Being new to the world of digital media and all things social in the business world, when I heard Bristol was hosting a Social Media Week, I had two thoughts. First, ‘Wow, I love my city! It’s great how there’s always something on in this super savvy place to live.’ Second, ‘What a great opportunity this will be for me to gain as much insight into how others use social media and learn different industries viewpoints.’
Sessions I attended were:
- Social Media and the Professional service firms – The last to join the party?
- Rise of the Machines - Humanising Social media in an automated world
- Measuring not Counting – Finding the bottom line in social media
- Is Organic Social Reach Dead?
Reassuringly, many of the sessions echoed what others said so either they’d grouped together prior or the message they were putting across is an accurate one and on everyone’s minds.
Simply put, social media needs to be used in a way, which engages with your audience. Your audience changes depending on which platform you use so the use of premium tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout, though may save you time, you need to be effective in the content you post to attract and engage the right audience.
Facebook is more so used socially between friends and family so when pushed by businesses to promote sales, it can work against the business with the result of them losing followers, making their prior efforts futile. This has been echoed by Mark Zuckerberg’s recent Facebook update in February 2018 in which they have re-prioritised the posts that appear in the newsfeed. This update will bring less adverts into our feeds unless we have liked them or followed them. People need to feel captivated, not bored by the same reposted image or post.
In business, whatever platform you use, you need to attract followers by providing relevant but platform specific information on the service you provide.
For instance, here at Conscious, we are digital marketing expects specialising in Law firms.
On Facebook and Instagram, we would post pictures of the staff at events, doing charity work…anything personable to show off our company’s culture. On Twitter and LinkedIn, the focus is more so on posting industry specific articles as well as information on what events we were attending, appealing to our professional network in a humanised way whilst building brand recognition and respect amongst our peers, client and possible future clients.
We are no longer in a society in which the amount of ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ can measure the impact of a post. Studies have found that videos get shared 20x more than any other content but what leads to a sale is a complicated combination of numerous tactics. At the end though, it’s down to being memorable and knowledgeable in your field. Engage with new clients with creative content then build the client’s trust and respect before they are even a client. People are more likely to trust you and buy from you if they feel they know you. With this in mind, social media is also a fantastic tool to collaborate with your peers on, a recommendation has a much higher chance of leading to a successful close.
The sessions were very insightful and my final session even had the Apprentice winner, Mark Wright guest speaking and what’s not to love about him! A great public speaker, knowledgeable in his field and dreamy looks, I’m sure he has no problems holding onto his followers! For the rest of us though, it seems to win in the social media arena it will take a lot of hard graft and time. Any business which isn’t yet on social media, needs to be, now! Catching up in the fast-paced world of technology is becoming harder by the day, bridge that gap now before it’s too late. If you’d like training in social media or want a digital marketing agency to manage yours for you, I’d be delighted to hear from you.