Tag Archives: content marketing

Iron sharpens iron

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In olden times, the iron edge or blade of a tool was made sharper by working it with more iron.

The process of putting the two surfaces together delivered a change that wouldn’t happen otherwise – both pieces of iron would stay the same.

Switch this into our world today. What’s this got to do with you and I?

It’s about showing up in places where you’re not 100% confident and doing your thing anyway. 

Testing yourself against experts and learning along the way.

We grow through taking action, doing the things we find hard and that we don’t want to do.

Pushing hard through barriers and blocks (some real and some imagined) and making mistakes.

This happens all the time with people new to using Social Media and creating content. 

It’s hard to keep showing up at the beginning, feeling like we’re out of our depth and way behind everyone else.

But this is the signal that you’re in the right place. 

This is your test. You’re in the process of changing for the better.

Hang in there.

Is your main message clear?

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I’m constantly looking people up online to find out what they’re all about. I might want their help, want to work with them, or just want to see who they are and what they do.

Half the time, I see what I want and don’t have to scroll too far. But the other half can be terribly frustrating.

How clear is your main message?

When people land on your profile (and you’re in business, whatever that might be) they need to be able to work out quickly and easily what you do and how to work with you. 

If they have to dive deep, click through a couple of pages and do a tonne of scrolling to work out what you’re about, the chances of them moving to another page are high.

Signposts work really well.

Some sites have ‘who are you and what do you want?’ buttons right there on the front page. They can be confronting but they make it easy for the user to find what they want. This is what matters most – it’s all about the user. 

Even profiles on places like LinkedIn matter when it comes to this.

Use the headline and the ‘about’ info to make it clear how you can help people and you’ll get better results. 

Be specific and do it with purpose and the enquiries you get will be from the right people.

Can you get more from less?

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So much stuff that we write doesn’t get read. Emails, blog posts, posts of all kinds. We just don’t have time to read everything. There’s so much coming at us today from all angles.

Brevity rules

If you can say it in 300 words or less, you’re winning. 

If you can say it in 100, the chances of what you write being seen and read increases by a big margin.

Add a call to action – eg. come and say hi on Facebook – and this post is long enough. I’ve made a point, given a tip and asked you, the reader, to do something to get you into action. 

Do you actually need much more than this? 

(And this one’s over 100, even in this short format.)

Stop making noise

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I spend a lot of time every day looking at online content produced by businesses and professionals – it’s my job – and the majority of it is awful. 

Depending on what I’m researching or working on during any particular day, I’m lucky if I see more than a couple of posts that make me stop scrolling and click through for more. The majority is meaningless, purely promotional and lacks any true insight or depth. 

Stop making noise

You have to have a purpose when you post online. The content that cuts through drives us through emotion into action or solves a problem that we could do with fixing.

If you’ve won an award, I and many others don’t care. Awards are not an accurate reflection of the best businesses or individuals out there – the net has to be cast a lot wider than those who bothered to apply.

If you post a shot of you standing on a stage, tell me what you were saying that will change my life and then I’ll take notice. A photo of you speaking to a crowd adds credibility but tell us your ‘why’ – your reason for being on that stage. That’s more relevant to me and it might make me want to learn more about you.

Above all else, make the content about me, the reader. Show me what you do best. Show me the best of you. Open up. Be raw and honest. Tell me what I need to do and how that’s going to improve my work or life every day. 

Make it worth my while to stop scrolling or I’m gone. 

What would I do if I was a retailer today

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The post-coronavirus world is starting to take shape. Here in Australia, shops are reopening and cafes and bars are now allowing 50 people inside. There is still the danger of a resurgence of the virus but we have no incoming travellers without a quarantine period and this seems to be doing its job well.

Retailers have been hit hard these last ten weeks. Here are a few of my ideas for them to boost their businesses and use free online platforms and tools to get it done. 

The steps for retailers in the post-Corona world

Firstly, their Social Media profiles need to be put to work. Posts should be daily with offers for new customers and special offers for existing customers. All profiles should be checked over to make sure contact details and ‘about’ sections are up to date and on point.

Facebook Messenger is the ideal way to deliver offers online with high engagement levels – 80% open and 40% click-through rates – and I would be working to build my own chatbot to automate customer service as a minimum.

I would hire a comedic writer to create funny blog posts with a true sense of humour to increase the attention on my posts. Two funny posts on top of the offers content would work well. The funny writing should also be used to email my existing customers once a week to keep them engaged and updated.

