There is one concept in the world of social media marketing that proves to be the key to marketing on social media. Businesses who learn this concept state their social media marketing finally improved. Without this knowledge, no amount of time, money, utilizing new trends or modern techniques made much of a difference. What made a difference was making this shift in thinking about attracting customer. Get ready to learn something that will change your marketing for the better.

the Customers do not want to know about what is going on with your business. Customers want solutions and information.  Customers do not care about your events, photos, or sales pitch. Customers care about learning and finding content to solve problems. The key to social media marketing is to provide content that fills the needs of the audience. The goal of social media marketing is not to talk about your business, not to sell, and not always posting updates or pictures. The goal of social media marketing is to find an audience, provide the information they are looking for, and solve their problems.

Look at an example - A dance studio utilized many social media accounts. The business was posting pictures at events, key dates, and sales ads. They were posting beautiful images and advertisements that very few engaged with. All this effort and social media accounts were not growing or generating more sales or website visits.  Until the strategy changed and became more about what the audience wanted to learn. So the business did research(social listening) and made some key changes that focused more on content. The research led to learning about the audience and what they wanted to learn. The new posts were short instructional videos and photos, how to's, and infographics. Consisting of teaching trendy dance moves and videos to get in shape. They also shared tips to be more flexible and how to use dance to relieve stress. These ideas came from social listening and focusing more on information for the audience. Yes, you do want to eventually sell to the audience, but only at the right time. With social media, 20% is selling, and the other 80% is content. Once you have an engaged audience and built trust, then talking about your business and selling a product or service can be useful.

Think about it, digest and use it. - The goal of social media marketing is to find an audience, provide the information they are looking for, and solve their problems.  Doing this is not easy and finding the right audience and content takes time and patience.  Starting with this concept in mind will ensure a more success social media marketing strategy.  

Please comment here about how you will use this concept.  Or, if you already do tell us how you have utilized content in your marketing.  Follow me on Facebook for weekly marketing updates.

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Dr. Kellie Emrich, DBA
Professor of Marketing
The Social Prof

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​Would you want a salad without dressing? What about watching a basketball game without a referee? How about social media marketing without analytics?  The answer is No.  Without analytics, you would not understand if a strategy is working.  There are numerous resources out there, and it can be confusing.  Keep it simple to start and build as you learn. Be sure to start by defining your social media goals.  Examples include brand awareness, brand loyalty, generating leads, or customer service. Below is a summary of some of the most popular goals for social media and what key indicators you could use.

The great news is that each platform makes this data easy to find and track at no cost. Finding analytics on each platform is a little different.  Here are some of the most common platforms and where the platform keep analytics.
Twitter – Find analytics on the Twitter analytics dashboard
Facebook – Find analytics on the Insights tab.  These are only available on a Facebook Page (not profile) after receiving 30 likes.
Instagram – To see Instagram analytics, you need a business account and 100 followers. Each of your posts will show “view insights” to click on and you can see how each post performs. You can also look at all analytics by clicking in the upper right corner icon, then insights.

SEM Rush is my favorite analytical tool that I do pay for because I find the resource beneficial.  You can analyze data in more detail and bring in your website data and SEO. Also you can view audience behaviors, track competitors, keep up on keywords, keep up on trends and do social media listening.  ​

I suggest downloading some of your key analytics and keeping the data in one excel file or workbook.  This allows you to prioritize key performance indicators and not get overwhelmed with the amount of data each platform gives you.

Likes on social media is a measurement that many of the the platforms talk about removing.  Instagram has been removing likes for public view in other countries and is starting to do the same in the US.  The reasoning is to reduce social anxiety.  Click on the social prof facebook page below and look for the recent post on this topic.  Vote for if you agree or disagree and in the comments state why you voted the way you did.

I know I say it often when talking about social media marketing, and here I go again, no selling your product or service on a blog. For marketers, I know that it is tricky. Consumers go to blogs for information, not to see advertisements. Too much selling can diminish the value of a brand. Instead, offer knowledge while building trust and respect. 
 
That’s not to say we do not provide links or offers. The key is providing an abundance of information, so your potential audience clicks through to your business to find more. For all content marketing outlets on social media, stick to an 80/20 Rule. Provide content 80% of the time, sell 20% of the time.
 
Always have these five tips in mind – 

1. Write to solve problems for the audience – Write from the customer view point providing information and unique solutions that your customer craves. Do the research necessary to learn about your potential audience and what content they are craving. 
2. Use How To, List Posts, and Infographics frequently – Keep blogs short and straightforward, reading more like bullet points than a report with paragraph after paragraph. 
3. Have a catchy Headline – You are passionate about your topic, the audience should feel that same enthusiasm. Your potential customers will not keep reading if they do not see benefits. A title might not come at first, be willing to revise and improve your title as you are writing your blog. 
4. Edit and Revise – We are not all writers making this essential. Here are some proofreading tips 

• Use my Editing Cheat Sheet - I use this to go over all of my writing to improve words or phrases. 
• Grammarly is an excellent tool for extra help with grammar and punctuation. 
• Read Writing backward sentence by sentence. 
• Of course, an editor is always good if we have one or can afford one.

   5.  Add links to your website, landing page, or store – Using your blog to get website traffic is ok. Be sure you  have relevant information or offer promotions.

Dr Kellie Emrich
@thesocialprof
www.thesocialprof.com

Content marketing is about telling a story that builds relationships and identifies you as a potential guide to solve problems.  Telling stories can transform information into solutions and show we care about helping our audience. 

“Developing the content in our content marketing strategy is developing the stories of us. It’s the big ideas that we represent. It’s the differentiated experiences we want to create. It’s what we REALLY do for a living. For better or worse — it’s that simple.”  Content Marketing Institute

Not all of us are storytellers.  I had to go out and find help.  The best resource I found was from 
 https://www.mystorybrand.com/ created from the book “Story Brand” by Donald Miller. 
The story brand template on the website offers a great way to get started with storytelling.  Fill in the blanks with his prompts and it will make you think creatively and start to generate a story from your ideas.

Key Points I learned from using the Story Brand Template

• You are not the hero the audience is. You want to be the guide to the story.
• Don’t sell to early provide a process to create trust
• Show Don’t Tell
• Be patient you will not create a story in one sitting
• Explore different mediums like video, infographics, Facebook live, Instagram stories
• Start to create your story AFTER you have done research and created your buyer personas

Here are some examples of effective brand story telling
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 Airbnb - https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10153215613209727
A rather massive brand that has taken the world by storm settles into an amazingly powerful bit of storytelling, and shows the rest of the world how it’s done. Airbnb felt that telling a story that was simply inspirational was surely the best way to get people feeling emotions and buying into the brand it had created. And it worked.

Honorable Mention: Google is Telling a story, literally
Google don’t really have to market anymore, they are simply working on ways to keep their fans happy. And this video is a perfect version of that.

Good luck with your storytelling and please let me know if you have any other ideas or resources to help create stories on social media.
Dr. Kellie Emrich @thesocialprof