I recently had the opportunity to attend Social Brand Forum 2014, a digital marketing and social media conference where thought leaders from across the country shared their ideas on search, social, YouTube and overall content marketing.
What I learned is that there is no easy button for digital marketing and social. But there are a lot of pretty great ideas on how to get there.
Search and social confirm your existence.
Search and social work together to build a brand, but they are not interchangeable. People are not on social networks to buy. People are on social networks to connect with friends, share their lives and post selfies.
Search is used to sell
Rather, people search to buy, starting their purchase funnel on Google. You need to give the searcher what they’re looking for by showing them a message that clearly reflects what they need. As a business, you need to be present and relevant to the user’s.
So how do you become relevant to the searcher? First, know your audience inside and out:
- Where do they go?
- Who do they listen to?
- What are their likes and dislikes?
- What makes them tick?
Second, you have to deserve to win each search. Producing great content that credible websites want to link to is the way to get there. This is where social comes in. (Further explore what Jason Falls has to say about search
here.)
Social is used to serve customers
Social should be used to find ways of making customers’ lives easier, whether through sharing your brand with them, promoting deals to them or answering any customer service questions they may have.
Social helps to elevate search. Google recognizes all of this great content you are producing and gives you credit for it in search. To be successful in search and digital marketing, you need to be successful in social. (
“The Ice Cream Principle of Search and Social” by Jason Falls).
The future of social will continue to be more mobile and bite-sized. Instagram is one of the main social platforms to focus on in the future for this reason. Instagram offers brands the ability to share their culture in squares that users can scroll through on their phone without distracting the user from their normal social routine of again, posting selfies
(Why Every Brand Should be on Instagram).
Search and social are great, but where does YouTube fit in?
YouTube is a platform that many are doing wrong (or not at all), yet it is the #2 search engine and has some of the most loyal customers. For these reasons, YouTube is essential for building brand advocacy and increasing your lead pipeline. Here are some tips for effectively using YouTube
(more on YouTube marketing from Amy Schmittauer):
- To be great at YouTube you need to have an editorial structure. Make your content predictable. This day I do this, this day I do that, and then throw in some surprises.
- Look at the lens as if you are talking to the person who will be watching this video.
- Don’t waste time at the beginning for an intro. You have 10 seconds to catch the viewer’s attention. Treat them like they’re loyal and have been there forever.
- Collaborate with others. Give collaboration in order to get it back.
- Use in-video programming to get users to subscribe and get them to go to your website. Once people are on YouTube they don’t leave, so get them there!
- Don’t be afraid of the comments. Be present there.
But none of this matters if we aren’t going to measure it
How and what should we measure? Having an analytics system in place on your website is necessary to track behavior and conversions. Otherwise your efforts have gone to waste. However, don’t dwell on these present numbers that analytics provides you.
We need to think futuristically, figuring out where we can go, and what we’re going to do next. Measurements need to inform us for the future, committing to something bigger than what we do every day.
The best thing I was reminded of at Social Brand Forum? Live your life in service to others. Constantly learn more about your audience, put yourself in their shoes, try to make their lives easier, serve them. There is no easy button for digital marketing and social, but with these tips and maybe a few selfies along the way, you can definitely get there.
