Imagine it’s a year from now. What’s the one thing you’d like people to know/ believe about your business, compared to today? What perception would you like to shift? What myth would you like to bust?
With so many social media platforms and formats available, the temptation is to talk about more and more things online. But how effective is that at actually getting your message into people’s heads? Could stripping things right back be the ultimate sophistication?
When it comes to measuring its impact on ‘brand metrics,’ social media often gets a bad rep.
“What is social media actually doing for our brand?”
But the problem isn’t the nature of the channel. It’s usually because strategies, and the mechanics for measuring their performance, aren’t properly aligned.
To fix this, what about making things controversially simple… 😲
- Pick one key theme you’d like your customers and prospective customers to know (e.g. our consultants are the most expert and experienced in the market)
- Use a range of survey techniques to benchmark how well known it is amongst your audience
- Build your entire social media marketing strategy around communicating and demonstrating that message – and do so for a sustained period of time (e.g. a year)
- Repeat step 2 and compare the results
The theory is simple: every time you show up on social media, the key theme you want to communicate is included in your content. It might be very subtle. It might be overt. But it’s always there.
This doesn’t mean you’re posting the same thing over and over! And it doesn’t mean you can’t do interesting things. But it does mean you need to spend proper time considering:
- All of the reasons your customers/prospective customers don’t currently believe/ recall the message
- Everything you can do to show proof points that support this message (‘reasons to believe’)
- How the message you want to communicate is actually beneficial to your audiences
With this absolute focus, and a vault of supporting evidence, you can build your social media content schedule. You’ll still follow best practices around things like being timely, entertaining, inspiring and educational… but everything you communicate will support your key message.
The benefits you talk about on Instagram might differ from those you tweet about, and the creative formats you use in TikTok will probably look very different to those on Facebook. But at the heart of it, they’re all communicating the same underlying message.
Imagine a whole year of doing this across your organic content, paid ads and influencer collaborations. And imagine how much greater the chances of your message actually permeating your audience’s message-saturated brains.
A bit extreme… maybe. Impactful, surely.
Image credit: charlota-blunarova-hmzKFGDeOV4-unsplash