Thinking Social Media 101
Defining an Objective
It is extremely important to define what you wish to achieve from social media activations.Likes, followers, grids, posts but what is the purpose?Having a clear unidirectional objective will help in planning campaigns, media spends & make your social media activity measurable.
If you don’t know where you want to go, how can anyone take you there?
Planning Content
Content is usually focused on communicating the what, how & why but from the audience perspective, it needs to pass the ‘So What’ test. Your post has reached them, it even made them pause & see it, but once the information is consumed, it must go beyond just being more content in their feed.
Your posts may look great to you & your known circle, but does the audience care?
Defining an Audience
An audience may interact with multiple brands online but never become paying customers & vice versa.So who do you want to engage?Are they decision-makers?And if you even reach the decision-makers are they the ones that will take the communication further?
Planning the user journey is critical to achieving success on social.
Choosing kinds of Posts
Informative
It’s easy to assume basics about your brand, but a good digital strategy assumes nothing. So never ignore stating the basics & having a long term consumer education strategy.
Engaging
Not all posts will or need to go viral, but having one such activation every so often can boost brand awareness tremendously.
Conversion based
When you know you want to sell, be honest. Users are a lot more likely to convert when they are clear on what journey they are stepping into. This will also result in better quality leads.
Knowing the Basics
The Requirements
A brand brief, a photoshoot, logo open files are just basic requirements to kick off the activities.
A Website
A website adds validation to your brand. Most users would like to see a website before actually converting.
SEO
Your creatives lead to engagement & curiosity around your brand,, but when they search for you on Google will your site show up?
Organic Growth
Organic reach & growth is dead. If you have 100 followers & you post something it will barely be seen by 12-15 people.
Using your Team
They are your first audience & endorsers. They need to engage, share & be the voice of your brand while maintaining basic post hygiene.
Social Media Ads
These are key to build a following & engagement for your brand, These can’t be skipped or avoided.
Kinds of Social Media Ads
Lead Generation – The Funnel
Going Beyond Social
Content Marketing
A thought leader is always looked at with industry authority or a future-ready brand & content marketing is the way to achieve this position.
Google Search
SEO while effective takes a long time, so for immediate or seasonal keywords Google Search can help boost results.
Google Display
Banner ads have extremely low CTR but have probably some of the highest possible digital reaches, so use them tactfully.
Remarketing
Remarketing is simple, it tracks users engaging with the brand & goes back to them with contextual ads to push them to the conversion point.
Thinking Regional
In the next 3 years close to 200 million users will come online from Tier 2 -3 cities, English isn’t going to be the language to interact with them.
Thinking Audio
Podcasts are an excellent way to reach a completely new audience, building a unique positioning for your brand & that content has to be repurposed across your social profiles.
“Posts are not seen by users daily or chronologically. So good designs may be attractive but post specific micro storytelling will always work better to establish a longer-term connection between the brand & the audience.”
Yash Sanghvi
