The brand awareness and bottom-line profits achievable through social media marketing require hustle, heart, sincerity, constant engagement, long-term commitment, and most of all, artful and strategic storytelling.
Every social media platform has its own language. You must craft your message to each.
Jabs are the lightweight pieces of content that benefit your customers by making them laugh, snicker, ponder, play a game, feel appreciated, or escape; right hooks are calls to action that benefit your businesses. This is also known as “give, give, give, ask.”
Today’s perfect right hooks always include three characteristics:
- They make the call to action simple and easy to understand.
- They are perfectly crafted for mobile, as well as all digital devices.
- They respect the nuances of the social network for which you are making the content.
Outstanding content is:
- Native to the platform
- It doesn’t interrupt
- It doesn’t make demands (often)
- It leverages pop culture
- It’s micro
- It’s consistent and self-aware
On Facebook, the definition of great content is not the content that makes the most sales, but the content that people most want to share with others. Accept that you’re going to reinvent your content every day, if not more. Sponsored stories are ways to increase reach on content that’s already popular.
Twitter is the cocktail party of the Internet—a place where listening well has tremendous benefits. As I’ve said, businesses that want to compete in social media today need to embrace a dual identity. They will, of course, be the purveyors of a product or service, but they must also learn to act like a media company. Is it to the point? Is the hashtag unique and memorable? Is the image attached high quality Does the voice sound authentic? Will it resonate with the Twitter audience?
Pinterest is naturally a visual platform. Utilizing a great picture with microcosm is crucial.
Native Instagram content is artistic, not commercial. Use your content to express yourself authentically, not commercially. To reach the Instagram generation: Learn to make Instagram work for you—it will be your gateway to the next generation of social users. Go crazy with your hashtags.
LinkedIn will be where you have the most freedom to indulge in long copy.
Effort. It matters more than most people want to admit. Don’t be Buster Douglas after defeating Mike Tyson.
All companies are media companies.
