THREE WAYS TO STAY ON TOP OF SOCIAL CHANNELS

"Tsk, tsk... all your selfies look EXACTLY the same!" Yeah, alright Mum, it’s been a tricky week.

Parental jibing to one side, when it comes to digital dynamism, do you know what social media channels best suit your product and service? 

Are you tip-toeing around online channels too embarrassed to fully jump in or are you prepping the airbrush and flexing for a bit of insta-love?

Well, it’s your lucky day because here are three simple tips to help you work out which one will suit you. 

(Psst…the big secret is you don’t have to be on every single channel to be successful. I know, crazy right?)

1.       What does that potential customer of yours actually look like?

What age are they? Where do they relax with friends? When they’re allowed back into a pub-slash-swanky-bar what’s the first thing they’ll order? What radio stations do they love or do they only ever tune into Spotify? What turns them on and what turns them off?

We at Sticky are sticklers for being absolutely crystal clear about client personas.  

Because you can only target precisely when you really - and we mean really - know who you are speaking to.  

Once you start looking into it, you’ll discover that it’s unlikely to be only one person. And once you start thinking about what makes those people tick, you’ll realise that these different people respond to different things, so need to be approached in a different way too. 

Which means you’re not lumping 55-year-old golfers in with 25-year-old foodies and hoping they’ll both engage with what you’re offering.  

Instead, you’re working out who they are and the language they speak, and you’re identifying topics and themes to talk to them about specifically. Grabbing their attention and interest – and hopefully their custom too!

2.       It’s a bandwagon. Get onboard or jump off. 

FOMO is real. But, as we hinted at the top, you don’t have to be on every social channel going. 

We don’t know one client that’s not thought at some time that were damaging their business by not dipping a toe in Instagram. They squirm and shift in their seat and then blurt it out ‘We feel we should, you know, just because well everyone else does… so we’ve done a photoshoot with a model and some sunglasses and a ladder’.

Then we have a little scroll through their feed and smile politely at each other, no eye contact.  

Here’s the thing, you CAN go onto every channel and tell audiences how great you are with a megaphone and a few lovely, stylised pics… but the clue is in the name ‘social media’. 

Are you yourself interested? Do you enjoy being on there? Are you ‘social’ when you are? 

Because it’s the social bit that makes it work. If you don’t genuinely and regularly engage with people online you won’t get anywhere. 

If it’s not for you… don’t waste your time*. Instead, find one that you are interested in and get involved, because it will make the whole thing less like hard work.

[*Of course, as a little caveat here, even if you don’t enjoy it, if you’re convinced your business should be, you can also employ someone to do it for you. Jus’ saying, hint, hint.]

Because it can be soooo rewarding for your business. 

I mean, have you ever looked at someone’s Facebook and Instagram channel and thought “they’re selling cheap luminous lightbulbs, how on earth are they reaching 150,000 followers???!!”.  

Well firstly, they could have simply bought a following – which is a bit pointless unless you think that bots might shell-out at some point (or if you’re trying to impress the insta-brigade with high follower numbers. I wouldn’t bother, they’re wise to all of that jazz…).

Or it could it be that they just worked incredibly hard to engage with relevant, like-minded people and started a real relationship? And had conversations. And shared opinions. And provided something useful. And grew an audience. And won some fans. And some customers too!

We’re not saying it’s easy to get thousands of followers… but start with ten minutes a day commenting on people’s posts that you like and admire, and you’ll soon see the tide change. 

3.       Be organised and think about that attention span (mainly yours)

It doesn’t matter who you are, social media is an utter rabbit hole when it comes to scrolling and clicking. 

You started out looking for the Seven Scriptures of Adam (no idea) and before you know it, you’re tutting about the way Katie Price is being treated by her unforgiving greengrocer.  

Anyone who says they don’t do that is not telling the truth. 

Basically, our attention span is miniscule. We all, without exception, have that mindset of ‘ooooh shiny!’. It’s in everyone’s make up so no point fighting it. 

Therefore, have that mindset when you are planning adverts or posts. Short, sharp, on topic, entertaining, easy to read etc… 

Equally – and here’s a little insider tip that’s worth its weight – to stop yourself from being distracted, or from moaning about how much time you’re spending on social media when you have a business to run, consider investing in a scheduling platform like later.com. That way the random stuff you think up in the middle of the night can be scheduled automatically to go out just when you need it, without you falling down the rabbit hole when you open your Facebook App. 

Instead you are boom, kick the door in, place the post, then out.  A social media ninja. Who can then relax and tune into Radio 4 totally undistracted. 

Cos that’s what social media ninja’s do, apparently. 

So, with those little splinters of information, are you sure about what’s working for you on social media channels?  

Hmmm… well, this is where a free, (yes) FREE digital review could help because it looks at all the posting you've done across your social media platforms to see what works well. And what doesn’t. 

It will also look at whether you are using the right platforms and how to make that choice.

So, get out of that rabbit hole for a second and book that digital review at [email protected] or here https://makeitsticky.co.uk/free-digital-review/