Has social media got too ‘corporate’? – Let’s get back to being social

I’m a marketing and comms specialist but a self-taught social media marketer. I don’t claim to be an expert but I’ve observed a few things during the many hours of ploughing through the depths of social media.

When marketing for businesses, the two big questions of the moment are “what makes a video or post go viral?” And “how do you get people to engage with you, your product and your brand?”

What I’ve found is that you have to be personal – social, even (who’d have thought it!). Companies may have taken over channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but the general public is still in charge, and being social is key.

It makes sense really. People like stories about people (and animals!). Good news stories, things that went wrong, reading a personal opinion or finding out something controversial.

It’s what gets people motivated to respond, share, follow, connect, tweet and like.

 So how can companies capitalise on this?

Put simply, you can’t force it. You can’t design a guaranteed viral post. It’s the people that decide. And you could have the best offer, story or idea in the world, but a real life heart-warming or funny story about a cat or a teenager helping a granny down some escalators can still bump you off the top spot.

So from my time working with social media for businesses, this is what I’ve learnt works.

• Be personal
• Be real
• Be honest and have integrity
• Choose your personality and run with it – likeable? Controversial? Expert?
• Be interesting
• Join in with conversations, and start them
• Don’t make it all about you – the right people will come and find out about you if you appeal to them (who cares if you have a million likes if no one finds out more about your product or your sales don’t increase?
• It’s quality over quantity – a consistent presence is important but make time for creating and posting content (a media schedule helps)
• React to the current news stories – people are interested in the world around them, from politics, celebrity, and their local area to world news. What’s your angle on it?

Don’t just push out articles about you. Add value to someone’s life. Add value to another article.

Let me know how it goes.