As a 25-year-old, I have seen a surprising amount of what’s considered good business practices along with my fair share of bad ones. Most of these practices have occurred within marketing, journalism, and the entire digital media spectrum that I’ve seen to this point in my young life.
One of the aspects of this spectrum that I’ve been most involved with is social media. Whether used professionally or for personal use, it has been an enormous part of my daily routine. Not only is it an essential duty and tool for my job as a marketing assistant, but it’s also a way of communicating with my friends, family, and loved ones.
I have such an affinity for creating content, I use all the various social media platforms as a way to tell my story; even if it’s a way to express my feelings and thoughts but in a concise and creative manner nonetheless. So, it really pains me when I see people and businesses using social media in a way it wasn’t meant to be used. Heck, the word ‘social’ is half of the social media.
You are not a robot. Your Facebook, Twitter, and other accounts do not need to sound like a broken record; repeatedly spitting out similar if the not same facts day after day. Socializing with your customers, clients, and fans should be a key component of your digital marketing strategy. It may seem like an obvious statement but having my hand in dozens of different social media channels has me thinking otherwise.
The point of your personal Instagram or business Twitter accounts is to give interaction back to those interacting with you. If you aren’t, what in the world is the point? Social media users want to be entertained and see something worthy of the few seconds they scroll past your content. Having a page that is interesting to your audience is what will get them to interact (comment, like, or share). The worst thing that can be done when using social media is solely distributing your own content, especially for businesses.
Who wants to scroll through your Facebook and Twitter profiles to see an everlasting feed of website links and sales pitches? If you are going to regularly post your content, make it interesting, creative, and fun for your audience. Even law firms can have fun. Not everything has to be law and order (emphasis on the order). GIFs, memes, videos, and interactive posts are allowed to some degree.
In fact, there is a rule that perfectly describes what I am talking about – the 80/20 Rule of social media marketing. Nearly 80 percent of your social content should be captivating to your audience, while the other 20 percent should be self-promotional. Here are some ideas to keep in mind when engaging your social media followers:
- Connect with your followers from time to time
- Stay trendy with current events: news, sports, weather, holidays, food, etc.
- Respond to questions, issues, and problems
- Share user-generated content with followers (retweet or share what a follower said)
- Promote other people’s content
- Use emojis to prove you’re human (my personal favorite)
- Talk to your employees and educate them about the use of social media, so they can be active with your content. If interested in having an expert talk to your employees, ENX2 Marketing offers those services
- Along with dozens of other intriguing ideas that can be found online
I hope this article was informative, yet opened your eyes to a new perspective. Social media is not only a big part of my life, but it is an enormous part of other people’s lives whether it is for personal or professional use. Like I said earlier, social media is a way to express yourself. It can also be an enticing tool for businesses and people to promote thoughts and news. But, it won’t work if you aren’t social about it. That’s the lesson you should be taking away from all of this.
You don’t have to spread your wings and be an outspoken social butterfly. All you or your business has to do is be interactive, engaging, and human with your social media. The goal from the beginning was to connect with others, and that holds true today and going forward.
If your business needs help trying to connect with others, the social media marketing experts at ENX2 Marketing are standing by. We will help your business reach new heights with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a variety of other social media platforms.
