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social media marketing

Wanna Preserve Your Privacy? Good Luck With That!

 150 150 Zack Jackson
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One of the big buzzwords heading into 2022 in the digital space is “PRIVACY.” First … the word “buzzword” may actually be the most annoying buzzword people use for articles like this, but I’m not sure what other word to use.  The point is, everybody’s talking about how they want to protect their privacy and they don’t want Big Tech messin’ around in their data.

So let’s get the facts out of the way … protecting your privacy ain’t gonna happen.  All these companies may ACT like they care about protecting your privacy, but if you believe that then you probably also believe that Mark Zuckerberg actually cares about “community” and “bringing people together” on FaceMetaBook or whatever they call it now. 

Really what Big Tech wants to protect is their own behinds from any kind of lawsuits, so they may SAY they want to protect your privacy, but they’ll also be more than happy to mine all of your digital activity for anything and everything they can.

OK … rant over.  Now let’s get to something helpful … what does this mean for you as a small business owner looking ahead to 2022?  

1) It means people at least want to THINK that their privacy is being protected.  So first and foremost, don’t be all spammy and invasive. Lurking around in people’s data is the digital marketing version of that creepster in the bar who tries to buy you free drinks and take advantage of you.

2)  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it this time in all caps … YOU NEED TO OWN YOUR OWN AUDIENCE.  There should be no need for third party data on your customers. You need to be engaging with them first hand and gathering it yourself.  That way once you have it, it belongs to YOU and you are in control of how you use it.  

No algorithms, no confusing SEO, just you interacting with your customer base who actually WANTS to communicate with you.  Crazy concept, right?

I encourage you in 2022 to have FIRST-HAND interaction with your customer base, whether that be thru digital engagement, email communication, or even … gasp … actual human interaction in your store, or at an event, or however you connect.  Now when you reach out to these people again and again, their loyalty and support continues to grow and grow.

Don’t rely on somebody else to tell you about your customer base.  Gather that information yourself and own it forever!

Don’t Be Everywhere

 150 150 Zack Jackson
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Social media can be an exhausting landscape.  Facebook.  Instagram.  Twitter.  LinkedIn.  Pinterest. Oh wait … and now there’s Tik Tok.  And Clubhouse.  And Instagram has launched Reelz.  And Twitter has something called Spaces. And what about my Facebook and Instagram Stories?  Oh and my YouTube.  And IGTV.  And should I be on Facebook Live?

AHHHHHH!!!!!

Feels like too much, doesn’t it?  Well there’s a reason for that … it IS too much.  No rational human with an actual life (let alone a business owner with a hundred different duties on their plate) can possibly do all of these things.  So how the heck do we do all of these things?

I have great news for you … we don’t.

WHAAAT??? You’re telling me I don’t need to have my business on every single social media platform?

Yup.  That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Sure … every one of those things I mentioned CAN serve a purpose for a business but that doesn’t mean it serves a purpose for YOUR business.  Furthermore, unless you have an entire staff of individuals who’s sole job is to produce and share content on every single social media platform, you’re simply never going to have the time to do all of them properly.

And that’s OK.

To me … the single most important social media strategy is to first decide which platforms work best for your specific business goals.  You don’t have to be on ALL of them.  You just have to be on the ones that you feel you’re able to maintain an interesting and engaging voice for your brand.  That’s what will yield you the highest return on the investment of your time and energy.

You won’t get punished by your customer base for not having a Twitter page, but you will get punished by your customer base for having a BAD Twitter page.

I don’t know about you, but if I am checking out a business, and I see that their last post was 11 months ago and it simply said “Happy 4th of July,” I’m immediately less interested in what they’re offering.

Don’t let that happen to your business!  Take an honest look at every social media platform you are on and what kind of content you’re producing.  If it’s not where you think it should be, then consider trimming the number of sources. 

If having just one or two social media platforms for your business is all you can handle, then put all your focus into those.  It is far more beneficial to do a great job at a handful of things vs. spreading yourself too thin and doing an average job (or below average job) at a lot of things.

Facebook Finally adds story scheduling!

 150 150 Zack Jackson
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Scheduling Stories is Here!

Rejoice!

Being able to schedule posts has been a Godsend for small businesses and social media managers alike. And while there are plenty of third party sites out there that offer this service, using Facebook’s Creator Studio function presents itself as a more convenient option because it doesn’t require additional logins and syncing to other sites. (Plus, let’s not act like Facebook doesn’t give preferential treatment to posts run through its own site vs. outside sources!)

Scheduling POSTS has been a great resource, but Facebook had yet to allow the scheduling of STORIES … until now! Stories are a great way to create an additional contact point with your audience, but it has always required you to do it in the moment, which can be incredibly difficult for any small business owner who’s already wearing 27 different hats on a daily basis. Now you FINALLY have the ability to do it in your down time, additionally allowing you the advantage of scheduling things with daily relevance to drop at midnight on that day and disappear 24 hours later. No longer does your “Happy Taco Tuesday” story have sit there and look all ridiculous for 8 more hours on a Wednesday morning!

There is one catch … this function is available in Facebook’s new Business Suite functions, which not everyone has access to just yet. For more information on Business Suite and scheduling stories, Social Media today has more

Own Your Audience

 150 150 Zack Jackson
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There’s been a great deal of talk lately (or “noise” might be the better word) about Apple vs. Facebook vs. Google vs. Advertising vs. Privacy.  I could sit here and try to dissect the entire hot mess, but really you just have a bunch of billion dollar companies fighting with all of them trying to look like the “hero” to the court of public opinion.  

It’s kind of like when Directv would fight with a network like ESPN over money.  Each side would tell you how the other is the “bad guy” and how you need to go complain to them to “do what’s right.”  Simple fact is, no matter who “wins” this battle of digital privacy, there’s still going to be a million ways to track individual users and “new and improved” ways to squeeze money out of small businesses for ad spending.

I bring all of this up to hammer home this message … Stop just relying on other resources to reach your audience! OWN YOUR AUDIENCE YOURSELF!!!

Yes … using companies like Facebook and Google to advertise to a targeted audience is a useful resource, but don’t let it be your ONLY resource.  When you do that, you are always at the mercy of their system. They control the algorithms and will in turn control who sees your information and how often. When you own your own audience, YOU have that control.

It is absolutely essential that you explore ways to gather the contact information of your customer base, and then use that information strategically in ways that reward your customers and increase your revenue.  There are many ways to do this … email databases, loyalty programs, and text message reward systems are some examples.  And the beautiful thing about systems like these is that when you send something to your audience in these ways, EVERY single one of them will receive it. 

Meanwhile, Facebook will sit here and squash your organic reach down to about 10% of your audience and then tell you to spend money for the “privilege” of reaching the rest.  Why?  Because they own the audience and get to decide how to utilize it.  When YOU own the audience, you’re the one who calls those shots.

When done right, social media marketing can absolutely be an effective way to boost your business. However, things are always evolving and changing, so it’s entirely possible that there will be a day that social media marketing doesn’t exist or it least isn’t the shiny new marketing toy. When you’re the one who owns your audience, you’re already prepared for that evolution and can continue to reach them in the most effective ways possible.