Creation versus Curation

So you have your business page all set up and you know you need to share some good social stuff with your followers.  Things that aren't always about work, but that fit with your business.  You may have already made some key decisions like "no swear words" or "no text language".  Whatever you feel strongly doesn't fit with your business.  Of course I'm not saying don't swear or use txt spek - you will know if that is the right way to connect with your key audience.  And sometimes a well-timed swear is very well received.

The next big decision (once you have decided what you would like to share) is how you will share it.  Where is this content actually going to come from?   Whether you choose to create new content just for your page or you find things to share that have already been created - remember that appropriate content gathering is a time consuming business.  You do need to put thought and care into it.  And you need a thick skin too - if it doesn't have the impact, reach or go viral for you then chin up and keep on trucking.

Creating

If you opt for creating your own content, then you'll need some tools to do that with.  I have used three different tools myself. 

Firstly, Adobe Fireworks, which you can trial for free for 30 days.  After that there is a cost involved.  I used Fireworks to do all my initial design work for my website and some branded content for my social media channels.  I found the tools good, especially for adding transparent backgrounds to elements.The below image is the type of thing I could make, using my specific brand colours:

Next up was Pic Monkey.  Pic Monkey has free as well as paid elements on their site.  So you can make content either from your images or theirs.  They have a range of fonts, and effects you can add to your pictures as well.  Plus they have templates that are the right size for cover images for your Facebook or you can customise the size of your canvas which is excellent, if you want to make a 403x403 image to suit Facebook.  Here is an example of what you could do with Pic Monkey:

The amazing star background on this image was a free texture I added.  The image was very simple to put together and customise.  It's also very effective.  I love this font.

Lastly, I have been using Canva.  Now Canva has almost totally won me over, though it has to be said that the free options are more limited than with Pic Monkey.  For example, I couldn't get a star image there for free except for stylised geometric shapes.  But there are free images there that you can find if you have good search foo.  And if you find the perfect image and it isn't free, it will only cost you $1 US.  So that isn't so bad either.

This is an example of my Canva work.  But you can see more in any of my social media channels, I do love to play at this site a lot:

Again, the above was pretty simple to put together but very effective.

Creating content doesn't have to be a huge outlay of money for you.  However, it can be time-consuming, especially if you are looking for fresh new content to be created on a daily or more basis. 

Curation

Curating is another option for you, if you don't want to be creating new content or you don't feel you have the design skills to pull it off.  But what is curating?  Well, in basic terms it's having a trawl through your favourite social media outlets, seeing things that speak to you and sharing those on your page.  So it might be a meme another brand has shared that works well for you and your company as well.  Or it might be a fun game that another page has run successfully. 

Three important things will impact on your curating content.  Firstly make sure it is relevant to your page and your audience.  There is no point filling your social media assets with irrelevant noise.  It has to be relatable and in line with your company image too. Everything you share can have an impact on your reach and your following.  Whether that is negative or positive is dependent on what you select to share.

When you share give credit to the original poster.  It's important to give credit where it is due.  This helps you build your integrity with your audience and it helps the creator too as you will help increase their reach as well.  I would suggest not sharing content that has been created and branded by your direct competitors.  For example if you are both selling bibs in the same quality and price bracket, that might not be the best company to be associating yourself with. But if the business sells bibs and you sell bowls and spoons for first solids, then that's a good alignment to make.  You'll have similar audiences, but aren't directly competing. 

Lastly, add your voice to the share. Tell your audience why you are sharing the content.  Maybe you found it funny, or it reflects how you feel.  Maybe it reminded you of a childhood memory, or just made you hungry.  Whatever you say, add your own spin and flair to it.

Creating + Curating

Of course, you don't have to go all in for creating or all in for curating.  You can mix it up!  Make some, share some.  Get creative when you feel like it, curate when you are all out of ideas. 

And if you are truly at a loss, you can always contract someone else to spend the time on it for you plug plug ;)



If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information.

The Three Ds of Content

This is a little observation, from months of writing on behalf of another entity on Facebook, as well as various interactions in a moderator capacity elsewhere.   It seems to hold relatively true that there are 3 Ds to content on the internet but particularly on Facebook.  What are they?

• Drink
• Dessert
• Dreams

I'm sure you may have noticed too.  Post an artful photo of a glass of wine, or cider or a fancy cocktail and you'll get more interactions than other posts.  Post a comment about some decadent dessert or chocolate that you are have tried and again, the likes and comments will start to flow.  Quotes relating to living your dreams or at least, your best life get shared readily too.

