We often get questions or concerns from clients and friends saying that they feel like they “are screaming into a void” when it comes to their marketing. In other words, organizations and businesses are creating content…but they feel like no one is on the receiving end.
Unfortunately, that may actually be the case. Every platform you use is supported by ad revenue, it is a pay to play world.
In general, there are two issues to address.
What are the goals?
Is the content being generated engaging?
This can be complex, but we will touch on high level components.
What are your goals?
The most popular answer is to get more donors or get more customers. That is fine. But you also have to dig deeper. Think about the following: who is your audience? Where are they online? What information will resonate? Many will say we want to run one social media campaign to get more clients but when you start digging deeper – there are many more variables involved. The more detailed you can get, the finer you can separate and target your campaigns. One campaign can become 5 or 10 depending on the targets and relevant platforms.
Is the content being generated engaging?
Once you have gone through the goal development, you have to figure out what you want or need to say – and make it engaging content. When developing content, think about the details of your goals and campaigns. For example, the content on Facebook is different from the audience on LinkedIn. While the audience may overlap, what is expected on the platform is different. Another example is the difference between Instagram and Facebook. Instagram is a quicker platform and Facebook typically has more curated content. With Facebook, video is almost always more engaging and it does not have to be professionally produced video. It is great to have some produced and polished video but that can be mixed with quicker video that is shot from something as simple as your phone.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and pay attention to your analytics. From your analytics, you’ll see what is working, what is not and can adjust your strategy accordingly.
Who is going to do this in your organization?
First, we discussed goal setting when engaging users on social platforms. Then we touched on content creation. Once you have those items established – do forget the who!
Who will be responsible for your organization’s social media? This is sometimes an afterthought – but can make or break the effectiveness. From time to time organizations will say, “this person uses Facebook so they will be taking over our social media”. However, it is not usually that simple. This person will be a public voice for your organization, are they qualified? Do they completely understand your brand? And do they even have time?
Giving a large undertaking to a current team member who is likely busy already may not be the best option. Other options are to hire an “expert” or to engage an agency. When determining what will work best for your organization, there are a couple of considerations.
- If hiring an expert, ensure you have the depth of knowledge needed to manage that person or they can end up working in a vacuum that you do not understand.
- If that “expert” is working in an agency environment they may have a high salary and a variety of clients to work with.
- While hiring in-house can feel less expensive and less risky, by the time you pay salary, benefits, etc you probably have a reasonable budget to engage professionals.
- If hiring an agency, they are going to bring a team to the table to meet your needs. This includes a videographer, photographer, copywriter and people who know how to run campaigns to maximize effectiveness.
When starting or restarting social efforts it is worth taking your time to ask the tough questions internally so you can have a plan that is executable and fluid enough to be influenced by the analytics. Gray Digital Group is here to help you ask the right questions and to develop a plan that will bring success!
