The Social Media Minefield

Social media is a minefield; especially to the not so young where it comes more naturally. Updating your own status now and then is simple; sharing your highs and lows with friends and family…When you’re the social face for a company you have to put your ‘Client Company Ltd’ hat on and have a strategy. You’re answerable to the client who expects a ROI for your fee; they want to see sales and you have to dig down to the right demographics with the right message and content, which is professional and is relayed in the tone of voice of said client and their business ethics. Easier said than done!

We do our homework on the clients’ products & services and also the size, reach and delivery of their core business. The history, their goals and aspirations…the list goes on. We plan a strategy of content to keep it varied, interesting and newsworthy. Quality imagery and calls to action. Then there are hashtags, tagging in other working partners and clients where relevant. So much thought and preparation goes into just one post or tweet; not to mention reels and stories!

Managing expectations can be tricky. Number of likes in how long? ‘Piece of string’ quote coming! The key is engagement more so than numbers of followers although it helps to have a good number of quality, organic followers who will engage and help spread the love!

We have a vast range of clients from iconic buildings to local fast food outlets and everything in between. And strategies that work well for one industry may not do so well for others. It’s presence on the most suitable platforms and striking a balance to create awareness without ‘spamming’ and making the socials sing louder than their competitors who are reaching the clients’ potential customer base. Managing our time to get the right balance of posting content and ‘networking’ with the right demographics without upsetting group rules or blatantly advertising where it’s not welcome. The last thing we want to do is get that company’s page banned, blocked or deleted!

Content shouldn’t always be about the hard sell; it’s ‘SOCIAL’ media…A relaxed version of the core marketing campaigns going on internally. It’s indirect selling and essentially brand awareness. They may not order then and there but when they do it’s more than likely because they’ve seen others engaging with posts appearing on their newsfeed. There’s no better advertising than the endorsement of your close contacts and connections! It’s also an online ‘customer care’ dept where you need to react to both positive and negative comments in a timely manner and moderation of the ‘keyboard warriors’ or those who love to share their ‘Bitcoin’ or porn at 3am - Yes, I do like to sleep at night!

Now that’s just some of the day-to-day hands-on stuff. We have client meetings, internal meetings, we monitor insights and tweak our strategies; we provide reporting. We run paid Ad campaigns…

We also educate. Some clients totally get social media but just don’t have the time to be consistent with it. Others have never used it, even on a personal level and so it’s a process of explaining all of the workings, methods and reasoning behind our actions. We regularly research best practices, which are ever changing and are reflected in changes we make. We work incredibly flexibly. If a client emails me with an image and asks ‘can you do something with this?’ The answer is mostly yes I can and it’s usually the same day, if not the next. OR a diplomatic explanation and justification as to why I don’t think it’s appropriate - BUT they own the platform; it’s their ‘baby’ therefore if they want, they usually get!

So, in a nutshell yes, I ‘post on Facebook’ 😂😅😆🤣

#socialmedia #brandawareness #contentcreation #socialmanagement