Shelly Kramer, keynote speaker, presented “Social Media or Content Strategy? Not What you need. Not By a Long Shot” at #DFWRocks2014. A few highlights of her presentation are listed below.
Your Brand is the Relationships You Create With Customers – Not Social Media or Content Strategy
Your brand is nothing more than the meaningful relationships that you create with customers.
It all starts with your website – fix it first! Social Media will not work if your website does not provide a great user experience. How does your website look on mobile? Design for mobile first.
Almost 5 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook. Daily. That’s why no one is seeing YOUR content, because you are competing with all of the other people who are sharing at the same time.
How have things changed? Well, let’s look at the number of blogs: 2006, 35 million; 2013 – 237 million.
Just because you write something or have a podcast doesn’t mean that it is going to reach people. We all have data overload and so do our customers. Consumers are like runaway toddlers. Always on the go and demanding as hell. We want what we want – when we want it! Attention is fractured and forget about having anyone’s undivided attention.
Consumers Do Their Homework – In 2010 people went to an average of 5 sources, and in 2011 people went to an average of 10 sources to make decisions on what to purchase.
You used to go to the Yellow Pages, turned on your TV or radio. If you wanted information you had to get it from a salesperson.
Now you log in and go watch a video on YouTube. Information is now at the fingertips of the consumer. The power is now in the hands of your marketing team.
You used to be able to buy where you showed up in Google. You can’t do that anymore. Anyone who tells you they can get you Page 1 listing on Google, show them the door. Search engines have gotten smarter and they pay attention to the sources that you trust. If that freaks you out… GET USED TO IT. We are not going backwards. This is the way things are going. They are watching who we are connected to in the Social Media realm. No one searches keywords anymore.
Look at your website through the eyes of the potential client. Does it talk about YOU or does it talk about THEM and solving their problems? Relationships are created with information, not just with people. No one wakes up in the morning thinking “I can’t WAIT for a salesperson to call me!” After prospective customers do their homework, then they MIGHT contact your sales team.
The same content does not work across platforms. You need to know your audience. And what you get used to providing today will change in 30/60/90 days.
Attract Strangers – Convert Visitors to Leads – Close the Deal – Delight
- Create Content
- Curate Content
- Create Networks
Just because YOU prefer a platform, that doesn’t mean that is where your prospective clients are. Write about what your customers are worried about. Don’t worry about selling. Solve their problems. Tell them how you can alleviate their pain points.
96% of the people who visit your website are not ready to buy right then. You need to have compelling content to bring them back when they ARE ready to buy.
Tips for Creating Compelling Content:
- Don’t sell – find the fun
- Act like a person, not a faceless corporate entity
- Stalk + Emulate
- Create content worth reading
- Treat content like tasty bait that delivers something of value. Focus on delivering value
- Curate content that further serves your audience
- Understand the importance of connecting social to business initiative
- Promote your blog/social presence on your website and tie it to your offline initiatives
- Test, Measure, Test Some More, Measure Again
- Quit thinking about US, start thinking about THEM
- Find your internal adopters. Give them the tools and training that they need, make them heros
- Integrate sales and marketing
- Deliver results, that’ll convince the naysayers – and realize there WILL be naysayers
Content Marketing is NOT something you do once, have success at and then walk away. The ultimate question then is, “How do I know I’m doing it right?” And the answer is – when you can answer “YES!” to “Is it good for PEOPLE?”
