To realize the potential of social media’s ROI you need to get personal
I heard a speaker a few weeks back talking about how some companies think they can go into these new marketing mediums and use old marketing methods and expect results. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Too many times I go on Facebook and someone has posted a listing to a house with the same writeup that you’d see in a newspaper. Where is the engagement? Where is the call-to-action?
For companies to see the full potential of social media, they must market themselves in a totally different way.
In old print media, you had a finite amount of space and you had to squeeze a large amount of data in it. With social media, the reins have been loosened so that you have the ability to share more information without paying a premium. Your audience doesn’t want to know “just the facts”. They want to hear all about why your product is something in which they should invest their time. If you’re selling a house, they want to know all about it, not just that it is a 3/2 with 2500sq. ft. But at the same time, they don’t want to hear the old pitch about “relax in luxury” or some other blurb from old media. You need to trim the fat and give your audience the meat!
Engaging the user is what you need to focus on in new media. You must keep the conversation going. For example, the longer a salesperson keeps a potential buyer engaged and in his stores, the more likely the potential buyer will become an actual buyer. Social media sites are your store and you need to keep your target audience involved so that they have all the information they must make a decision.
And finally, you should have content in place so that your well doesn’t run dry. If you only post something once a month, your audience isn’t going to give your posts as much of their time since you don’t seem to have time for them.