On March 27, I released my latest production. It’s entitled Social Media Marketing: The Movie.
You can watch it here
I made the movie to answer several questions:
- How should businesses set up a social media strategy that delivers?
- What does a social content strategy look like?
- What types of content should businesses create?
- How often should businesses post content?
To get the answers, I interviewed several people who are at the top of their game when it comes to social media marketing: Jay Baer, Michael Stelzner, Brenda Ster, Joel Comm, Mari Smith, Sue Zimmerman, Leslie Samuel, Sunny Lenarduzzi, Viveka von Rosen and Amy Landino.
Here are a few of the key takeaways from what they told me.
1) Marketing Online Is The Same As Marketing Anywhere
Joel Comm says that he’s been an Internet entrepreneur since “the beginning of time.”
He told me that people make a mistake by using Twitter as a virtual soapbox to advertise their products or services. That’s not a successful strategy for marketing on social media.
Comm reminded me that there are 4 steps to reaching individuals on any marketing channel:
- Know me
- Like me
- Trust me
- Pay me
The problem, Comm said, is that many people use social media to go straight to the “Pay me” phase. Then, they’re surprised with the poor results.
He advises marketers to use social media to first introduce their brand to the public. Then, they should publish content that encourages people to like them.
After that, they can build that “like” relationship to a point of trust. Finally, they can ask for money.
In other words, social media marketing is no different than traditional marketing in this way: you have to first win people to yourself before you can start promoting your business.
2) The Most Important Lesson for Pinterest Marketers
Brenda Ster is an expert at marketing on Pinterest. She taught me the most important lesson marketers can learn about Pinterest.
It’s the source website.
What’s that all about? It’s about the link to the content that you might share with your followers on Pinterest.
Let’s say you come across some great pin on Pinterest that you think will be of interest to your followers. Naturally, you click the “Repin” button so your followers can see it.
Although it’s nice of you to share helpful content, you might be doing your brand a disservice. If that pin contains a link to a competitor site, then you’ve just advertised your competitor to your followers.
Is that what you want to do?
Also, Ster told me to make sure that your own links don’t point to non-existent pages or pages that have nothing to do with the content of the pin.
Pay attention to the source website when using Pinterest. It could make all the difference.
3) How to Beat Big Brands With Content Marketing
Do you feel intimidated because you think you can’t match the online marketing budget of big brands?
Relax. You can beat them.
How? With personalized content marketing.
When I spoke with Leslie Samuel about content marketing, he told me that one of the best ways to outmaneuver larger brands online is with personalized stories.
It’s not often the case that you’ll see a blog post from a Fortune 500 company that’s written by someone telling a personal story. It can happen, but it’s rare.
That gives you an opportunity to connect with your market in a way that the big boys can’t.
Use your content marketing to tell personal stories. Make them relatable.
That will make it easier for people to emotionally connect with you as an individual. As a result, you’ll gain customers.
Those are customers that big brands will have trouble attracting because they lack personalization.
4) When Not to Start a Podcast
Pat Flynn is a digital marketing expert and keynote speaker. He also runs a top podcast.
He gave me some very good reasons why some marketers should not start a podcast.
Although podcasts might seem like all the rage these days, that doesn’t mean that a podcast is right for your brand. Quite frankly, you might be more successful with other marketing channels.
For starters, Flynn said that you shouldn’t start a podcast just because everybody else is doing it. That’s a bad reason to do just about anything in business.
He also said that podcasting is a commitment. If you can’t prioritize a regular podcast, you probably shouldn’t even start one.
Flynn also gave me this really great piece of advice: if you decide not to start a podcast, try to be a guest on one.
There are plenty of podcasts where you might fit in for one episode. You can use that opportunity to promote your brand to people you might not otherwise reach.
So Many More Takeaways
Social Media Marketing: The Movie is 45 minutes long. There are far too many takeaways in that movie for me to list here. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to check out the movie. You’ll pick up some great tips from industry experts.