Are you trying to sleep with complete strangers?

Did you really think posting on social media randomly would get you anywhere?

by Jason Smith CEO, CineCover

Posted May 2020

How to make sure your business is not asking to sleep with complete strangers:

How often do you see an ad for a product on social media, immediately click it and then go ahead enter your card details, and complete the purchase? Not very often I would imagine.

All over social media my team and I come across ads where we have no idea who the brand is, what the service or product can do for us or how it might benefit us.

Yet the post still says ‘Book your XYZ now’ or ‘We are offering ABC - get your XYZ now!’ or ‘We do the best ABC in town, XYZ Discount available now!’

A very small percentage of the people you reach with your social content are ready and looking to buy there and then.

This is how we came up with the ‘stranger’ analogy. You wouldn’t walk into a bar, straight up to the first person you saw and ask for a quickie - or maybe you would…

Alright if you actually would stop reading and close the page as we probably would never work together, see ya!

...Back to the analogy… Instead of being so rude and abrupt, you might start with small talk, offer to take the person for dinner or for a drink, get to know them, get to know if you are a good fit for one another and then (and only then!) your trust in that person is at a level where you discuss taking things further…

In social media terms, this means you have to build relationships with your target customers.

Some of our best examples of how to do this include:

• Sharing how you have helped people in a similar position.


• Shouting out employees or internal events, getting the customer to see your values and brand ethics.


• Rough round the edges content - not everything has to be so perfect. The more human you come across, the more your customers will relate to you.

OK so I know not to try and jump into bed with my clients, but where would be best to find them in the first place?

A great place to start would be the marketing section of your business plan (we have created a free crisis business plan here for you to use) - where you identified who your target customer is. Within this would have been things such as age, job role, company size and what their interests are.

With this information, take a look at this list of the top social media platforms being used in 2020:

Facebook

With 2 Billion monthly uses are you still saying that your target customer isn’t on Facebook?

LinkedIn

It’s where professionals hang out right? LinkedIn is the best place for B2B networking and marketing. You can literally search by job title, previous work experience and location to nail down the people you are looking for.

Instagram

Led by visuals, Instagram’s endless scrolling images and videos captivate 500 Million people a day. Instagram’s Stories feature is a great way to make your corporate brand feel more ‘human’ with handheld, in the moment selfie videos.

Twitter

The place for joining the conversation. I guarantee there are conversations happening right now which you can join and add value to. Imagine networking but without the awkward ‘joining’ of a conversation, the awkward introductions. Forget that and put your opinion down backed by your specialism experience.

YouTube

Video based platform, the majority of content is long form video. The addition of stories and livestreams make YouTube just as interacatable as any other platform. YouTube is our personal favourite for learning new things as we are able to absorb more information through video faster than we could read it! Subscriber lists also sort the best from the rest and make sure you only see relevant content.

Tiktok

The latest social media craze (especially for younger audiences) - perhaps you’re already familiar due to the dancing and singing of your children…

Think karaoke meeting the digital age and you have a good idea as to what’s going on here.

Although this may not seem like the place to be right now (maybe your kids don’t think you’re cool enough) - there is ‘land’ to grab, attention to be had and at the end of the day this younger audience could one day be customers.

Snapchat

Similar to TikTok with the age trending younger, off the cuff and ‘human’ content can thrive here. ‘Stories’ that disappear after 24 hours - you know the drill.

WTF are hashtags and what you should never do with them!

You would have thought by now that everyone would understand #’s right?

Hashtags (#) are used to categorize your content so that other people looking for that content can find you.

If you’re a Property Manager, try looking up #propertymanagement , #propertymanager or #commercialrealestate and seeing the content there.

Usually hashtags are incorporated into your copy of your post or put neatly at the end. DO NOT just put as many hashtags as you can that are relevant to your business.

Have a good think, back to your business plan, who is that target customer? What would they be searching? What are their interests and therefore what would their attention be consumed by?

The No.1 FREE tool for post scheduling

In our ‘tools that’ll save you thousands’ article you would have seen that we personally use Hootsuite for scheduling our content.

Fortunately for you they have a free service which is well worth checking out to get into the world of post scheduling.

HOWEVER! Before you schedule any posts, you need to read the detail below to ensure that you are not wasting your time creating boring non-tailored content.

How to speak the language of all the major social media channels

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just create one post and it would work perfectly on all of the different social media channels? Unfortunately there is not a ‘one size fits all’ layout that can perfectly fit every social channel. Do you know why that is?

Someone scrolling LinkedIn is in a different frame of mind than someone scrolling Instagram. One is in a professional environment - people have their CV’s on display and talk ‘proper’. On the other hand memes, cat pictures and a million stories from their mates shout for attention as they click and scroll to the next buzz of dopamine. All of the major social channels put its users in different frames of mind - they use them for different reasons.

With this in mind, you have to tailor your message to the context in which it is set - think about the state of mind your customer will be in when viewing on a certain platform and tailor the copy and image sizes accordingly. Below are some templates for each of the social channels.

For a more comprehensive list of image sizes for all kinds of posts as well as profile pictures check out this guide.

Exactly what NOT to do when it comes to posting on social media:

• Do not forget to proofread your content. Having to edit a post after being corrected by a viewer doesn’t stand well for your professionalism.


• Do not put all of your eggs in one basket. I have no doubt that you would have heard from someone before: ‘I have tried posting on ‘Platform XYZ’ and it never did anything for me’ Forget these people’s advice and get trialling! Don’t just hedge your bets on one platform, give your all to multiple platforms and compare results.


• Do not be too formal. Save it for the boardroom! People are on social media usually in a relaxed environment, we all love humour so why not post as if you are chatting to friends.


• Do not post randomly without any sort of strategy and expect incredible results! Target your audience, automate using some free tools and measure engagement. What’s the point of spending time creating content for social media if you have no target? Increasing brand awareness, bringing in new leads, attracting new talent, whatever it is, write it down and the KPI’s that will indicate you’ve smashed it.

What Covid friendly content looks like:

During these unprecedented times, the new normal blah blah blah…

We’ve heard it a million times over. OK we get it. Sure, update your audience about your latest updates regarding operations but don’t go overkill!

We highly recommend being there for your customers through social media, offering support and tips, tricks and hacks that you have learnt from your time at home. Leverage the fact that we have never all been in such a similar boat before, we have all been affected by this.

Social media can be overwhelming to try and take on. Go back to that business plan and set some actions in motion to make the most out of the current climate.

Back to Articles