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How to Utilize Social Media Platforms

July 16, 2015

People are always talking about a company’s need to innovate and move forward and that’s true, move forward or get left behind. What if your real problem isn’t being afraid of the future but letting go of the past?

We are bombarded with new ideas, platforms and services on a daily basis.

Many older companies believe that using these new platforms to share their message is moving forward. The truth is people don’t just want new technology they want new ideas.

If you sell glazed hams every holiday season and every year you purchase the same ad space and run the same ad in your local paper you may feel like an online ad is a big step into the future.

You’ve read the numbers and research and it looks like far more people are likely to see your ad online than in the newspaper. So you decide just to run the same ad online, but are you really drawing anyone’s attention?

Probably not, you may be getting in front of a larger audience but you aren’t necessarily engaging a larger audience.

It’s easy to be content with the same advertisement you’ve ran the past 20 years as it has worked fine.  Adopting a new platform is the perfect time to re-evaluate and determine what your ad actually accomplished.

Did it actually bring you in new business? Did it help you maintain your old business?

Do your repeat customers really need to see an advertisement to remember to go back to you for your service or would they automatically come back?

It is easier to keep a customer then to gain a new one, anyone in the business world will tell you that.

You should focus on the quality of your product or service and customer service to retain customers and focus your marketing on gaining new customers.

What attracted your original clients to your business may not be what attracts customers now.

Your simple drawing of a Pig with the words, “Frank’s Holiday Ham Hut” may have been enough for people to stop by 20 years ago but what about now? Perhaps a short video clip of a ham being prepared and a link to a contest to win a free ham.

When you have a new platform you need to modify your message. You don’t have to change your polices, practices or product you just need to adjust your pitch to the platform and audience.

Other example of adjusting to your platform:

If you decide to utilize Twitter perhaps try to start a Twitter campaign and encourage followers to use the hashtag #franksham to help spread the word.

If you’re using Facebook perhaps consider doing a raffle for a free ham, everyone who “Likes” the page and posts their favorite holiday side dish, is entered to win.

Think of how the platform is used; is it mostly photographs, is it videos, blog posts?

Understand the platform and adapt. This process will also tell you if the platform is valuable to you.

What are some advertising platforms that you use to gain new customers? Which do you think are unsuccessful? Which are the most successful?