Nudging is any means that gently influences people to form good habits and make responsible decisions so they benefit themselves and their brands as well as the wider community. It also has great potential as a form of change in communication.
Most digital marketing companies will tell you that “If you aren’t using social media as a small business owner, you are missing out on valuable customers and inexpensive marketing”. And this statement is backup with the fact that over 93 million people are using social media in Nigeria alone. That is more than half the percentage of the entire population of Nigeria. Wow right?
Social media provides targeting capability, as well as reach and scale, at a lower cost than almost all other marketing channels. People are on social media all day, every day , your brand(s) must go where the people are.”
But while you should be marketing on social media, you shouldn’t necessarily be on every channel. It’s important for you to invest in the platforms where you’re more likely to reach and engage with your audience – said Demola Adetona.
Haven’t received quite a number of questions on how to boost engagement on a brand, company or personal social media pages, I thought it would be helpful to #HotTalkWithBlecyn audience to have first hand information from a long standing Ambassador, Brand influencer and PR, Demola Adetona known as DemolaExpoze.
Blecyn George Monsi: A warm welcome to you @DemolaExpoze on this episode of #HotTalkWithBlecyn, please share with us the most challenging part of being a Digital marketer and a PR professional/an influencer.
Demola Adetona: Sometimes the craft is monotonous, Sometimes the client is taking 45 Days to raise your LPO (Local Purchase Order). And sometimes the Algorithm changes overnight and you have to re-strategize in the middles of no where.
When we talk about social media strategy, what exactly are we talking about and how does it apply to all businesses?
A social media strategy is strategy that considers how social media can be used to harness value from collaborative relationships. Every business need to engage with their target market one way or the other, and social media presents every business a cheap tool to manage and monitor brand reputation, and also build relationships with those that matter.
What are the key things to put into perspective when mapping out strategies for a startup?
Goals: You need to set objectives based on your goals (SMART). The objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, reliable and time based Time because nobody knew #Olowogbogboro (God) hours could become a Peak time for Business owners.
Audience: The second thing to do is to target or characterize your customers. This means having a detailed profile of who your ideal customer’ that is ‘KYC’ (Know your customer): If your business is for Egbeda People, Don’t tag Ikoyi People.
Message and Tone: Now that you have an idea who your customers are, you can now develop a message and tone that resonates with him. A lot of People want to be a Brand, instead of being themselves first.
Channel: Not all Social Media channels are the same, and your business needs to understand which one works best for your product or service.
Content: This can make or mar your whole strategy You should build a content plan that not only aligns with the messaging you’ve already developed, but also with the overall objective and identity of the business.
Using Influencers: At this stage, you might also want to start looking at Influencers to help you reach more of your target audience in specific social media channels.
A content plan should not just be an information plan. A great social media content adds value to the audience. It should also be a mixture of videos, articles, and images. The World is moving to UX (User Experience). Don’t carry Last
There’s overload of Content on cyberspace, so share of attention is competitive If your content doesn’t solve a problem, then its an ART If I can skip your YouTube Video after 5secs, then you have wasted your CPI (Cost Per Impression).
Would you advise every business owner, especially startups to handle their social media by themselves, if no, why if YES, why?
Ideally, I would advise them not to. Why? Because for every business to reach its goals, everyone needs to focus on his/her areas of expertise & social media management falls outside that for most entrepreneurs. Most don’t understand it is beyond mere posting
What happens when most entrepreneurs also double as social media managers without the required knowledge or expertise is that they waste a lot of time on it, with little or no returns.
How does a business measure the effectiveness of the social media strategies carried out?
First thing is to determine from the get go what the goal and target of the campaign is? There are lots of metrics and tools you can use to determine the effectiveness of your campaign, based on the predetermined goals and target
But the best metrics for a startup is conversion, engagement and growth velocity. Conversion can be measured by how many social media users are taking meaningful action. The action can be visiting your website, calling to order your products, etc.
Engagement: Beyond followers, it is pertinent to measure how many users/followers are engaging with your posts through likes, share, and comments
And Lastly Growth Velocity: Compare your current metric with what it was before the campaign. How fast are you growing, and what amount of it is down to the campaign, or specific part of the strategy
Is it mandatory to employ same strategies across all social media platforms? If NO, kindly explain to us why?