I would use Instagram/Facebook Stories and TikTok to create video content every day. All of the attention is on video right now and I would use it to attract new followers and highlight the daily offer.

Every Saturday and Sunday would be ‘bring a friend’ day and there would be a voucher for everyone who turns up for them to use on another visit based on liking the Facebook page and subscribing to the chatbot.

And finally, I would say my prayers every night and be thankful that I’m still in business while many have already gone.

Share your best stuff

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There is fear around when it comes to sharing your ’secrets’. The stuff you do that gets results. The best stuff you have to offer. 

I often hear from clients, “oh, there’s no way we can put that out there.”

My reply is always a challenge to this. 

It comes down to time. 

I’ve spent four years now creating content about my subject, Social Media. If someone took the time to watch my hundreds of videos on Facebook and YouTube, my daily LinkedIn posts and articles, and signed up for my weekly-ish email, they wouldn’t need to work with me because everything I know is in this content.

It’s all out there because I want potential clients to see the best from me.

The tips I’ve shared, the advice I’ve given and the stories I’ve told about experiences with clients is out there and it’s all free. 

And the reason why it doesn’t cause me any problems is that my work is saving my clients that magic ingredient we all have not enough of – time.

The content is giving people a taste and I want this taste to be something they want more of. 

I want them to get a practical tip, work on it themselves and get success from it. I’m then ‘top-of-mind’ as the person that helped them out and solved a problem for them. 

And when they want more help, the chances of them coming to me are much, much greater. 

They don’t have time to do it themselves and the work we do saves them lots of it. They also don’t have time to review everything that’s out there already from me. 

When they see a post and it’s something really helpful and useful, rather than something I’ve just dialled in to make sure I’m showing up, it will be remembered. 

And then when they need more, they’ll pick up the phone.

Play the long game

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The news headlines showcasing Trump’s latest tweet or the acquisition of another firm by Facebook can take us away from the reality of Social Media for brands everywhere – it’s all about people and it takes time to make real connections.

When I talk to business owners they often want to know how to use Social Media platforms to get maximum attention on their brand in the shortest time possible. 

They’re looking for their revenue to rise off the back of a couple of quickly written posts with a magical call-to-action in the final paragraph.

Yet we all can agree it’s true that a conversation is where you get to know someone better, and you won’t get to know anyone at all unless you have a conversation with them in the first place.

That’s why my answer to them is that they have to see Social Media as a long game. 

It’s a game that involves as many conversations with your connections online as possible in order to build trust in your brand before generating sales. 

This not only answers their question, it also embeds the true sense of what Social Media is all about – making connections with real people at scale over time, creating trust in the brand and building a loyal base of followers who buy your products and services.

Our job is to do this for our clients every day. And, if you’re marketing for a brand, it’s your job, too.

What I want a Social Media Expert to know and do in 2020

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Here’s a list that could work well as a checklist when looking to hire someone to help with Social Media for your business. 

There are a lot of people offering Social Media services because it’s a ‘hot’ sector right now. 

Businesses that traditionally don’t play in this space – web and graphic designers, for example – are adding it to their list of things they can do to help you, but beware.

Some are amazing and have tremendous skills and experience, but there are a vast number who should be avoided at all costs.

Here’s the list:

  • Their own Social Media profiles are excellent examples.
  • They show up frequently creating helpful, informative content.
  • They are not ‘post and disappear’ merchants – they engage online and do it all the time.
  • They are on the main platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (yes, Twitter), LinkedIn and YouTube – and have live platforms with content posted in the last few days.
  • They do the work themselves rather than offshoring it to keep the costs down.
  • They have decent numbers of followers because they have been online and creating content for a long time. 
  • They use a mix of content – writing, video, audio and images.
  • They have excellent testimonials and recommendations (Facebook, LinkedIn and Google especially)
  • They value their skills and charge appropriately. (If prices seem cheap, the services usually are, too.)
  • They don’t claim to know ‘everything’ on any specific subject.
  • They can help to identify ideal clients and position brands the right way.
  • They know the difference between a blog and a website. 
  • They know how to listen online and spot key trends.
  • They understand how to interpret data and use it to improve results, especially on websites and working with written copy.
  • They have basic how-to knowledge as well as strategic ability.
  • They’re not afraid to make public predictions about where Social Media is going.

