Olivia Atkinson
Social media is an ever-changing platform that continues to create new ways to engage with our customers effectively. On average we spend 2 hours 22 minutes on social media platforms a day.
This can't be ignored, so make sure your content stands out, grabs peoples attention and makes an impact. With so much time spent on social media, our attention span is decreasing. This makes it an even bigger challenge so we've got 4 social media techniques that are dominating in 2019.
Download The Definitive Guide To Social Media Marketing
1. Micro Influencers
Vanity metrics such as followers can sometimes misrepresent the influence an account/person can have. The use of micro influencers is growing in popularity as their following is smaller, however the engagement levels are much higher, making them more likely to purchase.
People trust micro-influencers as they give feedback and honest reviews, whereas people are more aware of highly influential people as they make their living through paid sponsorship's.
This references the methodology of presenting prospects with the right message, at the right time. By using mass influencers, you lose your target market.
his is why micro influencers are so influential, they have a niche.
Consider you’re a staircase design specialist based in London. You wouldn’t pay George Clooney to use his social media platforms to advertise your product or service as although it would reach a lot of people and you’d get a lot of clicks on your profile, would any of them turn into a lead?
Probably not.
Mostly because he’s based in America. Secondly people would know George is only posting it for money and not because he genuinely likes the product.
By using a micro influencer, say a local architect or a company partnership that has a reasonable following, with a lot of engagement from people that could turn into customers, your product or service becomes more appropriate. Plus you haven’t wasted your yearly budget on one social media post.
2. Customer Service
Twitter is a known platform for companies to answer and reply to customer queries, with many becoming part of a wider marketing campaign to create brand awareness.
We understand a building products company is not at the same level as Starbucks but it doesn’t mean you can’t get smart with the way you provide a service.
Tip: On any social media platform, if you get comments from people, make sure you reply to them. Even if they don’t require an answer, by replying it shows you recognise their comment/feedback. It also looks good to other people viewing posts but not engaging. You’ll notice a lot of big companies do it as it increases engagement.
It’s a good idea to consider your wider audience when dealing with a one to one query. For example if you get a question on social media, and you reply with ‘ call us on 01964.. so we can give you the most relevant information’ you’re only allowing that one person to be involved.
That one person might be fine with your response and call up, or they might ignore you and go elsewhere as they don’t want to talk to anyone. This often happens as people prefer to find out information for themselves.
Instead try and be as helpful as possible by providing the answer they want, linking them to the relevant page and the option to call if they want even more information. This might then help someone looking at your platform that also has the same question.
3. User Generated Content (UGC)
A lot of companies are guilty of talking about themselves, rather than how their product or service helps the customer. User generated content helps relieve this bad habit by showing the product from a customers experience. It acts in the way a review or testimonial would as its from the perspective of a customer.
Social media works well with this as you can easily share/tag the account that originally posted it, this gives evidence and confidence that your product is worth investing in.
UGC can double your overall credibility, expand a business online reach and boots click through rates. With 93% of consumers finding UGC to be helpful when making a purchasing decision.
4. Humour
A very popular tactic that’s getting used more and more in social campaigns is humour. Something to remember when creating content for social media is we’re all human, so try not to be to salesy/serious.
Nobody likes being sold to and you’ll know from your own experience that as soon as we see sales talk we zone out, or scroll past.
It might be that your product is so technical that you can’t get across key information without it being a fact sheet anyway. So there’s no harm in getting across a basic message of what you do and being funny at the same time.
Humour impacts us all, as we know that laughing is infectious (unless you’re a really miserable person) so why not test the waters? There’s no harm in trying, as long as you’re not being rude or offensive of course.
Humour is also memorable as it triggers a positive emotion within. 36% of consumers have made a purchase online due to a humorous promotion on a social platform.
I saw this picture on LinkedIn the other day so I just had to include it as its the most liked branded tweet of all time, and its humour.
Conclusion
There are hundreds of social media tactics, do's and dont's and tips and tricks but the best way to find out what works for you is by testing it. Try something, if it works do more of it, if it doesn't work try and find out why and how it can be improved.
This constant testing will ensure you are constantly improving the service you provide on social media, whilst creating brand awareness.
Social media is just part of your marketing strategy, with the construction and building products industry being so varied there is no one technique that suits all. You also shouldn't rely on one technique alone, you should use a combination with your website being at the heart.
Insynth offers a free website health check, this pinpoints any technical faults that might be stopping you from generating leads or people filling in forms. Did you know that 29% of building product companies don't have an SSL certificate on their website. This means people are told its not safe as soon as they visit their website.
|
Read More |
About Insynth
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major on construction marketing, we bring together construction marketing strategy, digital strategy, website design, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, sales automation, marketing automation and HubSpot CRM implementation to produce successful campaigns and great results for our clients.