Understanding Social Media Tools: Event Recap

On Tuesday, 22 February our Digital Pathfinders team hosted the online Social Media Tools workshop in collaboration with Scott Digital.

The event focused on commonly used social media tools, and how to use them effectively as a business, as well as understanding how to measure online traffic.

In this blog, we’ll recap some of the key insights from the event. These insights were gained from our expert Scott Goodacre, founder of Scott Digital | Good digital marketing.

Digital marketing myth-busting

Go online and you’ll find many tips, tricks and “hacks” about social media, but it’s difficult to actually know what is completely true. Scott explained that some well-spread affirmations about social media are more myths than anything else, and we should be careful on how seriously we take them into account when making content for our channels.

Affirmations like ‘There is a best time to post’, ‘Certain content formats perform better’, ‘What your competitors are doing is working’ or ‘more followers=more success’ are not always truthful. There is no right answer as to how to gain customers through social media because it will depend on your individual business, your content and your target audience. For example, it might be better to have a small number of followers that are genuinely interested in your content and products or services, rather than having a lot of followers that don’t really care.

However, there are some tips that can really help companies get the most out of social media. Here are some of the ones Scott Digital shared with us:

• Know your audience & what they want from you
• Decide what you want to achieve from your social media
• Choose an approach
• Recognise it won’t happen overnight
• Commit
• Review. Revise. Repeat

Your target audience

We’ve mentioned target audiences a few times. So let’s stop and talk a bit more about the audience. According to Scott, understanding your current customers is key to effective use of social media. Not sure who your customers are? Speak to people who have bought from you. Also, take some time to look at your website and social analytics. This will give you some insight into how your audiences behave and what products or services interest them. It can also be useful to look at competing companies or products for inspiration, to know where they’re at in their journey, and compare it with the problems you’re trying to solve.

Starting from scratch? There are other tools that can help you first draw up your audience: Gather market data and do some basic audience segmentation. Ask yourself two questions: who do you want to target, and how do you want to position your offer to them? Make sure you address the demographics, geographics, psychographics, behavioural aspects, challenges, values, fears and motivations of your target audience.

Next, you’ll want to find a focus for your social media based on your target audience segmentation. To determine your focus, ask yourself:

• Where are these people?
• What are they interested in?
• What is the best way to show off your product/service?
• What can you commit to doing consistently?

Social Media Algorithms 

Social media sites use algorithms to understand how users spend their time on the platforms. The goal is to show users more of what they like, and less of what they don’t. Basically, if you don’t get engagement or interaction, your posts will not get traction.

For the algorithm to favour your posts, it is important that you enable and promote social sharing. So how do you achieve this? How can you write ‘for the algorithm’?

The key answer: make engaging content for your audience. There are multiple ways to achieve this, from evoking emotion through a story to offering practical value. In three words, your content should Inform, Educate and/or Entertain.

But don’t make things engaging for the sake of it. Remember that content should relate to your target audiences and what they want from you. Here’s your opportunity to bring that back to your business objectives. It’s key that once you’ve attracted your audience’s attention, they understand who you are and what you offer. It must be clear what your business does and that your image represents you and your customers properly. What would be someone’s first impression of your business? How does your content link back to your image?

Content Creation

To finalise with this event recap blog, I wanted to share some final tips from Scott’s workshop:

• Make sure that you are consistent with how often you post
• Yes, you can share something more than once.
• You can share something in different ways.
• You can update old content and share it again 

About Digital Pathfinders

Digital Pathfinders helps SMEs, charities and social enterprises across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland become more successful and resilient by adopting digital technology. This includes support with digital marketing.

For more digital-related events for your business or free support visit our webpage Digital Pathfinders or send an email to hello@digitalpathfinders.uk