Imagine having a party where you invite all of your customers to join in the celebration. Not such a far-fetched idea in this age of social connectedness. If you think of your social media marketing as not just your invitation to your buyers, but the party itself, it can make your social media marketing more meaningful, and frankly, more fun to do. Here’s the party checklist.
Invite List
Anyone who has had to put together a seating chart knows how difficult it can be to make sure that the right mix of people are sitting together. It’s a totally different story with your social media marketing get together.
Think of each table as its own party. Segment your buyer categories by the connection they have to your business. Are they prospects that are followers of yours but haven’t bought yet? Or, are they frequent buyers? If you’re at all familiar with the Inbound Marketing methodology, you know that there are four stages to the buyer’s journey…Attract, Convert, Close and Delight.
SEE ALSO: INBOUND MARKETING MADE EASY
Effective social media marketing creates content that will appeal to specific buyers at specific points of their journey with your business. Our partner, Hubspot, has a tool called Social Inbox that makes categorizing your followers easy. It makes it possible to hear what they say about you and directing content towards them extremely manageable and effective and all in one dashboard.
Food and Entertainment
It’s a party, so you want your guests to have a good time. Feed each table with a menu that suits who they are and where they are at in their buyer’s journey. You should already have a solid understanding of who your guests are based on the buyer personas you have developed. Create content that speaks directly to them and their “nutritional” needs. Here are some ideas:
- Inform them of new product offerings
- Share stories about your company culture. People are more inclined to develop trust in a company that they get to know intimately.
- Respond to customers who mention your company through their social media streams. Even, maybe especially, negative comments deserve your attention.
- Develop content, be it text, video or audio that your buyer persona will find entertaining and seek out.
Party Favors
Everyone likes gifts. Here are some ideas:
- Post special offers for your guests
- Flash sales exclusively for fans or followers.
- Hold social media contests that encourage followers to post pictures of themselves using your product.
If you want to make it a really big party, and are using the Hubspot Magento Integration, you can create lists of your frequent buyers with large social media followings. You can use this data to send them VIP offers and encourage them to share what they have received for being a loyal customer. This could increase the size of your “guest” list exponentially. You might have to buy a bigger cake.
