The 2016 presidential election was full of furious, impassioned social media posts that didn’t serve to convince their intended audience much at all.
But as media-savvy marketers, we also knew that in the days leading up to the election, people would be watching Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for news and breaking updates. And people would be searching.
With that in mind, we created an Election Day campaign called #VoteROI that we marketed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Our campaign had three main goals: Take advantage of voter apathy and dissatisfaction with the two major-party candidates by including ourselves in the national conversation; create witty posts that would get people talking, liking and engaging with our content; and finally include an actionable task that encouraged readers to go one step further and get in touch with us.
Here’s how we did it.
Step 1: Find valuable ways to contribute to the national conversation.
Before jumping on a trending topic on Twitter or Instagram, it’s important to carefully plan how you want to affect the conversation — as well as what kind of effect it can have on your brand or company.
Certain hot-button topics, such as religion, evolution, or abortion, are usually best left alone, for the simple reason that most people hold very firm beliefs about these topics and are unlikely to be persuaded of another point of view. Topics like climate change and politics are also usually best avoided, unless your organization has a firm, public stance one way or the other.
However, if something relevant to your organization is trending nationally, you need to brainstorm ways of making yourself visible using a social media strategy. This offers your company an unrivaled chance to offer advice, information, comments, tips or insight that only you can bring to the millions of people on social media.
Step 2: Engage your audience by making them react.
The number of reactions your post receives — whether it’s the little heart icon on Instagram or one of the five new emoji choices on Facebook — prove that your content is interesting, funny, snarky, creative, or witty. Of course, it’s up to you and your choice of inbound marketing agency about which direction you want to take your campaign, whether funny, serious, sarcastic, or casual.
But don’t be satisfied with just getting a few hearts or retweets. While they may be a good indicator of how “popular” your content is, that shouldn’t be the end of road when it comes to your marketing goals.
Step 3: Turn viewers into customers.
We see many creative companies with great products fail to do this one simple step. Even if you have a great social media marketing strategy already in place, you need to make sure that you can finish the conversation that you started with the viewer. Creating a call to action should convince your viewers to make a move — whether it’s to your website, your online store, or your landing page.
For more information how you can use a social media marketing strategy to reach a wide audience of potential customers, schedule a Stern Storming session by calling 303-353-4354.
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