Hi all, Emily here!
I want to expand upon the notion of giving more than you take as part of your social marketing strategy. We spoke about it last week, and I want to acknowledge that it’s a lot easier said than done! Often, if your posts and engagements are directed towards selling your services/product/idea, then it can feel like energy wasted when you don’t see the results you need.
By the same token, it’s possible to over egg the pudding. Studies show that consumers in their 20s and 30s have shown that they don’t like it when you try too hard. But don’t worry if you’ve been friend zoned on social media – I’d recommend you lick your wounds, stroke your ego, and get back out there. But chill. Your potential customers have keen desperation sensors, so think like a cat. We all know that you’ve got to work for a cat’s love and attention. At the same time, cat owners will know the feeling of being snubbed by their cat when things get too much for their tastes..
By this I mean – don’t make it obvious how much you want their custom! What I’m suggesting is that you work hard to win over potential customers, but not too hard that you turn them off. It’s a very fine balance!
In the meantime, you know your goals are more than creating entertaining and useful content. You might want to sell products, increase your following, or develop your brand! However if it’s obvious to your prospects – including keen eyed millennials – that your end goal is just about sales, you’ll lose the grab that your carefully curated and useful content ever had in the first place. Be keen, not too keen, and think of your client base as hard to get kitties.
When it comes to the content, I’ve already suggested in previous blogs that you should be yourself. I’m going to stress this again, with the addition of being yourself even – or especially – if you’re a bit weird. Your SEO plan may be watertight, but I’ve come across a couple of alternative strategies, which include bemusing Google’s software to lift your posts above the repetitive stale swathes on curated content floating about there.
As always, what you give to your potential clients should be, as Chris Abraham has it, “neutral, entertaining/edutaining, and useful”. Think about the sorts of questions your prospects are asking themselves on the commute home as they’re scrolling through the web. Be a few steps ahead with quick answers for an easy takeaway. Something that will make them bookmark you for future snippets of useful stuff. And get ahead of Wikipedia as a go to for easy access, entertaining and legitimate information!