I’m sure there are more things but this is a good plcae to start.

Please use this list as a guide and add to it wherever you like. Also, let me know where you think I may be wrong and leave a comment. Thank you!

How fast does Social Media deliver results?

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I get asked a lot by clients about how long it will take for Social Media to ‘work’. In most cases, this is roughly translated as ‘how fast will it make me money?’.

The golden age of online influencers and cheap Facebook and Google ads are long gone. The days where you could buy a keyword on Google for pennies on the dollar and then run ads against it for days are also nothing but stories we tell ourselves as marketers to remind us of those halcyon days.

It’s a lot tougher today in a world where attention online is the holy grail and those who have it are extremely reluctant to give it up. 

Today It’s about making a wider set of strategies work. Engagement with potential customers one-to-one works well once trust is built and the rewards for this are huge if you can stick at it for long time periods. 

Let’s pick this last sentence apart a litte to make the point here…

Engagement

It rules the day online. ‘Post and disappear’ is so over and those still practicing social media this way are the ones to avoid. Have you ever sent an email to an info@ inbox and then never hear back? This is the ‘post and disappear’ crew at work in their natural habitat – set-and-forget.

One-to-one

This is the world of messaging apps. Facebook has its own, Messenger, and it’s a real killer for increasing open rates and click throughs, e.g. how effective your marketing is. LinkedIn, Instagram and everyone else also give us these tools to play with and this is the way we love to interact today as humans. Even Google has a messaging service for businesses to receive messages straight from customers in ‘search’ mode, so it’s now a must-have.

Trust

This is where the winners win big and the losers stick to leaving piles of leaflets in coffee shops and running small ads in newspapers and magazines nobody reads. Trust is built up over time and it comes through giving huge value to your audience in all of your content. If you can give your followers a practical tip that will help them make more money or save time, trust will come. We at Fit For Social spend all of our time doing this as a brand every single day for all of our clients.

Long time periods

Here’s the big ‘punch in the face’ for those who want quick returns with no real effort: it takes time and effort. In some cases, there is little reward or payoff directly attributable to your social media content for months and months. Miss out any of the pieces of the puzzle I’ve just broken down above and the clock will keep ticking. Audiences are testing brand promises made online every day and if your brand makes any it can’t keep or rushes too quickly to the sale, it’s a black mark. These black marks can also add up fast. The switch back to someone we already trust, or who’s engaged with us multiple times through Messenger or email with an offer or special deal, takes place in seconds.

It’s a long game. The stories of quick cash and big things happening in a matter of hours or days are definitely out there, but be wary of how much work has gone into it behind the scenes and how it can translate to a business like yours before you put it to the test. 

Those who understand what it takes are clear on this and are reaping the rewards after they’ve ticked all the right boxes for their customers over months and years. If you can adopt this mindset and are willing to knuckle down and do the work, your customers will thank you in all the ways you’re looking for when the time is right.

What’s the style that’s going to make you successful?

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tailors

Spend half an hour on Twitter (or less) and you will be able to identify the way people operate and how you would define them to someone else. It could be video content – lots of it – or it could be the way they interact and respond to the comments of their followers and start a debate on a daily basis. It could be their stunning photography or it could be their longer posts that tell amazingly detailed stories.

So what makes a style successful? It’s really down to you to find what feels comfortable and delivers the best results. Experiment with a few things before deciding that you’re going to be doing all of your work on video, for instance, especially if you’ve never done anything to camera in your life. That $1,000 Canon SLR might get a lot of attention from your creative friends but it might be gathering dust pretty fast if your videos don’t hit the mark.

Once you have put some content together and are sharing it on a regular basis, you should listen to the opinions of others you trust and take their feedback on board. It might mean that some time spent trying out another style is worth a try but it might also mean that you’re pointing in exactly the right direction, so don’t be afraid to ask in the first place.

When you find the style that fits you best, it’s time to build on these strengths and take some bold and confident steps. Aim your writing towards controversial subjects or take on more ambitious projects if you are creating video content. Use templates to build infographics into your work or create some some graphics to go at the beginning and end of your video to enhance the style you are developing and also help to build your brand with your audience.

Whatever it is that you’ve begun to deliver, create a plan to help keep you motivated and ensure you know where you’re going. But above all else, keep delivering, be ambitious and work as hard as you can and the success will come.