Imagine for a moment that you are the owner of a retail store selling gingerbread men. You spend hours carefully baking them to ensure the exact right crunch as they are bitten into for the first time. They are tenderly packaged into crisp see-through cellophane bags, sealed and carried into the front of your store which was designed by professionals to ensure that your customers always experience the joy of smelling freshly baked gingerbread floating through the air. The gingerbread men are then carelessly crammed into an overloaded shelf...
I can guarantee that any business owner who strives to create a product or service that people crave just cringed as they read the ending above. We all know that it should actually read "The gingerbread men are skilfully placed in the right location to attract and market them to potential customers." Yet, these same business owners who are so passionate about their products and services will often just plonk their social media buttons without much thought, expecting they will create an army of raving fans. Like those carelessly stuffed gingerbread men, they won't unless you make some changes...
Don't be a sheep
As the explosion of social networking sites continues, more and more businesses are getting excited by the revenue potential which comes from being able to be shared amongst a wide group of people for very little marketing budget. The reason why harnessing the social media advertising model works so well is because when a business is shared amongst a group of friends it is more likely to be seen as a warm referral as opposed to traditional advertising methods which may not instantly create feelings of trust.
Social media buttons are fairly simple to add to your website, blog, content page or email newsletter and the more frequently a business owner sees them, the more likely it is that they too will want to add them to their marketing material so they can get in amongst the action.
The common approach to adding these buttons is to nominate a space on the object in question which doesn't look out of place and then insert them. The problem with taking the common approach is that you will only ever generate a tiny fraction of responses and your potential explosion will be more like that dud firework which just spits and fizzes on the ground.
Do some homework
Before you commit to placing social media buttons on any of your online material, spend some time doing a little research first. While it might not be as fun or exciting as just jumping straight in, it will benefit you immensely by not wasting your time creating lack lustre content which only your Aunty will share.
Go and find where your target market gathers online and join them. You aren't doing this to sell to them and you don't even have to comment if you don't want to, but what you do want to do is read what they post and watch what they choose to share and follow. Pay close attention to what content and offers are getting your target market excited, what avenues they are finding this information on and what preferences they have for how this information is presented to them.
By identifying how and what your target market will rave over, then you are giving yourself a great head start to getting your online material noticed.
Get it right the first time
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the content which is shared the most is the content which is informational, insightful, entertaining and maybe a little controversial. You can have extra marks if your content addresses all four at the same time.
Consider these two scenarios (I have used fictitious companies for this example):
Scenario #1: The Two Feet Shoe Company releases an email article to all their customers which humorously stereotypes every type of shoe wearer and allows you to discover your 'shoe personality,' it encourages you to share this article amongst every shoe wearer you know. It suggests that people who wear bright red 7 inch high heel shoes are show ponies who love the limelight. The article also has links to their current specials on shoes which are related to that stereotype.
Your best friend happens to have a wardrobe full of bright red 7 inch high heels and loves to party, and your mother has a fundraising event to attend on Saturday and had just mentioned that she was after some new shoes.
Scenario #2: Bob's Pest Control has a website which tells you about their company and the services they provide. At the bottom of their website they have social media buttons which let you share their website on Facebook and Twitter.
You were visiting their website to request they spider-proof your house.
Which scenario is more likely to convince you to press the share button and pass it amongst your friends and family? Is it the entertaining article which you can all have a giggle over or is it the website of a company that you were only visiting to request a service?
Where's your point?
The reason why most social media buttons fail to bring the success levels their owners were expecting is because they are added as an afterthought or because it's one of those things that you have to have these days, much like a contact form.
I believe there is very little point in placing social media buttons on the homepage of your website for instance, although I acknowledge that it has become common place these days. The reason I believe this is because your website homepage is a landing board into the purpose of your website and unless you manage to create an interesting, unique, informational, entertaining and slightly controversial homepage the chances of it inspiring a user to share it are pretty low.
Instead save your social media buttons for those pages that you know are going to create interest because of what you are saying – these are your special offers and the interesting content which your target market is craving.
Likewise ensure any email marketing that you do is always created around a strong focus of getting it shared, there are many interesting ways you can do this and the most successful email campaigns are the ones based on the 'psst, pass it on' game of Chinese whispers we all used to play as children. People love to believe that they are privy to secret information that no-one else knows and it makes them feel good being the one who shares this secret with those they like.
Tell them what you want
Don't assume that just because people know what the Facebook share button looks like, that they will instantly understand that you want them to share your material on Facebook. Most people are incredibly busy juggling work deadlines, trying to get to their dentist appointment on time, whilst rummaging through their washing basket trying to find matching clean socks. If you want them to share your latest article on why feeding goldfish once per day is the way to go, then use words to tell them this in addition to placing the appropriate button close-by.
You may feel silly for having to become Mr-state-the-obvious, but given that the majority of people will give your online material a 4.4 second glance before moving onto the next item on their to-do list, you can afford to feel silly. I like to tell our clients that they should pretend that they are writing content for someone who has just emerged from a cave – you can never be too obvious in your instructions.
In summary
Don't be a sheep and just place your social media buttons in a spot because it works with your design. Think about what your target market want and where they expect to see them.
Do your homework and find out what your target market is craving and then feed it to them often.
Get creative with your content. Ensure you tick one or all of the following boxes; be informational, insightful, entertaining and controversial.
Make sure you always place your social media buttons on the things which will actually create interest for your business.
You can't always expect people to know what to do with your content, so if you want them to share it, make sure you tell them.
Always take care of the gingerbread men you create and make sure you share this article with everyone you know :-)
P.S.
if you would like assistance with your social media marketing or require further information about the points contained within this article.
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