This past weekend was pretty monumental for me and the family. We brought home a new baby boy…. we adopted a new puppy from our local animal shelter and named him “Tux”. He’s an Australian Cattle Dog & Black Lab mix. Only 4 months old. If you know anything about these two breeds, being energetic is an understatement. He’s extremely happy to be rescued, but also being a baby, has quite a bit to learn. Let’s just say I’ve cleaned my living room floor more times this weekend than I have all year.
Though it’s a long road ahead, being patient, strategic and an active participant will yield the best results. That’s exactly what can happen when developing a social media strategy.
Let’s talk strategy-
To get a idea of where to go in your marketing, dive into the history of the folks you’re trying to reach. Research is key! Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and LinkedIn all provide a wealth of analytics on who’s been interacting with your networks. Take full advantage. Go back as far as one year so you can catch spikes, trends, dips and volleys. DON’T JUST LOOK AT LIKES. Really dig- geography, age, income, interests, shopping patterns (if you can get it), topics they clicked on the most, etc can tell you a lot about how to forecast reaching your audience. Researching the breeds that Tux is mixed with helps us to know the level of activity we’ll need to meet him with on a daily basis.
Patience is a virtue-
Tux has no trouble hearing us when we say STOP!, Come, Sit or NO!, he just doesn’t know how to respond to us yet, so he doesn’t. We have to build trust. Same with your audience. Throw them a CTA that says “Click Here”, “Sign-up” or “Buy Now” too soon and you’ll hear a symphony of crickets. Take your time and get to know them. Study their history, listen to them (hear what they tell you about themselves based on what they click). Observe and take note.
Join the conversation-
Try training a puppy from the couch. Pointing, giving direction from afar, even tossing him a ball and not even getting up when he attempts to bring it to you. What happens? He looses interest and walks away. The same can happen with your audience if you’re not actively engaged with them. Say they post to our Facebook wall, do you take a minute to comment? They private/direct message you with an inquiry, do you at least respond? Someone repins one of your pins, did you at least say ‘thank you’? Also in a TIMELY manner?? They’re called social networks because… they’re social. So let them see you active on them.
Let’s Recap-
If you’re tuned in to your audience, craft your marketing based on their trends with your brand, and actively engage them, when you finally do ask them to do something, it’s a natural part of an ongoing conversation. They’re happy to oblige. And so is Tux 🙂
