Are You Showing Off All Of Your Feathers?
The social media marketing scene is completely saturated with companies that most likely do and sell the same things as your business. Fortunately for you, most of them do not do it well.
While creating your social media marketing strategy, in addition to goals, you’re going to create execution tactics and procedures to achieve these goals. One of the areas that should be on the top of your mind is “How Do We Become Memorable”. Like most marketing, within the social media realm you’re biggest competition is not with companies selling similar products.
Your biggest social media competitor is people’s attention
What is going to make you memorable? Why would someone choose to engage with your brand? There are several areas to concentrate on that will boost user engagement, but I think one the most overlooked yet highly important is Personality.
Here are 5 quick tips to start inserting some personality into your social media marketing. (If you’re not convinced brand personality is for you, read THIS)
Use Pictures
Bring your social media posts to life by using pictures. Let your fans and network see a little behind the curtain of your world. If you have any unique office decorations show them off. At an activity or event, take a pic. Use pictures to allow a behind the scenes look at what your company does. (My favorite service for Twitter is Twitpic)
Have Opinions
This is going to cause most higher ups at big offices a massive panic attack, but the fact is that real people have opinions. Real people have dislikes and favorites, some things drive them crazy, some songs make there work day go faster. You’re a human being, not a robot. Have opinions.
Obviously you need to be conscious about what you’re projecting to the universe, but this doesn’t mean you need to be walled up behind a boring ball of plain Jane posts.
Personal brands can get away with a lot more flexibility than big corporate brands, but being part of a large corporation is not an excuse to not showcase and share opinions. If you never say anything of substance, why will anyone care? I can disagree with someone’s opinion and still support their product. If I see a brand out there and sharing their real experiences I’m much more likely to follow that brand and engage.
Use Video
There is no better way to show off your personality than using video. Video is a medium that offers an opportunity to bring to life what print cannot, you. Video offers a chance to be a moving breathing person. You audience isn’t reading your words, they’re seeing you. After watching a few video posts, if done correctly, your audience can really feel a sense that they know you. (I really need to take my own advice, I plan on rolling out some video posts soon).
Engage
I recently had a conversation with a Chicago sports radio personality and blogger about getting more exposure for himself. In our discussion we researched a few Facebook Pages that would fit his demographic, one of these pages was the Chicago White Sox. They have about 200,000 fans, and a large amount of fan posts and comments. Unfortunately, there is no engagement from the actual team…none. The administrators post and walk away. Sports fans are loyal. They’re not likely to leave their favorite team because of lack of Facebook engagement, but the team might have better opportunities to sell merchandise and fill events if they were.
St. Louis has the 3rd biggest Mardi Gras in the world. The official Facebook page for this event has 7,000 fans. Again, you’ll see lots of fan engagement with little to NO interaction from the page administration. I’m willing to bet more than 7,000 people showed up to the more than 30 events that were hosted. If the page had more interaction perhaps the smaller events would have had better attendance.
As much as I scream about social media Engagement, Engagement, Engagement…it’s still not the rule but unfortunately the exception. You should feel lucky and honored someone out there actually likes your brand enough to take the time to leave a comment or ask a question. The least you can do is thank your fans and answer their questions letting them know they’re appreciated.
Think Outside The Box
Get creative! Or if your creative juices aren’t flowing, then just look and see what others outside your industry are doing that you love, and apply it to your business. Some successful examples are…
Mascots – Not every brand can get away with an alter ego but Chicago’s Berry Chill does a great job with Yogi Jones. The lovable character tweets daily and thanks his fans when Berry Chill is mentioned on Twitter.
Contests / Events – Groupon is creating a contest called Live Off Groupon that will give away $100,000 to one person that can live an entire year off of their coupons and not spend a dime. (don’t bother applying, I’m already going to win it! 
) What better way to show off their service than have a fan live there whole life for one year on it.
The battle for attention is going to be your biggest competition when executing your social media marketing strategy. Succeed by creating some brand personality in your social media marketing.
This is DAY 15 of my “28 Day Blogging Challenge“
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Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media. He is an avid blogger and active across the net. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter
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