was meant to get ideas from South Africans on their expectations on their new leader. That the topic was trending confirms that their brand got a boost. However whether their objectives were met might remain debatable. The interesting questions that came out of the campaign which received a lot of attention, had little to do a political leader. So if we use the matrix that the campaign was trending to measure the success of this Social Media Campaign, we might mislead ourselves.

Trending and Viral marketing can not be used as performance measures in our Social Media Marketing Strategy. But we can not ignore them. We actually need to build our campaigns around them because they give us insights into what our potential market is interested in. Should we have a campaign that trends or goes viral, we need to identify opportunities that we can capitalize on. Attention on its own will not lead to a competitive advantage.

How are you measuring your performance in Social Media Marketing? You can share with your valued comments below. Should you be in need of assistance in this regard, we are more than willing to assist.

3 Ways a Social Media Marketing Strategy can Propel Success in a Township Economy

The World Bank Group conducted a study entitled The Economics of South African Townships. It was published in August 2014 in their website http://worldbank.org This document details the potential of business opportunities in the Townships and Informal Settlements of South Africa. The Apartheid political system that marginalized natives, which was only done away with 21 years ago, left more than 60% of unemployed citizens inhabiting in these environments. Most of these settlements have limited services and are located far from commercial districts. Whilst property developers and large retailers are moving into some of these areas which are accessible; there is still huge potential for small scale entrepreneurs. Government at both National and Provincial levels have recognized this potential and are pursuing various Township Economy promoting initiatives. The private sector through programs like business incubation and capital support are also playing their part in the development of this sector. It is a fact that this scenario will bring in fierce competition between the already established businesses and the newcomers.

1. You can use Social Media Marketing as a Market Penetrating Strategy
Small entrepreneurial projects are usually similar. For any business to stand out, there is need for an effective market penetration strategy. Most conventional advertising mediums, be it print or electronic, cost an arm and a leg for a basic advert. Its critical to note that these advertisement may not necessarily reach most of the targeted audience for a small business in the Townships and Informal Settlements.  Some potential customers do not own Radio or Television sets and a newspaper or magazine is considered luxury. But now there is Social Media. There is no household that does not have at least one occupant who owns a smart phone and are online most of the day time into early evening hours. Almost all these individuals are on more than one Social Media Forum that offers Marketing services. A smart entrepreneur will utilize the services of Social Media Marketing to build a sustainable competitive advantage. It is important to understand what campaigns will tickle your prospecting customers. Planning can not be over emphasized.

2. You can use Social Media as an affordable Advertising Medium
Social Media Marketing campaigns can be quite affordable with the possibility of producing them in-house. One would need to master the use of some applications and tools which are available online, some for free whilst those requiring subscriptions do not cost much. Some form of informal training could help boost one's mastery. In Social Media Marketing we share content that is produced in a manner that attracts attention and encourages readers to also share. The content describes us and our services or products and when our content is shared, its like we get a free ride through the activities of our customers to reach potential market. Most of the material that has gone viral, is original work that has not been edited. Creating and broadcasting of this content can create business opportunities.

3. You can use Social Media to acquire loyal Brand Ambassadors and Marketing Data
Cardinal to success in our Social Media activities is the process of attracting and growing followers. It is essential that we have a number of organic followers before we consider boosting our activities. I would not advise buying of any followers because they may not be within out target market. The process of identifying Who we are targeting; What we will share with them; How we will reach them and When we want to reach them; is another business opportunity in the Township Economy for another small entrepreneur. The data that we will gather can lead to us to other profitable ventures if we analyse it properly. Data analysis could actually be another business potential for other entrepreneurs within the Township economy. Since Social Media Activities are available to us at no extra infrastructure, besides our smartphones; these activities are a mine rich with enormous business potential.

What other potential business opportunities have you identified within the Township or Informal Settlement Economy that one can pursue through Social Media Activities? You can share with your valued comments. Should you be interested in participating in this lucrative venture, we are more than willing to assist.

Organic Followers - a Guarantee of Success of Social Media Marketing

In Social Media Marketing, it is essential to grow followers. Followers play two critical roles; firstly they endorse your brand, become ambassadors and expose you to more followers; secondly they engage and give you leads that can improve your product offering. If you are able to tickle your followers on the right sport, you will make them affirm and rave about you. If the raving is at the right chord, it will influence their followers to also rave about you and your brand. This could lead to your campaign going viral. But before striking this chord you must develop a relationship with your followers. No one follows anyone for the fun of it, there are attracted to you for a particular reason. How then can one know what will tickle their followers? This leads us to a very critical component of Social Media Marketing. Our campaigns aught to have a specific audience. If we plan a campaign that targets everyone and anyone, it his highly unlikely that it will compel anyone to respond, remember the aim is to engage.

Organic followers are attracted by how we present ourselves and not necessarily what we are offering. They will like us for what they assume we are - remember first appearance... The onus is on us to affirm their assumptions about us. How we present ourselves is very cardinal in Social Media Marketing. Ambiance and etiquette are critical in all our campaigns. With tools and applications; some available for free - it is possible to come up with attractive, appealing and professional campaigns. So, Content Marketing is not only about presenting detailed content about our products; how the content is presented will attract us followers. Once we have them following us, we then give them interesting content that will leave them excited and wanting to share it with their own followers.

