Social media platforms all compete for your attention, not just with other platforms, but with the rest of your life. Then, once you have given it, the real test begins.
What do you do with it.
The nature of social media is almost instantaneous. When something comes through your feed, an increasingly rare event for unadvertised material, it has a second, occasionally a couple, to grab and hold your attention, and encourage you to take the next step, whatever that might be.
It is not the long slow romancing of that great looking person in a bar, or at dinner party with friends, it is more like Tinder.
Swipe left, or swipe right. In or out. More information please or no thanks.
Your marketing task on social media, if you are to use it effectively, is to pass the initial tinder test, and have the other party look for more, and then pass on the post to their networks.
So how do you achieve that end, the referral of your material to others?
Most of the advice around is pretty accurate:
- Promise an explicit outcome to a specific cohort of potential customers.
- Photos of people should be front lit, and eyes not looking directly at the camera. This is to avoid the photo looking like a mug shot from the local cop-shop.
- Simplicity and consistency of design
- Make a clear and explicit call to action
- Make it easy for them to contact you
Remember always you only have a second to make the impact that will encourage them to swipe left, then the challenge is to add value, so they stay.
Better make that first second count.
