Category Archives: Social Media Marketing

Social Media Fatigue is here

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More people are increasingly feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information as well as lots of noise that comes their way through social networks.  This is in addition to the information they continue receiving through TV, billboards, magazines and other forms of traditional media.

Is it any wonder then that there’s a growing sense of fatigue?

Has social media reached the tipping point?

Sitting with a client recently, he put me on the spot quoting from a research report published in a local newspaper about how people do not want to be bombarded with brand messages in their social networks.  The report indicated that the reason individuals get on to social networks is to connect with their friends and “meet” new people; not to receive corporate messaging about some new offer or product discount.

While I am sure majority of the people reading this were not around in the 1920s when TV signals were first transmitted, I am certain there was hue and cry when advertising began appearing to interrupt important news about the great recession.  Social media is still relatively new and as such the discomfort of having commercial messages is an expected response.  The key difference and benefit of Web 2.0 is that individuals now have a say on which brands they want to hear from.  Social media is permission-based, which is a big win for the consumer and can be a big headache for the brand.  Customers will give you permission to engage with them if you offer them value through the content you have on social networks.

The excitement of all the available social networks has resulted in the overload that is causing some users fatigue.  Over time, one realizes the need to scale down once they have identified the most relevant channels for their requirements.  When you walk into the gym, hopping onto the cycle machine and then onto the treadmill followed by lifting all the weights and trying out every other piece of equipment is likely to land you in hospital with multiple injuries not to mention extreme fatigue.  Trying to be on all social networks with equal levels of engagement and participation can feel a little like the gym situation I have described above.

For any brand, investing in research to establish where the majority of your customers and prospects hang out on social media will help you narrow down to the channels where you need to feature most prominently.  Failing to do this exposes you to the risk of having social media assets that go unattended for long periods of time.  I cannot overemphasize how detrimental this is to any brand.  Research has shown that 49.5% of customers are far less likely to buy anything from you if they find a bunch of unanswered questions or complaints from other customers on your social media site.  A social media policy will greatly help to address some of these issues before the crop up, and failure to have one is among the key risks companies faces when engaging in social media marketing.  Read this article for details on other risks to avoid.

To avoid the fatigue, establish the right and relevant number of social networks and dedicate sufficient resources to keep them lively.  The many complaints and alarmist reports are just growing pains. Social media is only in its infancy.

Are 90% of the Likes on your Facebook Page by staff and relatives?

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I was sitting with a prospective client recently when she made a comment which I have heard in different forms almost each time I engage with clients. “I created a Facebook page and the only people who’ve liked it are a few colleagues and friends! How do I increase the number of likes?”

Setting up a presence on a social network is simple. The challenge most online marketers’ face is what to do after that. Their frustration grows at the lack of new followers or likes and more often than not it leads to total abandonment of the very pages they enthusiastically created. The tragedy with this is that for most customers it is sometimes better not to find the organization they are searching for, than finding it and realizing that their social media page has received no attention for over 4 months!

The size of audience you attract on social networks is largely a function of one key element: relevant content. Social networks and the internet in general is really crowded with information, some important, some life-saving, some helpful and others plenty irrelevant. The situation will only get worse as the amount of information increases. Why then should anyone spend a few more minutes on your blog or Facebook page? Connecting with your customers and prospects takes more than copying that latest press release or publishing photos from a recent CSR activity. Here are 3 tips on how you can improve your connection.

  • Think like your customer not like you: I know that sounds a bit crazy but the content that you want to share as a marketer may not be what your audience wants to hear. The easiest way to do this is to think of the situations where you are the customer. Which Facebook pages do you “Like” and which blogs do you read faithfully? Evaluate whether you present the same value that you find in these to your customers. When your audience is clear on what is in it for them, the closer you are to building a loyal and larger following.

