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[/responsive]As Twitter, Facebook and other social channels began to dominate the landscape, the very idea of “social media marketing” has become a thing of its own.
There is a slew of advice on how to engage more readers, get more likes, and generate better click-throughs on tweets and posts. One such article by Mitt Ray does a nice job of laying out 15 ways to increase your click-through rate on your Tweets.
Ray’s advice ranges from “learn to write persuasive tweets” to “post at the right time” to “tweet only the best content you can find.” While this is all good advice, one thing strikes us as we read through the list.
Social media marketing is, at its core, marketing. It’s about engaging prospects and customers with the right message at the right time in the right place. It is Marketing 101 repackaged for a digital channel.
Thanks to the explosion of new ways to communicate, jobs exist now that we never heard of a decade ago. Social Media Manager is now a real person on any fully evolved marketing team, as is Brand Content Strategist. These folks have developed an expertise with the medium that makes them highly valuable.
What they may or may not have is a solid understanding of the basic principles of good marketing, which remain the same regardless of channel.
If you are at a loss for how to engage on social channels, get back to basics. Good relevant messages that strike a personal chord are the sweet spot for any format — digital, print or otherwise. Let’s not forget that.