Since social media isn’t bringing in the number of new customers we’d like to see, how do we get new business? This is probably the single most important question any marketer has to answer in social media marketing. 2018 has thrown us some curves for sure, but we have the answer here.

The Problem:

It’s not enough anymore to just be on every social media platform, you need things like engagement because without it you just have however many thousand likes that do nothing for you. People need to be interacting with your content and be interested enough to click on it. Clickbait doesn’t work anymore and is flagged as spam or fake news by most social media sites and was a bad idea, to begin with. Misleading people is never a good idea. Making a great headline is tough, and finding content people will love is like the proverbial ‘shooting fish in a barrel’.

For all the content you put out each week, your gains are likely infinitesimally small right now from social media. Things have changed drastically between public mistrust in social media to new privacy laws in the EU. A marketer now needs to have permission for most anything they need to deliver personalized content that actually could engage their visitors. That permission is hard to come by, and transparency is high on everyone’s list for trust.

So if everyone’s going to drop social media at some point here, where are they going and where are they now?

Influencers:

Influencers are brand loyalists, but they’re paid loyalists, so their ‘brand loyalty’ extends as far as your bank account can support them. They’re basically more ethical pirates. They have a following on whichever social media platform you want to be on the most, and you ask them to support your product in a video they upload. This doesn’t always work and your budget may not initially support who you want to go for, but remember that even micro-influencers or nano-influencers are still crucial to becoming more known. You can always ask a bigger influencer later when your business is booming.

Kylie Jenner is well known as an influencer, and among beauty products, she’s unsurpassed by almost all others. When she makes a video about what lipstick to use, sales go up anywhere she has followers.  And she has a LOT of followers. The idea is to find someone you think your audience would listen to and respect from your industry. You wouldn’t want to approach a retiree from NASA if you’re in the business of marketing hose auto-coilers or something else totally out there. Find someone your audience will respect. They came to you for a reason, they were looking for something, so find someone who will bring you instant authority for backing something you’re saying or selling. 2018 has been big for influencers and it only stands to grow.

Data:

Nobody can create a marketing plan without data. There is data available from almost every social media site in the form of analytics. This data is what should be driving every effort you make in your marketing strategy. It will show you what your audience prefers to see, what engages them, and what they don’t like. These cold spots are areas you can grow by changing something. Doing tests with different types of content will show you what your audience enjoys interacting with the most. This data is also harder to come by with privacy regulations cinched up tight, but by being able to read between the lines, most marketers can still get by on some raw data without much fluff. Data-driven marketing is the most effective form of marketing because it’s utilizing statistics to determine the best possible outcome by continually trying something until it works.

There is a sense to marketing as well; of knowing one’s clients or audience enough to speak to them as though you know them. Creating warmth within a short video or the written word is a lot harder these days.

Billboards, TV & Radio Spots:

Is anyone out there actually still doing this? While locals may swear by this and how well it works, it may have at a crucial point which is what built their loyal following… but it’s not now. The same people who were attracted when billboards, tv, and radio ads were big, stayed and told others about their experience. That word of mouth and brand loyalty that was built all that time ago has lasted until today, as a trusted place to go to get ____ done. That’s how powerful brand loyalty is, and those who win it have something more precious than anything money can buy. The effectiveness of these tools is not actually zero for a new business getting the word out, but it’s close, and certainly not worth the investment, you don’t get enough return for it to be worth spending that kind of money. Use it on influencers!

Be Everywhere:

Since it’s hard to tell exactly where everyone is going to end up after this very strange year of social media hardships… it’s a good idea to be everywhere you can be, but especially Pinterest. Our last blog post talks about why you need to be on Pinterest, even if you don’t associate your business with that site instantly. By diversifying your efforts, and not spending more time or money than you’re getting back from your social media ads, you’ll still do well on social media. It’s not dead, but parts of it just don’t work like they once did.

Things like this change on a regular basis for marketers, and anyone else in the internet industry. It’s important to be everywhere to ensure that you’re still standing at the end, regardless who falls.

Selected images created with Freepik