While many businesses have decided that social media is important, sometimes they don’t give it any more thought than to setup a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Unlike more traditional marketing channels (print, tv, radio), it’s relatively easy to get started with social media. However, how you communicate your marketing message, and how your audience expects you to participate are vastly different on social media than traditional media. The content you provide via social media and how you provide it can really make or break your social media strategy.
Broadcast vs. Participation
Radio, TV, and print (traditional media) are all broadcast mediums — one publisher distributes content out to an audience with very little interaction. Social media is a many to many medium where anyone can be a publisher and where the audience can interact with publishers. Broadcast mediums like print, tv and radio are fine for marketing via advertising because the audience puts up with ads in return for free content (tv shows, music, news, etc.). However, on social media, the audience has a voice in what is published — either by whether or not they even bother looking at it, or by voicing their opinion on the content (or organization). The social aspect means that it’s much more important to take into account your audience’s needs.
Audience Needs vs. Your Needs
Since audiences online have a voice in what is published (and whether they look at it), it becomes vitally important to understand their needs so that you can provide content that fulfills those needs. If all you do is post promotional messages about how great your organization is, that probably doesn’t fulfill anyone’s needs except your own. People are very selfish. If your content doesn’t fulfill a need, they’ll quickly go somewhere else and never come back (which makes it impossible to market to those people).
Immediacy vs. Long Term Effects
Advertising on traditional media usually provides immediate effects (hopefully, or else you’re not likely to do it again). Participating on social media has less of a monetary investment, but a much larger time investment. If you want people to listen to you and have conversations with you on social media, then you need to be consistent about posting and engaging. The upside is that social media can help you build relationships which have much longer effects than a one-time up-surge in sales.
How does your content make your social media strategy?
(photo by Niko Herlin, on Flickr)