Any business owner who is embarking on a social media and content marketing strategy would do well to create and share content with a clear intent on who they want to reach.
If you work to connect with online users who truly may be interested in what you have to offer, you are one step closer to be being real in your online marketing efforts.
Equally important is how you will go about making an impact on your target audience. Offering quality content that will help your customers make important decisions regarding your services or products, not only takes experience but the human element. When you offer personal and/or professional insight with the articles, infographics and videos you create, you give online users something to use on a real world basis.
What does this do for your business?
It demonstrates that you know what you’re talking about. That you are an authority in your industry or field. And that you can be trusted. Consumers buy from those they can trust.
Real Content is:
- Engaging
- Unique
- Insightful
- Valuable
- Educational
- So good it brings back readers for more
You’ve Got to Be Socially Real
This trust extends into social media as well.
The word social is an adjective. It can be used to describe a community or group, or a simply a recreational or an entertaining type of activity. But it is also used as a noun — a party, get-together, a celebration, or, as in the salsa dancing community I sometimes partake in, a social means an informal dance.
In a nutshell, whether it’s for fun or for serious discussion, being social means interacting with others, most often in a group.
And there’s no putting up a front in groups, or at least not for very long. That’s why you’ve got to be real. If you post a continuous stream of content with no personal interaction or take on what you’re publishing, then you’re not being real. You’re behaving as a robot — on autopilot.
Real Social Media is:
- About community
- Engaging
- Entertaining
- Educational/Informational
- Shareable
- Likable
- Inspiring
Here are the top 3 rules in being real with your social media and content marketing:
No. 1: Don’t spam your target audience with drivel that has no educational, useful, or even any entertainment value.
No. 2: Know your audience. Browse a sample of target users’ profiles online to see what they are reading, commenting on, liking, and sharing. This way you’ll know what type of content to create and share that might interest them.
No. 3: Follow the 80/20 percentage rule on sharing content. Only 20 percent of the content you share should be promotional. The other 80 percent should be purely for your target audience’s benefit, whether it comes from you or it’s curated from other sites and blogs from throughout the Web.
In Conclusion:
If you put your content creation and social media marketing on autopilot, you may not crash, but you certainly won’t get anywhere tangible. But if you invest in a sound, real social media and content marketing strategy, your business will develop lasting relationships in the social media realm, and an important enduring presence overall on the Web.
A Personal Take
I came up with the slogan — Real Content | Real Social Media — after pondering what it is that we do at Crackerjack Scribe that is different from the hundreds of other companies out there that offer social media and content marketing services for local businesses.
It’s the human element, or the personal take rather, that makes us distinct. We are real people, connecting one-on-one through social media channels. Spamming is not our thing, and offering regurgitated information isn’t either.
If you’d like to know more about our services at Crackerjack Scribe, sign up here for a free consultation.