Another method of appealing to organic followers is to use influencers.  In Social Media, they are individuals that command significant numbers of followers. You can either follow an influencer with the aim of attracting their followers with your work. One can also ask an influencer within their area to become their brand ambassador by blogging about them. The influencer can also write and you post the blog in your own site. Note that the idea is still to build your own followers. The role of the influencer remains limited to introducing you to their space where you will have to exert your own influence on your brand and campaigns.

It is only when you have grown organic followers, that for growth purposes, you may consider promoting your campaigns. Promoted campaigns are your paid advertisements, where you pay your platform to push your campaigns to reach those who are not following you. If you rush for boosted campaigns when there are less people raving about your brand, it might appear phony. Strategically you are better off responding to your followers directly about your campaigns. As you are seeking engagement, it appears rude if the very people whom you want to engage receive automated responses.

How have you grown organic followers? Mind sharing on comments below...... If you need assistance with your Social Media Marketing Strategy, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Social Media - A Marketing Strategy or Advertising Medium

Last month I read an article about Social Media Marketing. The reaction from the comments were quite interesting. The author was pointing out the reality of the noise that Social Media Marketing is making on the conventional marketing arena. Some of the respondents were saying that they had not yet seen any marketing activities within Social Media forums. I was left wondering whether what they had not seen were Advertisements or the Marketing Strategies. Maybe the question to ask is whether Social Media is a Marketing Strategy or it is an Advertising Medium. A Marketing Strategy should be able to give us a competitive age whilst increasing our sales. Whereas an Advertising Medium is just a vehicle that carries our advertisements. Therefore our Marketing Strategy on Social Media should also make us utilize the Social Media forums as an Advertising Medium. However in Social Media Marketing we do not bombard our customers with Advertisements. It is possible, for one to be active in Social Media Marketing without running any visible advertisements. In Social Media Marketing we attract prospecting clients by telling them more about us - Inbound Marketing. We do not push our products to them with no added value.

With Inbound Marketing we seek a two way communication and customer feedback is cardinal. Marketing efforts are meant to add value and this could be through education or any other engaging activity like competitions or any form of entertainment. In Social Media Forums, participants share information, pictures, videos and the most interesting items attract dialogue. An astute Social Media Marketing Strategist should be able to follow the same methodology. Our campaigns can support the activities of our customers with an endeavor to craft a Social Relationship. What will keep customers engaged and loyal is if they feel that they are being valued. This is achieved through prompt responses to their input. Some may not be online all the time. Whilst it could be the best achievement to have everyone possible respond to your activities, this is highly impossible because we are tickled by different things and our moods are not always similar.

This brings us to another cardinal aspect in Social Media Marketing. We ought to have a target market, and within that market a target audience. Our target market will listen to us, but our audience will hear us and respond thereby completing the communication cycle. Whenever you have anything to say, you pick up the relevant audience to share with. If you just shoot in the dark, yes, you might have one or too of your targeted audience getting you, but you may not have a 100%  strike rate. This is the advantage with Social Media Marketing. It is possible to segment your audience to your exact target. If you are in apparel business, every individual needs to clothe themselves, but there is specific apparel influenced by weather patterns, gender, culture and so on. With a Marketing campaign or an Advertisement in Social Media Forums, you can target a specific audience and you will be assured of a response. This remains factual even for business to business communication. You can be on Social Media Forums and not be able to see a single advertisement if you are not the target audience of a particular campaign.

Have you done a Social Media Marketing Strategy and does it include any Advertisements on Social Media Forums? We would like to hear your experiences.  Feel free to get in touch if you need any assistance in this regard.

Social Media Marketing Strategy as a Parameter for Performance Measurement

Most organisations have performance measures. Some make use of various systems to manage their performance indicators. I once worked for an organisation that was obsessed with figures. Statistical analysis was the most revered performance indicator. The actual activities of the various departments which had a positive influence on statistics were not paid much attention to. The data that we collected was pregnant with information that unfortunately was not utilized to its maximum advantage. Each department operated independent of the other. When customer complaints overwhelmed us; we hired a Public Relations Officer to spin around the bad word about us from dissatisfied clients. Customer complaints would be channeled to the PRO department and the offending department carried on with life as usual. A Social Media Strategy in this scenario, could have helped us with customer engagement.

Social Media Marketing is premised on Inbound Marketing where we attract customers through sharing valuable content about us. The scenario described above, would have been better managed if we had a way of listening to our clients. Actually, it turned out that one of the issues refereed to the PRO department involved serious fraudulent activities that were affecting both our clients and the company. The information that is shared in Social Media activities is so vital and can be useful throughout the organisation and not only in Marketing. It is critical for any Social Media Strategy to be able to communicate relevant information about us but at the same time listen to what stakeholders say. A Social Media Strategy worth its salt should be a mine of data for all aspects of the organization.

It is very challenging to come up with performance measures that satisfy the needs of all stakeholders. Through the desire to share relevant content with our customers, we will have to set standards meet them. If we share content about our products or our processes and customers prove this not to be true, they will never come back to us. If we are found to honor our word, the content about us will become the best advertisement that will buy us loyalty. In some organisations, departments are viewed independent of each other with some actually having bad faith on others. With an astute Social Media Strategy, departmental activities form the core of the content that we share with clients. Each department has to play a part that will attract potential customers. Performance measurement can then be attached to the communication gathered from customers and potential customers.

Inbound marketing says, look at us, look at what we are doing, what do you think about it. How else can we measure ourselves if not by how our market thinks about us? If you were wondering where Social Media Strategy belongs in your organisation; it belongs in the boardroom where strategies are formulated.