The Social Media Content Marketing Matrix

The Social Media Content Marketing Matrix

by Sue Spolan 

You have a really big... social media following. But when it comes to effective social media marketing, size doesn't always matter. Really. Anyone who gives their marketing staff the directive to get the numbers up on the corporate Twitter account is missing the point. Here’s a secret. You want straight up social media metrics? Get on Fiverr.com and buy followers. The going offer is7000 Twitter followers for five bucks. The number of followers and likes you’ve got are no indication of ROI. Whatsoever. Don’t fall into that trap.

If you’ve already got a decent content marketing plan, then you are regularly publishing credible customer facing posts, white papers, videos, webinars and images. The work is driven by relevant keywords, by audience demographics, and by related material already out there.

And then what? Your next step is to push it out on social media. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, and so forth. Here’s where it gets complicated. Social media is just like real life. There are hits, and there are misses. To be a sociable person in the living, breathing world, it sure helps to be a sparkling conversationalist. You don’t dominate the interaction so that no one else can get a word in edgewise. Instead, you say interesting things, listen, respond, and make your companion feel like there’s no one more important in the whole world. In short, you have a knack for making people fall in love with you. And you are realistic. You understand that you are not everyone’s cup of tea, but when the chemistry is there, your social skills are magic.

It's a talent to be on point like that. And even people who have great social skills can’t be on 100 percent of the time. That’s why it shouldn’t be one person’s job to run social media.

If you consider that the only legitimate way to disseminate your good content is through a long term plan of social media interaction, then everyone in the company should be engaged in sharing and posting. In this case, it is a game of numbers, in that when more people participate, the circles grow wider by geometric proportions. It’s the movement that matters, as good ideas pass into ever larger circles of influence.

The notion of a social business, in which an organization embraces social networks to build trust with both customers and fellow employees, is growing in popularity. Abandoning the front of the house/back of the house dichotomy, social businesses (not to be confused with businesses with a social change mission) take an open approach to the corporate conversation. Instead of locking down employees and preventing them from being part of the company’s public profile, brands like SAP and HBO empower employees to become brand ambassadors. It’s a trickle down trust that reaches the customer.

The best social media strategies are not constricted or bottlenecked. It takes a village to raise a company's profile.