On one hand, the advancement of the internet through the web 2.0 revolution has made complex applications and new forms of interaction within the internet viable. Until the advent of social networks, we did not have tools that allowed for a clear identification of people as we do today in the real world.
Social networks emerge as the perfect environment for people to relate in all possible ways, elevating the level of digital relationships to as close to reality as possible.
Understanding Social Networks
Social networks are only as good as the people in them; the more users engage with networks like Facebook, which now has over 1 billion users worldwide, with more than 70 million in Brazil alone, the more necessary it becomes to be actively present within them. But how do you express your brand in an environment where the last thing users want is to talk to your company?
Don't be alarmed; people are on social networks to talk to other people and share personal experiences and feelings, often without caring much about who is seeing it all, while at the same time feeling a mysterious need for approval through a simple "like." The culture of the selfie is the ultimate exponent that proves this.
Social networks reflect what social groups are in the real world. If you share a picture of a puppy, you will have significant positive engagement, and sometimes even negative, but none of this will convey your brand's content to the consumer, and consequently, there will be no gains in brand recognition or sales.
Your brand's job is to understand what topics genuinely interest users while conveying the values you want to communicate so that product sales and customer acquisition happen almost naturally.
Social Networks are Not Isolated from the Rest of the World
With the alarming growth of mobility, it is no longer about talking about the user online but rather about the user in the online context receiving external stimuli all the time, and these stimuli influencing the content within social networks. Second-screen research conducted by Ibope in Brazil shows that 76% of internet users in Brazil access the internet while watching television, and 54% of them make some type of comment about what they are watching on social networks. Therefore, part of the planning and production of relevant content for social networks is to observe what happens in the world and especially in other media to be talking about the right thing at the right time.
Understanding Your Audience and Producing Relevant Content
There is no politically incorrect brand on social networks unless it only wants to relate to people who value this type of behavior. Understanding the language and content of your brand on social networks means understanding who your target audience is and producing something that genuinely generates engagement manifested through actions like liking, sharing, or commenting.
Do Not Insist on Repeated Offers and One-Sided Conversations About Products
You could present the offer of the day a million times, but its reach will not generate any results because the post will not have the power of the crowds to spread and reach a large number of consumers.
In the era of storytelling and transmedia, telling good stories and relating them to your products subtly will always be the best solution to achieve good sales results on social networks. Only content focused on people and not on products can yield results.
Virtual Customer Service and the Fear of Poorly Treated Customers
Not every response action on social networks will be positive and represent that you are doing well; it can often be a trigger for a crisis to be managed, like the typical case of a dissatisfied customer who turns your Facebook page into a customer service center.
In this case, there is no other way to act but to be prepared to manage both chaos and order, not to shy away from controversial topics, and to demonstrate all the time that you are willing to solve problems.
After all, a trustworthy company is not one that does not make mistakes but one that listens to its customers.
Engagement and Consumption Metrics on Social Networks
Imagine yourself in the shoes of a professional runner dreaming of Olympic gold. What do you need to know to win this race?
What was the time of the last person who won? How much did they weigh? How many hours did they train? Metrics serve as a fundamental tool to support better decision-making on social networks.
Measuring the results of your actions on social media is vital, and it has become extremely easy with all the tools that social media platforms like Facebook offer.
You must first understand that every interaction: user clicks, shared stories are considered engagement; every direct action is also considered content consumption. It seems simple to distinguish, but it is not, and it is indeed a controversial topic. However, what matters for your company is that:
The relationship between positive comments, clicks, and accesses to your post's content determines how good and relevant the content you produce is for your audience, as long as the people doing this are the ones you genuinely want to reach, and for this, there is no better filter than the quality and direction of the content.
Advertising Solutions on Facebook
It is known that Facebook has been decreasing the organic reach of posts, but to what extent is this bad?
Reducing reach to only those who genuinely engage with the content is a form of cleaning that removes reach from those who simply have no interest in your company's subject and only in promotional shares without content. Winning this, competing for that, this is not a content base for a Facebook page; only at a specific moment and for a specific audience will this make any sense.
The platform's segmentation power allows you to use numerous segmentation resources that include: city, country, state, gender, age, and interest grouping. This will allow you to reach people who closely resemble your consumers but will not ensure that they are your consumers; your content will determine this.
Shama Kabani calls this attraction, but I prefer to call it a marriage within Seth Godin's thinking because that is what it is—a perfect marriage between the right content and the right people.
At this point, at the point of generating effective sales through an effectively qualified and loyal audience, is where the sales force on Facebook should act.
When you promote a product post to an audience that is already a fan of your Facebook page, you are effectively offering a valid proposal to people who have already been attracted by your brand. Within Facebook, every direct and interruptive advertising strategy generates accesses without conversion and waste of media. Learn to make the most of this platform and start generating the results you desire.