3 Steps to Success in Social Media Marketing
3 Steps to Success in Social Media Marketing
One TV ad that has always been a favorite of mine is the commercial for the Banjo Minnow, which may be familiar to people who like fishing as a popular type of lure. Because I liked the ad so much, my father eventually decided to buy the Banjo Minnow kit for me.
During the commercial, there are constant references made to the ‘genetic response’ of the fish; this basically means that the design of the lure is such that it triggers a natural response mechanism in the fish that compels it to bite the lure. The ad is very convincing and utilizes plenty of strong direct-response triggers – little wonder then that the product’s sales have been so strong.
As the owner of a Banjo Minnow lure kit, one thing I can tell you is that all the hype is justified – it DOES work! I cannot forget the excitement of driving to my parents’ cabin after receiving the kit, using it for the first time and seeing it at work. I was not disappointed. Unfortunately, the pond next to the cabin has lots of pickerel with very sharp teeth, so most of the day was spent getting the Banjo Minnow out of their mouths while being careful not to lose any fingers!
However, since then, I have come to one conclusion after using many other types of lures – the Banjo Minnow on its own wouldn’t be much more effective than any other lure available. What I forgot to mention from the start is that the kit is delivered along with a video tutorial that shows you how the lure can be used most effectively. In other words, the lure itself is only effective when paired with the information available in the Banjo Minnow kit.
This is the key point of this article – a system is only effective when all its component parts are working together. This is explained in more detail below in this walkthrough of the 3 main steps to success in Social Media Marketing. As you will see, one step in isolation will do little to enhance your business, but all three – when working together – create an extremely powerful strategy.
1. Build Up An Audience
This may sound obvious, but selling your product or service using social media is heavily reliant on building up your audience. There will be no one to read any of your posts if you do not have an audience.
Starting a social media marketing campaign without an audience can be compared to trying to fish in a pond which has no fish. Regardless of how experienced or skilled you are, or how great your fishing gear is, you will leave empty handed!
If you are starting from scratch, you must be ready to adjust your goals as you begin to implement your social media marketing strategy. Anyone who expects to be able to drive massive sales numbers right away is going to be very disappointed. You must first focus your strategy on ways to build your audience.
2. Find Ways To Keep Your Audience Engaged
Engagement is the real secret behind the success of the Banjo Minnow. Watching the training video that comes along with the kit, you get to learn how the line is cast correctly and how the lure is reeled in to produce the lifelike action that is advertised in the TV commercial. If you cast the line and reel it in normally, the lure does not work! I have tested both ways and concluded that it is best to use the technique provided in the training video.
The Banjo Minnow works because the reeling action that results in lifelike movement of the lure catches the attention of the fish and keeps it engaged. This is the simple secret to success in fishing – you must use a lure and combine it with the correct action so that the fish will bite.
This simple principle also holds true when marketing on social media. You should always ensure you provide a stream of the best content at the right intervals in order to gain the attention of your audience and keep them constantly engaged.
3. Convert Your Target Market
Finally, we look at the step most social media marketers focus on – conversion. I mentioned in the first step that it would be highly unrealistic for you to expect to convert your audience through social media marketing when you are just starting out because you do not have an audience yet.
You should also not expect much in the way of conversions if you do not yet have ways to gain your audience’s attention and hold it as I have explained in step 2. As it is clear to see, each of these steps follow a certain order and are dependent on each other.
To return to my fishing analogy, when you are first starting out, you must select a spot that is known to have plenty of fish – this is step 1. Step 2 involves finding the best type of lure and the appropriate action to ensure you keep whatever fish you are targeting engaged. In my example the Banjo Minnow proved perfect for catching my fish! Finally, after the fish bites, the next step is to reel them in: This is step 3 – conversion. This is also the most fun part of fishing.
Everything that you do until reeling in / conversion is a matter of putting in hard work and has an element of trial and error until you find what works best. In Social Media Marketing terms, you must first focus on building up your audience and engaging them through the right content which could be inspirational, informative, entertaining or educational. Once you are able to do this, conversion will be much easier and more fun.