Allow me to be the one to quickly introduce you to a little internal project of ours here at To The End. We like to think there’s not much we don’t know in our relevant fields but the truth is, there’s always something to learn somewhere from someone, especially if it’s in an area we don’t deal with every day. With that in mind, and a lot of encouragement from David, we all picked a book and buried our noses in it. Now that we’re done, we’d like to take a bit of time to not only review the content, but share what we think you should know. So without further ado, let’s begin.
(There I am, proudly displaying my book. Just look how happy I am, you can’t put a price on that. Although the book did cost about ten quid… so maybe you can)
I genuinely really enjoyed this book. The points are well thought out and explained and the tone of voice is so friendly that you almost feel like you’re sat down with Tim and Yvonne having a chat over coffee. Whilst a lot of the information wasn’t new to me (wish I guess is re-assuring considering I do this for a living), it certainly filled in gaps in my knowledge and managed to re-enforce a couple of principles whilst also teaching me a few new little tricks. Here are a few things that the book has compelled me to share:
A point I have stressed to pretty much everyone I have ever spoken about regarding social media marketing, but Tim Cameron-Kitchen and Yvonne Ivanescu had a couple of tips on this subject that shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s not all just about your tone of voice. Whilst captions shouldn’t be robotic and you should always remember to try and talk to the customers as if they are actually there in person, your visuals will further help communicate that you are a real person. Whilst it is undeniably fine to have a profile picture that is purely your logo, could you fit any personality into your cover/header photo? A team photo perhaps? Or maybe you can incorporate something fun into the profile image itself. Little things like this help customers establish relationships with brands far easier than they will if they see nothing but lifeless content.
So you’ve created some awesome content, but it hasn’t gone viral. Oh no, surely you must be wrong and the content is actually terrible? Incorrect! Sometimes even the greatest work needs a little push, especially if the audience it’s shared with isn’t very big. Ok so you’re no longer scared of pressing the boost button, but you don’t have a huge budget! It’s all over before it could even begin! Wrong again. Facebook promotion in particular can be extremely good value for money. You’d be surprised by the amount of success people have had from boosts spending as little as £5. The best thing about the whole process is that at the end of it, with a bit of luck, your engagements rate will be up and the higher the engagement rate the better your page will perform even when you don’t pay.
Stunning social icons will turn website traffic into followers, it’s as simple as that. Bold, noticeable, clean and simple. As long as they stand out. The book states that on average only 2% of users will reach the end of a web page, so if your social icons are at the bottom of the change it might be time to have a bit of a switch-around. Better yet, if you’re posting interesting content on Twitter for example, have you considered adding a live feed to your site? Not only will it tease at what you’re posting but also give users an option to follow you without even leaving the page. Amazing. Turning users engaging with you on social media into customers is a hard practice but turning potential customers into social media users that might engage with you doesn’t have to be so tricky if you remember these tips!
Being controversial will always go one of two ways. You have a 50% chance of being a legend, and a 50% chance of tarnishing your reputation. Or do you? If you spend time reading through your timeline, getting to know your followers through taking in their tweets and personal opinions, surely that sets you in a better position to make comments on certain things. For example, lets say you’re in the t-shirt printing industry and recently it’s come to light that many other printers are using ink stolen from the belly of the rare Cambodian tree frog (we’ve made that up). You haven’t been stealing the ink and are pretty annoyed that others have. All your followers are printers who have been doing the despicable deed, is it a good idea to tweet? NO. Now lets say all your followers are customers of the printing industry who you know are deeply let down. Is it a good idea to tweet? YES.
One simple but often over-looked tip this book re-enforces into your brain is considering the 3 m’s. What are the 3 m’s? Message, market and methods.
To conclude, I would highly recommend this book to anyone in the industry or interested in the industry, whether they are just starting out with social media marketing or consider themselves a – oh dear – social media GURU. I can guarantee there is something in these pages that you won’t have come across or thought of in the way that Tim and Yvonne do.
You can find the book here.
