There is no doubt that mobile devices and social networks are changing the way people communicate. The shift is happening fast… and it continues to grow. When it comes to marketing your business, are you taking steps to adjust to that shift?
Mobile + Social Integration
Your audience is using their mobile devices. A lot. And many of them are using those mobile devices to update their social networking profiles.
They are using their phones to Tweet, post photos on their Facebook page, scroll through LinkedIn status updates, check-in to locations, and more. That means they are using social media on the go. And if you’re not paying attention to those actions with mobile marketing efforts of your own, you’re missing out.
If you’ve heard me speak before, you know that I always say this — marketing success starts with a plan.
Your mobile marketing action plan should certainly integrate your social media efforts. But it’s easy to overdo it – or perhaps even “under-do” it and lose out on creating some great impact with your brand.
Identify Your Target Audience
The first thing you need to figure out is who you are sending your messages to. Is your audience the typical mobile device user? Whether your audience is male, female, or both, you’re pretty well covered, as the gender split between mobile web users is almost 50-50.
But are they using social media? If your audience resides somewhere in the range of 18-44 years old, then you’re golden. More than half of mobile device users who use social media fall into that age range.
Determine Your Content Posting Schedule
It’s imperative you don’t get obnoxious with your social media and mobile marketing activities.
I love social media! If you’ve ever seen my Twitter page, you know that I tweet a lot. But the frequency that I post may not be ideal for you to do on your Twitter profile — or more importantly, it might be too much for your target audience. It’s vital to frequently measure your social media efforts.
Are you seeing a drop-off in followers? Are you seeing in a drop-off in click-throughs on your links or Retweets on your posts? If so, then that means it’s certainly time to reconsider the details inside of your social media posting strategy.
Also, as the number of people using mobile devices to browse social networks continues to rise, we must recognize that we nay even have less time than before to catch someone’s attention with our posts. This may mean that we have to work even harder to find, create, and share content that is relevant and attention-grabbing.
Share Content to Build Relationships
Every single marketing action your company takes should be well thought out and planned for, but it certainly shouldn’t scream: Warning – marketing tactic ahead!
One of the ideas behind social media is relationship building. At some point in your life, it’s likely you’ve heard the phrase, “sharing is caring.” And that’s sort of how you should think of your social media endeavors. You are sharing information. You’re not selling with every tweet, post, or status update.
Social media done right is about building relationships with your current customers and attracting new ones. And you can’t do that if your social media is all about you and what you sell.
Using Location-Based Efforts with Mobile
Don’t forget to think about how you can leverage location-based social media with your mobile marketing efforts.
Does it make sense to encourage your audience to check-in with something like Foursquare or Facebook when they visit your business? To encourage people to do that, think of ways to reward some of those interactions with a special discount or coupon.
If it’s a fit for your company, location check-ins can be a great way to generate word-of-mouth marketing and awareness of your business.
Finding the Right Balance
Just as with many things in life, your social media marketing and mobile marketing efforts should strike a nice balance. A QR code may point to your Facebook page or even a specific Facebook post. Perhaps it encourages the mobile user to upload and post a photo to Facebook.
Think outside the box about how you can be a presence via social media, while not becoming a nuisance to those mobile users. Keep the frequency in check, and keep the messages from being too strong or blatant in terms of a sales pitch.
That way, you can deliver an effective message across two of the hottest channels in the marketing world today.
