4 Things to Ask Yourself When Using Social Media to Promote Your Business
Facebook Data in Thailand
Living and working in Bangkok, I definitely want to see more statistics about the number of businesses in Thailand using Social Media to promote their businesses and how valuable they see Social Media content as a tool to get past the everyday blah of marketing messages.
Walking in the streets of Bangkok, we are bombarded with marketing messages everywhere, all the time. Take the Bangkok Sky Train for example, I remember many years ago riding the train was a chance to have a quiet moment. Now, the on-train TV broadcast pumps out ads 95% of the time.
And as your online networks get bigger, checking your Facebook news feed or Twitter feed almost feels like a task. It’s hard to keep track who’s saying what at a given point in time. In the constant stream of updates, as an Entrepreneur your marketing messages can easily get lost in social media noise.
If you are a Small Business or an Entrepreneur and you are not getting results from your Social Media activities, it may be time to review your content. Before you publish anything on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, does it have the quality to stand out from the crowd? Are you rehashing information with your unique perspective? What is your product’s USP? If you are echoing what others are already saying, prepare to lose your message in the crowd.
The most important thing to ask yourself if you are using online marketing and social media to boost your business is: Do you have anything important to say to your target audience? As there are MANY others trying to say something, how do you make your voice heard?
Let’s break it down to 4 questions to help you understand your Social Media activities and how to use content to reach your specific goal.
1. Why are you on social media? Why Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?
When you ask that question more often small businesses are not clear why they are in social media in the first place. Do you hear answers like “We’re using social media because it’s the new wave of marketing” or “Because everyone else is doing it” or “We just have to!”
Well, guess what, you don’t have to do it just because your competitors are doing it! If you understand why you need to be in it and tie it with a specific objective.
2. What is your SPECIFIC goal?
Event attendees, registrations, downloads, contact forms? This is very much related to point one. In many cases, you may feel compelled to think social media can give you EVERYTHING at the same time. You need to focus on one specific outcome.
Do you want people to submit an enquiry via the Contact Form? Do you want people to attend your Events? Hit the payment check out button? Download your eBook? Sign up for your newsletter? By understanding what ONE action you want people to do, you are able to create content and structure it to achieve that one specific goal.
3. Who are you creating your content for? Who is your audience?
Many businesses especially young companies fall into this trap of trying to be everything for everybody. This one size fits all business philosophy can be quite tempting for new companies as they are in the process of testing which service and target audience gives them the most value.
But once that which brings the most value to the company is determined, you need to shift your focus in boosting that particular value service. You need to feed the ‘shining star’ of your show.
4. What channels or social media does your target audience go?
If your customers are end users (B2C) you may find Facebook, Twitter and to some extent LinkedIn as the social media of your choice. If you target other companies (B2B), you may find LinkedIn as your primary social media channel. If you are in Trading or Manufacturing, you may find online marketplace sites such as Alibaba and Trade Korea valuable.
By knowing which social network sites, online communities and blogs your target audience goes to, you can maximize your activities and time to focus which channels are able to bring a larger number of quality prospects.
Active Social Media Penetration in Asia
How about you? If you could rank your satisfaction with your social media activities, how high would it be? Feel free to share your thoughts or experiences by leaving a comment below.
