Whereas the identification of your community on a given social media platform is key to any social media strategy, the temptation to let the community find your page is very high. Reaching out on own initiative is recommendable, but it all depends on the current perception of your firm.
So, should you reach out to your audience on social media sites or not? That’s a tricky question if ever there was one. The moment you reach out, you are doing away with some of the enigma (if any) that is associated with your product/s or service/s. But yes, reach out you must if you are looking to create a following and clientele for your online or physical store using appropriate social media strategy.
Even if none of your fans or friends are really into following your social media presence, it is worth the time and money spent – provided of course that it’s done right. And to do it right, the content you put on your Google Plus, Facebook, or Twitter pages is a critical determinant of the success you can expect to enjoy online, especially with reference to those three globally popular platforms. And your social media strategy.
Social media platforms are often simplistically declared to be meant for meeting friends and generally socializing. They are therefore supposed to be free of advertisements. But we are forgetting here that the human mind is an evolved version of the ape mind. We are, in the process, ruling out the opportunity to declare ourselves better than the competition!
Aping is a major component of our behavior, being common to the entire race. I once had a colleague who would try to outdo anything and everything I told him about myself. If I said that I bought a car, he’d point out how he has a bigger car! If I said content was critically important to online success, he’d point out easy ‘Inglis’ was all that’s required (of which he is a self-announced master). If I informed him that I had a near-death experience once, he’d probably claim supernatural status!
This was aping at its worst, but the fact remains that as a race we are addicted to aping. Have your ads on those social media platforms, by all means. Just don’t blindly ape the forms of advertising adopted by others. Do it more creatively, with more and better imagination.
Now, part of that aping lies in trying to outdo each other (!). Therefore, where your social media strategy is concerned, all that needs to be done is identification of points of differentiation. And there are scores of ways to achieve differentiation on social media platforms.
The catch is that you have to be apparently original about it. No point in even inconspicuous aping here. Because Google does not cater to apes.
Leave a Reply