While the advancement of the internet through the web 2.0 revolution made complex applications and new forms of interaction within the internet viable, until the advent of social networks on the internet we did not have tools that enabled the clear identification of people as we have today in the real world.
Social media has emerged as the perfect environment for people to connect in every possible way, elevating the level of digital relationships to as close to reality as possible.
Understanding Social Media
Social networks are only as good as people are. The more users join networks like Facebook, which now has more than 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 a user wants is to talk to your company?
Don't be alarmed by this, people are on social media to talk to people and share personal experiences and feelings, often without caring much about who is seeing all this, while at the same time feeling a mysterious need for approval through a simple "like", the culture of Selfie is the maximum exponent that proves this.
Social networks are a reflection of what social groups are like in the real world. If you share a photo of a puppy, you will get a lot of positive and sometimes even negative engagement, but none of this will be transmitting 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 which topics truly interest users while also conveying the values you want to convey so that selling products and capturing customers happens practically naturally.
Social Networks are not something isolated from the rest of the world
With the alarming growth of mobility, it's no longer about talking about the online user, but rather about the user in the online context, constantly receiving external stimuli, and these stimuli influencing the content on social media. Second-screen research conducted by Ibope in Brazil already shows that 76% of internet users in Brazil access the internet while watching television, and that 54% of them make some kind of comment about the subject they're watching on social media. Therefore, part of the planning and production of relevant content for social media is observing what's happening in the world, and especially in other media, to be talking about the right thing at the right time.
Understand your audience and produce relevant content
There is no politically incorrect brand on social media unless you only want to interact with people who value this type of behavior. Understanding your brand's language and content on social media means understanding who your target audience is and producing something that truly generates engagement expressed through actions such as liking, sharing, or commenting.
Don't insist on repeated offers and one-sided conversations about products.
You can present the offer of the day a million times and 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 subtly relating them to your products will always be the best solution for achieving good sales results on social media. Only content that focuses on people, not products, can yield results.
Virtual Customer Service and the Fear of Poorly Served Customers
Not every response on social media will be positive and will represent that you are doing well. Often, it can be the trigger for a crisis that needs to be managed, such as 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 other than being prepared to manage both chaos and order, not shying away from controversial issues and demonstrating at all times that you are willing to solve problems.
After all, a reliable company is not one that doesn't make mistakes, but one that listens to its customers.
Engagement and Consumption Metrics on Social Media
Imagine yourself in the shoes of a professional runner who dreams of Olympic gold. What do you need to know to win this race?
What was the last person's winning time? How many pounds did they weigh? How many hours did they train? Metrics serve as a fundamental tool for supporting better decision-making on social media.
Measuring the results of your social media actions is vitally important, and it's become extremely easy with all the tools offered by social media platforms like Facebook.
You must first understand that every interaction: user click, shared stories are considered engagement, every direct action is also considered content consumption, it seems simple to distinguish but it is not, it is even a very controversial subject, but what matters in all of this for your company is that:
The relationship between positive comments, clicks, and access to your post's content determines how good and relevant the content you produce is to your audience, as long as the people doing this are the people you really want to reach, and for this, there is no better filter than the quality and direction of the content.
Facebook Advertising Solutions
It is known that Facebook has been increasingly reducing the organic reach of publications, but how bad is this?
Reducing reach to only those who truly engage with the content is a form of cleansing that removes reach from those who simply aren't interested in your company's topic and are only interested in sharing promotions without content. Win this, compete for that—this isn't basic content for a Facebook page; only at a certain time and for a certain audience will it make sense.
The platform's targeting power allows you to utilize numerous targeting features that include: city, country, state, gender, age, and interest grouping. This will allow you to reach people who closely resemble your consumers, but it won't guarantee that they are your consumers; your content will determine this.
Shama Kabani calls this attraction but I prefer to call it marriage within the thinking of Seth Godin, because that's what it is, a perfect marriage between the right content and the right people.
At this point, the point of generating effective sales through an effectively qualified and loyal audience is where the sales force on Facebook must 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 to your brand. Within Facebook, every direct and interruptive advertising strategy generates access without conversion and wastes media. Learn how to make the most of this platform and start generating the results you so desire.