 

  • Begin by utilizing the offline content you have: Online marketers often believe they must come up with fancy new ideas and content to put on their web sites, blogs or Facebook pages. While that is excellent where possible, do not disregard the loads of content you and your colleagues you have created in the past. This may currently exist in the form of White papers, presentations, proposals and other offline marketing material. Do not fall for the temptation to do a quick copy & paste; most of the documents I’ve just mentioned will be lengthy and may contain more than one key topic. As such, it is recommended that you spend some time reformatting and breaking this content down to bite-sized chunks that are easier to consume in social media sites. Remember to keep your audience in mind while doing this. Avoid jargon and the use of company acronyms and terms that may not mean much to external audiences.

 

  • Share new or ongoing specials and offers: You could share any specials that you may have running or create exclusive ones for your online customers. This one has been used with great success by many organizations to increase their online following. When the audience knows that they will receive a discount, free gift or other concession because they belong to a select club of Twitter followers or blog subscribers, they are more likely to click on the all-important link that you want them to. Once you get them in, you must ensure you keep them engaged; remember they still have the option to unfollow, dislike or unsubscribe. Don’t give them a valid reason to.

You can find other perspectives on this topic in this great article “Why people don’t want to follow you on Twitter or Like you on Facebook”.

I welcome your comments on this topic below.

Struggling with time for Social Media Marketing? 4 tips to get you started

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Creating a Social media presence for your brand is literally easy as 1-2-3. Going beyond that is the challenge most businesses are faced with. The ease with which a business can get onto any social media platform gives the erroneous impression that managing the same is as easy. However, one of the key currencies of social media marketing is time.

While in most organizations the jury is still out on whether this social media thing ought to be taken seriously or not, a marketing executive or any other internet-savvy member of staff will spare a few minutes to take a look at the corporate Facebook page in the midst of IM conversations with friends, uploading photos onto their personal profile and working on their email. Often there is no plan or schedule to guide what the individual or individuals who have administrator access to these social media assets will do (check for an upcoming post on the content dilemma).

If yours is a business faced with this challenge, here are 4 quick tips to help you get onto the right track:

• Identify a suitable social media champ within your organization: While the use of social media in business is primarily for marketing the best champ in your business may not be in the marketing department. It is best to nominate a team member who is passionate about social media and a prolific user of the same. In the event that the person fitting this bill is not in the marketing department, establish a clear and well defined manner for him/her to work with the marketing team in order to ensure that the overall marketing objectives of the business are met. The nomination of the social media champ should however be done with care so that it isn’t used as an excuse for an employee to become an internet junkie.

• Schedule time on a consistent basis to monitor and update the social media assets: Time spent on your corporate assets should be planned. The frequency of checking in should be governed by the traffic on your social media assets. As such, it will be natural to have longer gaps between check-ins when your social media sites are newly set-up and shorter ones as the sites get busier and better known. Being on social media on an ad hoc basis is more likely to yield negative results such as missing crucial customer feedback, or hackers and self-seekers that will use your sites to sell or promote unrelated products or services.

• Don’t spread yourself too thin: Due to the low entry barrier, it is easy to succumb to the temptation to be on as many social networks as possible. This inevitably creates more demand for time in order to remain fresh and relevant. As with any other business decision, do some homework and establish which social media channels work best for you. Needless to mention, this should be based on where your most of your customers will interact with you. Until you can build sufficient capacity, do not hesitate to close or suspend social media assets you own that are likely to have little or no impact.

• The 21st century challenge: there is too much information: We all find ourselves clicking on link after link on Twitter and tempted to watch all the great videos others have posted on Facebook and YouTube. No one ever has enough time to read and watch all they need to while online. You must therefore be very focussed on what you want. Decide upfront what is important and resist the urge to open “just one more”. There are bound to be interesting and informative links that may not fit into the time you have scheduled; bookmark these and set time aside to review them later.

While this is not the exhaustive list of tips you can use to save time, they should help form a crucial first step. Please share any others you might have below.

Image used with permission from creator Renjith Krishnan