Why is that?  Well it's possible it's to do with the gender split in social media.  Rough statistics tend to suggest that 60 - 70% of social media users are women.  However, if you look directly to New Zealand statistics over at Socialbaker.com the split here is more like 54% female to 46% male.  That's certainly not a complete picture, but I think it shows the willingness to interact in kiwi males compared to worldwide, at least with the major brands.

I suspect it's simpler than that and it comes down to how our brains work.  Our brains are wired to react to things that are Dangerous, Important, Pleasurable or Interesting. Food and drink offers a base kind of pleasure that most people can relate to.   Good food, and a delicious tipple tick at least two of the DIPI boxes, as defined by Sentis.  Our life philosophy is important to each of us, whatever that might be.  Quotes that are relatable are a quick and easy way for people to say "this is me!" 

Now, if you are in the business of selling drinks, desserts or dreams then you are in a strong position.  But the rest of us have to cash in on it somehow.  And it's okay to do so.  Remember that you don't want every post to be business anyway.  You are aiming for only 20 - 30% upsell.  The rest of the time, feel free to post some inspirational quote about wine and chocolate, or other equally DIPI things.

If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information.

Know Your Audience

If you know the artist, please contact me and I'll credit them here!

This morning the above image appeared in my newsfeed, shared by Telly Leung.  Telly is an amazing stage performer.  You can check out his work here.  As a performer, he knows the importance of his audience.  He gets instant feedback, which can be empowering or soul crushing depending on their engagement.

Social Media is a lot like that too.  The feedback we get from our audience is instant.  Sometimes we get a load of thumbs up, or 1+s or a string of retweets and favourites.  But there will be other times when you could swear you hear nothing but crickets chirping. So for those of us conducting business via social media assets, knowing our audience is basically the most important thing. 

After all, what is the goal of your business page?  It might be to gain more leads, or customer acquisition in general.  Even if your first goal is to increase your pool of followers, you are still looking to influence people to connect.  And the only way to get someone to connect, is to engage them.  Offer something they will enjoy, or that is relatable.  And once you have their interest, follow through with similar offerings.

There are a lot of statistics about this, but most experts agree that 70 - 80% of your social media engagement should be fun, engaging content while 20 - 30% should be promoting your product or service in some way.

So How Do You Know Who Your Audience Is?

There are a couple of ways of connecting to your customer base: 

1. Competitor Analysis

Think about the businesses that you are in competition with.  Pick a selection of the businesses that most closely match your business, and check our their social media assets.  What do you notice about their customers?  What type of content is getting good engagement from their followers?

2. Mind map

On a piece of paper do a mind map of your customer.   Ask yourself who that person is (age group, gender), what they are like, what they care about, and the sorts of things they like to do.  Once you have this list, think about the ways that customer will use your product or service and what they might want to know from you.

3. Talk directly to your customers

Find a group of customers who have already purchased from you and talk to them.  You can do this either online via your own social media asset, or in your business if you have a dedicated space.  Learn more about them by asking questions.  If you are doing this online you can use Surveymonkey or some other survey or polling tool.  Ask them to help with development of new products, if you are comfortable with that.  Your followers' can be a great source of market research.

4. Consider that you may have more than one type of customer

This is known as segments.  What it means is that you may have one or two main customer types who use or buy your product, and then a few other smaller groups.  They are all legitimate customers, but they may have different drivers for why they are buying your product.

Remember that people aren't buying your product to get the product.  They are buying it because it is going to contribute to their lives somehow.  Maybe it's the treat they will indulge in after a long week at work, or just one of the things they need on the hike they have been planning for months.  People choosing to like your business page have similar drivers.  There is something about your page that has appealed, and it's not always about your product or service.  It might be that they just really like the types of quotes or pictures you are sharing.  Through the growth of your relationship with the customer, you can then introduce them to what you do. 

Ultimately the niche that you are carving out, also has to be the niche your target customer base is interested in or you will struggle to get their buy-in.  While you can not hope to please all of the people all of the time, when you get to know your audience you have some hope of building a meaningful social media community that fulfills their needs and brings you more leads.



If you live in New Zealand and have need of Social Media Content Management for your business, visit www.kmedia.co.nz to see our offerings or contact us directly at info@kmedia.co.nz for pricing and more information.