I’m riding my hobby horse again today and that means more Conan analogies! This time, I’d like to go back to that early classic story, ‘The Tower Of The Elephant’. It begins with Conan listening to the patrons at a tavern in a thief-infested zone. Hearing a tale of a citadel in the heart of the city which no thief dared enter, Conan proceeds to make a plan to rob that very spot, pausing only for a quick brawl.
At this time in his career, Conan was a wandering thief, rogue and mercenary. So, he seeks out a place where other rogues and low-lives can be found. He listens for an actionable piece of information, and when it comes he acts on it in a timely and decisive manner.
It’s not too much of a stretch to see how this applies to your social engagement strategy, is it? You want to see and be seen where your target audience hangs out. Once you’re there, you need to understand the scope of the ongoing conversation before you find the right cue to step in and action.
So let’s start with how you find the right online locations for your social engagement activities. Setting up a Facebook page and registering a profile on LinkedIn might give you instant gratification, but if that’s as far as your social presence goes, you’re not trying hard enough. So what should you be doing? As with most things, I’ve found that it helps to start by thinking about a lot of pertinent questions:
- What social platforms are your target groups using?
- What is the volume and nature of their activity there?
- How do they interact with each other on these platforms?
- Where is your company already being discussed?
- What are your competitors doing by way of social engagement?
Once you start answering these questions, you will think of many more important ones. But starting with these basic set of inquiries will help you move away from a one-size-fits all approach to social engagement. Each brand has its own characteristics and its own audience. What works for a cosmetic brand may not work for a power tools manufacturer. Chances are, there may be specialized platforms or forums related to your target group that will give you more mileage than the more well-known locations.
The important thing, as our mighty barbarian friend demonstrated, was that an effective strategy is built on learning how and where to begin. We have built successful engagement strategies from the ground up for clients in several verticals. Perhaps dropping a line to our team would be a good place for you to start?
References:
http://socialmediatoday.com/amzini/301913/why-niche-social-networks-belong-your-social-media-campaign