Full Service Social Media Marketing

When it comes to social media, it is so important to stay relevant and to keep a pulse on what is going on in the world, so you know what type of content is appropriate to post and when. There are times that the content you had scheduled just doesn't make sense by the time it goes live, so you need to always be reevaluating what message you’re sharing with your audience to make sure you don’t put your foot in your mouth! For example, if you had content going out on Blackout Tuesday and you didn’t move it, this may have come across as being insensitive and cast a negative view on your company.

As social media managers, we do not just come up with compelling content and engaging pictures/videos to post. We have to be innovative, thoughtful, caring and respectful in order to create trust and loyalty. Creating content that resonates with your audiences and engages them is what it is all about. This is how you build a relationship with your online community.

Why your content has to be relevant and thoughtful

With what has been taking place in the world around COVID and Black Lives Matters, we have been able to see the brands/companies which have stepped up and positively reacted to the times. Now more than ever, companies have had to readjust their content to align with what is going on in the world. We’re not here to call anyone out specifically, but surely you’ve seen a few examples that made you go.

We didn’t want any of our clients to end up in that spot, so we took action right away - touching base with each of them individually to discuss their business response, overall strategy and how we could rethink their content to support that. Here are a few examples of what our clients have done:

One of our clients is in the facility management and building maintenance industry, so we did a full strategy shift for them by creating fresh content to help provide some guidance to their employees and customers.

Another client works in HR consulting, so we worked with them to create content to provide supportive and thoughtful information in order to assist employers and employees navigating through the uncertainty of COVID-19. They have taken this opportunity to give their audiences tactical resources and tools to show thought-leadership in their industry.

We have one client in the live event industry. As you can imagine, we have had to 100% adjust their content strategy due to large scale events having been put on hold for the time being. We took this time to focus on spreading positivity, promoting connectedness within the event industry and highlighting a #GiveBack campaign that they stepped up to take on called #DriveThruGrad2020YYC. The results have actually been tremendous! It may not mean more business for them in the short term but people are emotionally connecting to them more than ever before with what they’re doing and sharing. That stuff pays off down the line.

"In late 2019, we had such great plans and a new direction when we developed our social media strategy with Marr Media. Then COVID came... For our industry, in particular, this pandemic was devastating but we knew that staying with Marr Media and their team of experts was absolutely necessary. With them, our voice was clear, constant, relevant and we could not have manoeuvred this without them." - Kathy Smart, e=mc² events

How to build a relationship with your audience

Your audience is choosing to follow you (remember, it is very easy for them to unfollow you!) so ensure you are providing them with value in what you post. Too many sales focused posts will make them feel like all you want is their business and you’re not taking the time to figure out who they are and what they want. We all have had that friend who joins a multi-level marketing organisation and suddenly every single interaction you have with them is alllll about how you need to try their samples and how the shakes are literally life changing. You feel like you don’t even have a relationship with them anymore--they just want to sell to you.

DON’T BE THAT GUY.

Sure, you’re a business. You’re in business to make sales. That’s totally fine. But the first step in sales, or business in general, is relationship building. Give something to get something back. Or hey, just give something to be a good force in the world! Give people a reason to show up, tune in, pay attention and give a damn about your brand. Then later, and tastefully, educate about your products or services. Chances are, for many of your followers, they will be relevant and they’ll want to learn more. And you carry on from there. But remember, the sales cycle looks different than it did years ago. People don’t want to “be sold” anymore. We have oodles (technical term) of information at our fingertips and a ton of options out there, so we take on a lot of the initial stages ourselves. Then we just want someone to “help us buy” when we’re ready. And you know who we’re going to pick? The guy that’s been there for us, built a relationship with, showed us they cared about more than just “the sale”.

Why it is so important to engage with your audience

Engaging with your audience is where you build a strong relationship and loyalty. Have you ever sent an email and not heard a response back or asked a question in a group of people and no one paid attention to you. How does this make you feel? Ignored, like you’re not valued, like no one cares what you have to say? Well, essentially this is the same thing when your audience engages with you on your social platforms and you never respond. Maybe you missed the message or comment (we all make mistakes) but doing this on a consistent basis will leave your customers with a negative view of your brand.

We offer our clients an added service to monitor their community management. We have four set check-ins a day to make sure that no comment or DM goes unanswered. Whether this be something you outsource or manage in-house, it is important to be on top of your inbound engagement on a consistent basis especially if you receive negative comments or messages. Being proactive and managing this in a timely manner will show how your brand shows up in the eyes of your audience.

Having someone dedicated and focused on your social media efforts will ensure you're able to execute our above points effectively. Whether that's an in-house team or an agency, make sure whoever is responsible for your social media is tuned into what's going on on a daily basis. Having a plan and process in place is key and we can help with that! Set up a complimentary consultation today to discuss how we can help with your social media strategy to ensure your content is always timely, thoughtful, relevant and engaging!