Pretty Pictures are Not Enough!
In today's digital age, businesses of all sizes and industries have flocked to social media as a platform for promoting their products and services. Which on one hand is great! As consumers we are spoiled with choice in all areas of our life. Need a new shirt? Yoga mat? Toothbrush? You’re only a 5 second search away from your dream product. What a time to be alive...for consumers. Businesses now face more competition than ever and an audience that is constantly being bombarded with competitors vying for their attention.
So how does your brand stand out and hopefully find an audience in this madness? Well, first things first, if you're using social media solely as a promotional tool, it's time to hit the brakes. Most, if not all, audiences don't want to be bombarded with constant sales pitches or hear about how great you think your business is. Instead, it's time to shift your focus to creating content that provides value, builds relationships with your customers and ultimately positions you as the expert you are.
Here are three steps to implement right now to get your content back on track:
Know your audience
For real though. If you don’t know exactly who you are talking to then how is your audience supposed to know you are talking to them? The old adage lands true here: “If you’re trying to talk to everybody, you’re talking to nobody”. On the surface this step can seem deceptively simple. “Our customers are people who buy socks”; great, but why do they want to buy your socks? Are your socks handmade by technicians being paid a living wage with organic fibers that were sustainably harvested? Amazing! How would you describe the people who like what is unique about your socks vs your competitors? Get granular with this so you can start to comprehend their motivation for buying your products and how you can serve them better.
The technical term for a document like this (for my fellow nerds out there) is Customer Persona. It’s a collection of facts and assumptions you make about your ideal customer to the point of giving them a name, age, location, purchasing habits, lifestyle, etc. The more you know about your customer the better you will be able to serve them and the more targeted your content will be, ultimately leading to more followers eager to support your business when you do have a sale or product launch. For those following the math, that means more happy customers, more revenue and more impact for your mission! So to get up to speed quickly, ask yourself these questions and keep the document handy so you can review it each time you start putting content together. If you really engage with this exercise you’ll end up with more questions and gain a broader understanding of your customer base.
Who are my ideal customers? Age? Demographics? Location?
What kind of lifestyle do they live?
What are their values?
What motivates them?
What are their purchasing habits?
How important are the product’s/service’s ethics to them?
What platforms do they use? How frequently?
What type of content do they want to engage with?
Now that you have a basic understanding of your ideal customers, you can focus on HOW to make the content they want. Implementing this information can be tricky at first but at least now you have a clear vision of WHO you are talking to.
Provide more value than you ask for
To keep things really simple, your content should fall into one of three categories:
Promotion - The easiest to produce but the hardest to do well. This is where most businesses start and too many stop. Taking out your phone to snap a photo of your product is fine, once and awhile, but that isn’t enough to stand out and it certainly isn’t overly valuable unless you plan on constantly running sales, racing to the bottom on price alone. There’s a better way!
Entertainment - The hardest to do well. Not only does your product offer have to be compelling, you also have to be able to be (or have access to) an influential and charismatic character to deliver your message. Many try this route and fail because it is easier said than done. If you happen to be a charismatic entertainer and love storytelling then go for it! Just remember to incorporate valuable information into your content or your audience may leave wanting more substance.
Education - Use the skills you already have. You’ve done the work and are an expert in your field. You don’t have to be overly entertaining to start sharing what you know about your product or service with an interested audience. Going back to our sustainably harvest fair trade socks, show your audience how they are made, the conditions the workers have, how you select the fibers, why all of this matters to create the “perfect sock”. You’re now the expert in sustainable socks and when your audience is ready to cover up their toes they’ll trust you and your product.
The main message here is: don't just post when you have an announcement or sale. Instead, engage your audience with content they find valuable and they'll be more willing to support your sales or product launches when the time comes. Creating a strategy with all of these methods is the real secret and you’re already more equipped than you think.
Start now with what you have
Seriously! You are most likely reading or listening to these words on an incredibly powerful computer with a great camera built in! It is literally a content making super tool! Write a blog, take and edit a photo or record 4k video from the palm of your hand. Again, we live in amazing times to be able to take for granted the power of the technology so many of us walk around with everyday. So, you don't have to wait until you have a big budget or a professional production team to create great content. Use your phone, find some natural light, and be confident with your message. As the old saying goes, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is right now."
Here’s 3 quick tips to up your visual game with your phone:
Have a plan - What are you capturing and why? Knowing what you want to say before you start will help you seem more confident and confidence is contagious. Of course, you can leave some things to chance but having a plan will save you time in the long run when it comes time to edit and distribute your content.
Light your subject - if you don’t have lights then stand near a window that is receiving in-direct sunlight. Direct light can be hard to work with (shadows, squinting, overexposure, etc.) so draw the curtains or stand in a shadow if you need to. Lighting a subject is literally a life-time pursuit for many professionals so do you best and watch a couple quick tutorials to get you up and running.
Be intentional with your framing - again there are hundreds of creative choices to make when framing your subject but to keep things simple put them in the center, fill the frame as much as possible and eliminate any distracting elements (ex/ tree branches protruding from behind their head). Once you’ve mastered the basics feel free to break the rules and get creative.
VIDEO BONUS Capture clean audio - audio is 50% of the video experience so don’t neglect your audience's ears. If you don’t have the budget for microphones then choose a quite environment, speak clearly and watch the audio levels of your device. Keep the bars out of the red and you won’t clip but don’t be so safe that your levels are too low. Keep your levels around 50-70% will give you enough flexibility to adjust afterwards if needed.
By shifting your focus to providing value and building relationships with your audience, you'll not only stand out from your competitors but also generate more leads and sales which directly impact the reach your business has to make serious change. Pretty pictures and sales pitches aren't enough. It's time to start creating content that truly connects with your customers. So, if you're using social media strictly as a promotional tool for your business, STOP!
