Social Media Talks Podcast interview with Greg Fry in this episode we talked about The Four Stages of Social Media Success
A brief overview of Questions:
- What are the main mistakes that businesses make with Social Media?
- What should be the quality of our posts on Social Media?
- What are the Four Stages of Social Media Success?
- What are the mistakes businesses make with Advertising on Social Media?
- What is the benefit of the Explorer feed on Facebook?
Greg Fry's Biography
Greg Fry is an International Social Media trainer delivering regular LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Social Business Strategy training and workshops for institutions such as the Digital Marketing Institute, Sure Skills and the Digital Skills Academy.
Alongside training, Greg works as a Social Business and Content Consultant. Greg has also won awards for his blogging whilst contributing to the tweakyourbiz.com community. Greg has worked with top multinationals including Ulster Bank, Microsoft, UPC and Coca-Cola Hellenic.
The Interview
Question 1. What are the main mistakes that businesses make with Social Media?
We first spoke about the main mistake that businesses make with Social Media, Greg told us that businesses need to be consistent every day on Social. Greg gave us an example about watching his favourite programme on TV on a Tuesday and if the presenters decided they were going to put the programme on whenever the felt like it, we would not be too happy. Well, the same applies to Social Media, you cannot build consistently with just sporadic content. You cannot build a good audience this way you need to be consistent.
The Social Media landscape has got so busy over the last while that people will not stumble across your content, so we are going to have to work harder to get seen on Social Media.
Question 2. What should be the quality of our posts on Social Media?
The next weakness Greg pointed out was about the quality of posts on Social Media, we do not go on Social Media for products to be pushed out at us, businesses need to understand it is about engaging and building trust with your audience, what Greg refers to as Likeability.
Question 3.What are the Four Stages of Social Media Success?
Stage One: The Right Audience.
Does the right audience know that you exist, have they liked your Facebook page, followed you on Twitter, connected with you on LinkedIn, watched your YouTube Channel or read your blogs. What often happens is we build the wrong audience and have this great following but that does not matter, as these people are never going to buy from you.
Stage Two: Likeability and Engagement.
Unless you have a sexy brand it can be very hard to gain likeability, but what will shine through is the passion and expertise of your brand.
Stage three: Ask your audience to do something
All too often businesses are so busy trying to build their brand they forget to ask their audience to do something, which can come in the shape of downloading our ebook, PFD or attends our webinars etc. Ask for the sale if you have the right audience they will buy from you.
Stage Four: Create online Advocates
Greg goes on to explain your online advocates, they come in the shape of customers that have bought products or services from you or they may have shared your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or posted it on their Pinterest boards. You could also use those customers as case studies, which will bring them into our Social Media activity and also create more content for us.
Question 4.What are the mistakes businesses make with Advertising on Social Media?
We then moved onto the subject of the mistakes businesses make when it comes to Advertising on Social Media. We think Social Media is free when in actual fact it is the complete opposite. The time we are going to have to invest in is now, as the time we spent last year has changed so much. It has become a much busier place and we are going to have to be more creative to stand out. Get off Facebook if you are not spending money advertising on the platform same goes for LinkedIn. You should have a strategic plan for advertising on these networks. The ability to target our adds has come a necessity to reach our customers in today's market.
Question 5.What is the benefit of the Explorer feed on Facebook?
The conversation then moved on to talking about Facebook and the new explorer feed and how Facebook has sort of becoming a victim of its own success in the way they are running out of `Advertising Space. By creating duels news feeds they can now advertise on both channels.We also spoke about trusting our business gut when it comes to social media and looks at stories format across the different platforms, this is an untapped area that businesses are not using which they could capitalise now.
For more information about Greg Fry visit his website www.contentplan.co
Listen to the full interview below by clicking on the player.
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