This week’s Neuger CO.LAB focused on how to effectively engage your audience through social media and create compelling content to increase your popularity. We were excited to have Luke Wyckoff, founder of Social Media Energy, co-host with Neuger’s Wendy Placko. Both hosts offered valuable tips and insights to our 50 participants on maximizing the incredible marketing tool of social media.
Session 14 Hosts
- Wendy Placko, Director of Sales & Video Team Lead
- Luke Wyckoff, Founder of Social Media Energy
Takeaways
- Social media platforms are increasing the use of a “pay-to-play” model to influence businesses into paying extra fees to boost their content.
- Most people assume there are specific parameters to social media marketing in that it is solely a platform for advertising products, which is incorrect. Social media is about catching the audience’s attention with your personality and brand; it is meant to be fun, not just a product catalog.
- Thought leaders, employee spotlights, customer success stories, contests, made-up holidays (e.g., national pet day), new customer content and outreach initiatives are all engaging ways to appeal to large audiences. Humanize your brand!
- Live content is increasingly popular, whether it includes inside stories about your company, a webinar series, etc.
- The first place consumers learn about your company after visiting your website is your social media platforms, where they see ratings, content, culture, etc. Your social media is an around-the-clock pitch; make sure the content is concise and reflects your company values.
- It is crucial to develop ways to increase traffic to your website (e.g., Google ads, Facebook ads, social media campaigns, email marketing).
- New and trending platforms: It can be a good idea to take advantage of new social media platforms – like TikTok – as a way to expand your overall reach. Typically, targeting will see better results with newer platforms because fewer people are trying to use that space right away. Make sure that any platform you choose is one that you can continuously maintain with enough robust, mission-aligned content.
Tips & Exercises
#1: What gets your attention?
Scroll through your social media feeds and note the advertisements that catch your attention. Then, compare those posts to the posts of your company. Your own ads should catch your attention just like the ones that do on your feed from others.
#2: What types of content are you sharing?
Create a bucket list exercise – organize your recent content into categories. Category examples can include product promotions, staff profiles, recent news, etc. Does your content span across several buckets like it should? Encourage your company to diversify its strategies and themes that will appeal to your customer base and broader social media community.
#3: Do your other digital efforts match your social efforts?
The biggest mistake in approaching social media marketing is having unrealistic expectations for your social media presence. Don’t go all-in on your social media and expect a massive return from it if your website is difficult to use. Make your website as intuitive and “Amazon easy” as possible, meaning your users should be able to buy your products/services in three clicks or less.
Key Discussion Questions
Q: What are some key measures you should be tracking with social media?
It depends on what your company values the most. Shares, posts, likes, sales and questions are all tracking mechanisms that determine a social media campaign’s success. It is essential to have a timely response to the engagement of your audience. If they submit a question on social media or a website form, respond promptly. No one likes the feeling of being ignored. Once again, humanize your online presence.
Q: How do you reach older, affluent audiences on social media?
Like any audience, it is not easy to find this demographic unless you know their lifestyle. Suppose you’re running an ad catered to the above audience. In that case, you can control age, interests (e.g., AARP, Golf Digest, anything affluent and expensive, like yachts) and target users who have indicated interest in those topics. Know your target audience’s preferences and structure your approach around the products that are typically popular with that demographic.
In Summary
The popularity of social media marketing is rapidly increasing, which presents many valuable growth opportunities for you and your company. With a plethora of platforms to choose from, we can now connect with new consumer bases in just a few clicks. It is crucial to adapt and redesign your strategies in unison with the constantly changing social media scene to maintain your audience’s attention. Provide unique content and always remember to put the customer experience first. Variety is the spice of life!