What They Don’t Tell You About Social Media Marketing

Ah, the world of social media. Our nightmare and best friend. We self-trained “social media gurus” and corporate marketing strategists preach about the endless possibilities with social media when it comes to our growing businesses and brands. But what we don’t talk about is how we ACTUALLY use social media effectively and how it will result in sales.

I’m here to ‘splain social media marketing without diving deep into algorithms. Let’s make it simple. Let’s give you a game plan for promoting your business or brand. I’m going to reveal all the trade secrets that will likely piss off your social media influencer friends who’ve spent their 20’s building a name for themselves on Instagram. Now get ready and TAKE NOTES!

Stop Worrying About Who Your Target Audience Is

One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is spending too much time, money and energy in trying to figure out who the hell their target audience is. Every article you’ll read regarding social media and how to market your business says that you HAVE to know your audience first. Here’s the big secret though…. YOU DON’T.

I’m not saying that knowing who your audience is, isn’t important. But when you are sitting over a flow chart of consumer buying trends and you’re ripping your hair out because you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s going to result in a never-ending spiral of redefining what the word audience even means.

There’s only 3 things you need to know when it comes to your target audience.

1. What am I trying to sell? — A product? A service? Really define what exactly you are looking to make money off of.
2. How old are my buyers? What generation are they? — This will determine their buying power. Are you trying to sell a new, innovative toy that redefines learning for toddlers? Well, toddlers aren’t your buyers, the parents are. Make sure you keep that in mind, because that’s what you’ll focus on when developing a marketing plan.
3. Where are my buyers, buying? — Are they going to a store? Or are they shopping online? Amazon? Ebay? (Is Ebay even still a thing?! See, that says something about MY age).

ALWAYS Engage With Your “Fans” Online (and OFF!)

Sure, it takes up a lot of your free time to be responding to comments, whipping up crafty captions or replying to direct messages. But let me tell you that it MATTERS. Not only does it boost your customer service, but it tells the social media algorithms that your profile/account is more credible. And when you’re more credible, you are likely going to be found by more users organically. That means you won’t be dumping a bunch of money into social media ads, but you will be (or you will hire someone to) spend a lot of time being active on your social media accounts.

Boosting Posts Is a Cop Out that Doesn’t Always Work

Rumor has it that when you boost a Facebook post, Facebook de-prioritizes the next couple of posts you make after boosting? Yeah, that’s right. They want your money. Woohoo what a surprise!

Plus, social media users have the keen sense of a bloodhound when it comes to sniffing out boosted posts. They’re like unwanted banner ads on your favorite websites. People are just going to keep scrolling and not bother looking at your boosted post. Unless you’re a wizard and have found a way to stop them long enough to get sucked into your content — take old spice commercials for example. But, you aren’t old spice. So trust me when I say this, INVEST in good, organic content. And that doesn’t mean you have to hire a professional production team to do it. You could take pictures with just your phone if you wanted (however, investing in a little bit of camera gear to up your content quality wouldn’t be a bad idea).

Spend Time Making GOOD Content

I started to say it in the last one, but I’ll reiterate it. It’s imperative that you spend time on making unique, quality content for your social media marketing. So don’t just take a quick picture with your phone or pull a photo off of Google (big chances that’s illegal/copyright anyway). Instagram and Facebook are SMART enough to sense redundancies, meaning social media’s algorithms will naturally prioritize unique content it’s never seen anywhere else. So if you are making your own content, you automatically level up and will reach more people quicker than if you were to use someone else’s content, or content that has been posted elsewhere before.

Add Humor to Spice it Up

Don’t be afraid to liven things up and make your brand seem personable by using some humor. And it doesn’t have to be “oh everyone needs to laugh” kind of humor either. If you have a weird sense of humor that goes with your personality, incorporate that into your content, IF it works with whatever you are trying to sell. If not, you might have to filter it a little bit. I’m looking at you, Betty.

Try Video — Especially Lives/Stories

Video is one of the most underutilized tools that changes the game for online marketing. It’s what everyone watches, but no one thinks can help them. And we aren’t talking fancy schmancy, high production video; it’s as simple as hopping on Instagram or Facebook for a live video. Just make sure your lighting looks decent and your subject is ready!

Stay Active

At the end of the day it’s all about how active and engaged you are on social media. Make sure you keep your business hours up to date, events page current and if you have special offers going on, Facebook has a tool just for that! You want to offer your followers and fans the opportunity to stay engaged and active with your content and your company/brand. So give them that.