No. Because all social media platforms are different Every business needs to discover where their target market and the type of messaging and content that works on each platform. What works on Facebook might not necessarily work on Twitter. So what is the best way? Create unique messages and strategies that tailor to the peculiarity of every platform you are on. Nigerians are stressed by default. Don’t be unhappy.
Comedy has obviously been a center of attraction in the past years, would you advise very uptight corporate brand to employ a bit of jocular contents in order to have an engaging page?
It depends on their goal or target and how they measure metrics. Every company has to determine what a “successful” campaign is. If for the brand, they want a bit of visibility and engagement, or to come across as a bit more relatable, then why not? But beyond that, they still need to align that with their overall image and identity. The real question is how they juxtapose between the former and the later, and still come out with their brand intact.
Are their specific social platform for specific kind of business, or can all businesses/services thrive across all social media platforms?
Yes, there are specific platforms for specific businesses. For example, a B2B business may thrive on LinkedIn, but not on Snapchat. A blog might not convert so much on Instagram, but do so on say Twitter or Facebook
It is why I said earlier that every startup needs to understand which platform works best for their business, and then come up with plans to harness the peculiarities inherent in each to reach their objectives
How often should a business post on its social media pages?
Again, it depends on the platform as all have their own peculiarities For example, let’s take Twitter. Because of the chronological way the posts show, the more you post on Twitter, the better But for Facebook, research shows five times a week is the optimum
If a business social media strategy result shows that ‘Social platform A is more effective than social platform B’ should the business abandon social platform A? If no Why?
No. I think most businesses have one platform that yields return than the others, so that doesn’t mean they have to stop using the other platforms. Even if one isn’t yielding the required return, or very minimal one, having an account there tells users of such platform that your business actually exists.
If you’re a Local Champion on IG, travel the world via Twitter Join the “My Customer may Be on your TL gang” Emotional Selling on Social issa Strategy.
There are some businesses out there who still thinks social media ain’t for them, what are your thoughts on such businesses?
I think numbers don’t lie. Currently, there are over 2.6billion people on social media. Facebook alone has 2.2billion active monthly users. In Nigeria, internet users have passed the 80million mark, and 75% of them are on social media. That is a huge market to ignore. I think many that don’t trust the returns from social media are more often than not doing it wrong Many are afraid to be dragged, I know an Airline and Paint Company but then again who am I to @ them,
Patience. If it is well tailored and everything that should be done has been done, then sooner or later, the returns would come. Because it is social media doesn’t mean the return has to be instantaneous. And if it still doesn’t, then something is wrong and the company needs to go back to the drawing board and re-evaluate the strategy to understand what is wrong. Even experts still get it wrong. If it requires you to Delete your Page, please do. There’s nothing wrong in Starting a new Page especially if you’re Shadow Banned.
What would you say to Digital Marketing/ Social media marketing enthusiasts in regards to content copyright and how it effect tailored SM strategies?
Firstly, does copyright law affects contents that are published online or on social media? Yes. With that in mind, make sure any content you post is owned or created by you, or you at least have the permission to use it. Copyright protection applies automatically upon then creation of an original work and protects, among other types of work literary (written blogs) and artistic (photographs) This means using anothers’ photograph, even if you mention them, should be a no go
I had a situation 2 Weeks ago, where a close person almost slammed us a law suit for using her photo as a meme in a wrong light (Not me actually) but somebody from #InsideExpoze
Breaking copyright rule can be a very costly mistake that can ruin a company or tarnish a reputation, so it is my advice that Digital marketers take it seriously and understand the rules that apply
Blecyn George Monsi: Thank you so much @DEMOLAEXPOZE for sharing with is. Thanks for the learning opportunity. God bless you and we wish you mega growth in all your endeavors.
Demola Adetona I’m honoured ma Again Thanks for having me.
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Demola Adetona popularly known as DemolaExpoze is a digital marketing expert whom has proven his worth severally in Strategic Brand communications on Social Media, Reputation Management, Viral Campaign and Digital Media activation. He is the founder of Expoze Nigeria, a social media and communications agency in Lagos .
He was recently recognized as one of the 100 most influential Young Nigerians in Business by Avance Media.
Demola is a member of Digital Media Practitioners of Nigeria.
Find him across social meda @DemolaExpoze
Originally published at blecyn.com