Guidelines for Adapting Marketing and Sales Messages for Social Media
Social media has taken over the world of advertising with a storm. All businesses that hope to attract customers have turned to social media. However, Haisat (2013) argues that just because a business or company is using social media to market their product does not mean that they all get positive results. This is because using social media for marketing requires sophisticated skills that the traditional advertisers may not possess. Social networking sites that are common for marketing include LinkedIn, blogs, google +, among others with Facebook and Twitter being the number one contenders. As a result, marketers using social media should adapt certain strategies so that their messages and advertising strategies on these platforms could result into recognizable sales results.
First, marketers need to develop a relationship with the target customers. Traditionally, executives would try to push sales of their product with every opportunity they received. Haisat (2013) claims that the first inclination was to make aggressive sales contact to every individual’s address received. However, this does not work for the social media platforms. People today love to buy but hate nagging. It is therefore advisable to invest in making the people on social media feel comfortable by posting funny pictures or videos to give the product an edge and make the product relevant. Posting creative messages will position your product as a creative brand (Petrič, Petrovčič, and Vehovar, 2011). Since there are millions of messages posted on the social media daily, creativity will ensure that the posted messages are noticed among the millions.
Another relevant strategy that might help executives adapt in creating marketing messages for social media is engaging in social media regularly. Though social media is free, Petrič, Petrovčič, and Vehovar (2011) argue that time needs to be invested for a business to generate a devoted following. This will help the business remain relevant to the customers if they always see the company’s post on the social media sites. Silence in a social media account gives the target client the impression that the company hardly responds. Regardless of the number of the messages a company posts in a day, it is key to always remember to remain relevant and interesting (Cheung 2011). A simple strategy of remaining relevant is keeping up with trends while at the same time avoiding controversial subjects.
Marketers also need to keep in check the tone that they use on social media (Petrič, Petrovčič, and Vehovar, 2011). Social media should be regarded as a casual Friday in online business. Just because people go to work wearing jeans and casual shirts on Friday does not mean that they discuss about beer and football all day long. They have to work as any other day of the week. Likewise, just because someone has a cheesy profile picture does not mean that the company-marketing representative should respond to him or her using profanity. Messages on social media need to represent professionalism while profanity, bad spelling, racial and religious insults do not represent it.
Finally, Haisat (2013) states that the marketer needs to be useful to attract a larger following. Being useful could be measured in different dimensions. First, the marketing representative could provide useful information on how the product operates. They could also give advice on issues related to the product. In addition, coupons or limited promotions like 50% off on sales on a certain day would instantaneously convert to increased sales because everyone loves a good bargain. However, this messages need to be believable. The social accounts should also avoid get rich quick schemes because they create mistrust chasing customers away (Cheung 2011).
We know that not all visitors of a certain account are potential customers. However, building a thorough relationship with the social media following will portray a company with a solid brand image, which might be passed on through word of mouth. The idea is not to list the company’s product like on a sales page, but to foster a relationship that develops interest in what the company has to offer getting. This will aid in attracting more people into your sales web eventually giving the company a recognizable footprint on social thus increasing the sales in large numbers.
References
Haisat, S. (2013). How to increase sales with social media. Retrieved from: http://www.tintup.com/blog/how-to-increase-sales-with-social-media/
Petrič, G., Petrovčič, A., & Vehovar, V. (2011). Social uses of interpersonal communication technologies in a complex media environment. European Journal Of Communication, 26(2), 116-132.
Cheung, M. (2011). Factors Affecting the Design of Electronic Direct Mail Messages: Implications for Professional Communicators. IEEE Transactions On Professional Communication, 54(3), 279-298.
