For consumers, social media is all about access to personalised communications and information. They want a feed of information and a network of connections that is relevant to their lives. GORDON GELDENHUYS, Online Reputation Manager for Acceleration Media, give us some tips on how to gain the maximum return on investment from social media.
Consider, for example, how Google+ and Facebook allow users to curate news feeds and friend networks so that they see only the content they feel is important and useful to them.
Why, then, do so many brands insist on treating their accounts on platforms such as Google+, Facebook and Twitter as broadcast megaphones for mass media content?
One reason for this indiscriminate spray and pray approach lies in the fact that many organisations are still stuck in an old media paradigm. They are used to creating content such as press releases and ads for mass media channels such as print, TV and radio, and have yet to grasp the importance of tailoring content to the needs of different groups of customers or even personalising for an individual.
But even organisations who want to evolve to a more personalised form of communication are not yet sure how to do so. They lack the tools they need to build an understanding of their audience, and hence they do not have the information they need to tailor their content in a meaningful manner.
Luckily, emerging social media marketing solutions such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud are able to plug that gap. These tools enable marketers to collect insights about who they are talking to as they collect information from their social networks. They make it possible for brands to automatically tag customers, prospects, and influencers so that they can understand what makes them tick and what sort of content they are looking for.
These insights can be mined to learn who the audience is, how they found the brand’s social media channels, why they are interacting, who their network of influence is, what they’re interested in, how they act online, and more. From this data, marketers are empowered to create content that speaks to their audience. And that leads, in turn, to successful online interactions that support business goals such as customer acquisition and retention.
Here are three quick, practical tips for creating great, personalised social media content that will deliver ROI from your social strategy:
1. Align social content with social goals
You should be setting and measuring social media key performance indicators
(KPIs) that are aligned with your business goals. Create your content to meet the goals of your social strategy and deliver returns aligned with your KPIs. In other words, make it easy for users to understand and accomplish what you hope they will.
2. Create readable content
Make your content readable. Putting the most valuable information in the first sentence and expanding on it through the content. Use sub-headings and bullets to break up walls of text.
3. Make your content shareable
Know what your audience wants and give it to them. Understand what your users are sharing by looking at the topics and trends they are interested in and offer them fresh content that matches their interests.
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