With so much social media marketing blabber out there on the Internet it can be a challenge to sift the good from the bad. Many gurus like to write about touchy-feely relationship stuff while others discuss conversation etiquette, faux pas and reciprocation. Some of this advice is noteworthy, but it’s not required for social media monetization.
In fact, HubSpot’s Dan Zarrella has sifted through thousands of data points and concluded that the art of conversation in social media is counter-productive and that the act of sharing links, not engaging in conversation, increases the likelihood of that link getting shared by others in social media. Armed with Dan’s scientific evidence, the below three steps represent the blueprint for social media marketing and inbound marketing success.
This is the step that so many social media gurus and experts skip. Yes, conversation and other people’s links are content, but sharing this type of content doesn’t produce conversions for the campaign and tends to be very time-consuming. For a social media campaign to be successful it must be paired with a successful content marketing campaign. Actually, the campaigns should be one and the same. The more problem solving and entertaining content that can be developed the more opportunities the campaign will have to convert. Avoid creating self-promotional content. Consider creating 21 pieces of content every week to distribute via social media. Here are some additional content strategies to help make this happen.
This is the easy part. Once the content is developed simply tweet, post and share the content across whatever social media platforms are being used in the campaign. Try mixing the self-produced content with a few links from other relevant brands or businesses to encourage reciprocation. However, remember that sharing other people’s content won’t convert leads for your campaign, so use it sparingly. Distributing all of that great content will naturally lead to some conversation. Just don’t let it bog down the campaign, because the time lost could have been used to create more content.
Engagement isn’t necessarily conversation. It’s actually the content consumer’s engagement with the campaign’s content, calls-to-action and landing pages. This could be in the form of a blog subscription, comment, lead conversion, sale, etc. Social media marketers which don’t create their own compelling problem-solving or entertaining content never get to this stage and lose most of their ability to monetize their social media activity.
It is possible to circumvent the above steps and have a success or two. However, for sustained, measurable and predictable results these steps are required. For more information on the three steps to social media success feel free to watch this video.
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Pic: Me & Dan Zarrella
Image: @danielulichney
