Let’s say you organize the best party to launch your new product and it’s packed with a celebrity DJ, in-demand mixologist behind the bar slingin’ cocktails like tom Cruise in the movie “Cocktail”, over-the-top decorations fit for the Oscars, food that would impress even Gordon Ramsey, and a myriad of extras to give any party-goer an experience they will talk about for a lifetime.

After all the work putting the party together, it’s not like you invested all that time, energy and money to just sit by yourself.

You need people! You need party-goers. You need people who would not only enjoy the event, but also be a potential buyer of your new product or know someone who would be.

So how do you get them through the gates?

You have to capture their attention.

For any business big or small, the only commodity that matters is attention. Because without it, they have no idea who you are or what you could offer them.

Prior to social media being our primary form of connection and communication at-scale, we were limited to just a few tv stations, newspapers, magazines and the age-old radio and our immediate social groups.

Sounds crazy to think back on that now as we can access anything and everything we want with the device that has become our phone, computer, television, newspaper, book and retail store all in the palm of our hand.

THE SHIFT OF POWER

Prior to social media, advertising your brand or business was a game of budgets to who could afford to buy the most opportunities to get in front of the masses.

Big brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, GM, Ford, Pepsi, Budweiser, Coors etc would spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year running creative, emotional ad campaigns in every format possible, not to mention sponsoring stadiums, concessions and anything else you could slap an ad in or on.

This left the local “mom & pop” businesses limited opportunities outside of their local paper, tv & radio station, billboards, boosters and the age-old handing out flyers on the corner and at your grocery store.

But due to the cost to advertise, local businesses had to ensure every dollar spent had a return. This mean their ads became coupon-centric and very transactional. 

Whereas the big brands would advertise emotion, connection and purpose without ever mentioning a sale, discount or coupon.

Think about it for a second. When was the last time you saw a big brand’s ad be price or discount driven? Rarely if ever. They focus on entertaining and connecting emotionally.

The best example would be a Budweiser commercial that aired in 2005 during Super Bowl 39 where soldiers were walking through an airport, and one by one people began standing and clapping.

No voice-over. No discount. Just emotion.

And that’s what branding is all about. Creating an emotional tie with your audience.

You would never see a local business invest in a branding campaign like that because it would just cost too much.

2014 CHANGED EVERYTHING

When social media came into the picture and captured the attention of people to the tune of 5-7 hours a day, the nature of branding and advertising shifted.

It shifted from the few media gatekeepers and ad agencies that controlled movies, tv, radio, print and outdoor advertising owning the attention of the masses, to social media platforms giving consumers direct access to brands and the new modern day celebrity, aka “influencer”.

The biggest shift happened in 2014 when the advertising game went from being controlled by big ad agencies and their media buyers on Madison Avenue in New York City, to now anyone with a Business Page on Facebook could pay to advertise their business or product to its 2 billion monthly active users.

And yet it didn’t stop there. META / Facebook gave us all the ability to target very specific audiences to advertise to like never before.

 In addition to being able to pay to get your products / services in front of Facebook Users, you could be a red car parts manufacturer and run your ad directly to people interested in red cars.

It became incredibly easy to reach people who would be interested in your product business, whereas prior to this opportunity, your ads would be run to audiences so generic, it would be a numbers game both in your dollars spent and how many times you could reach them.

Case in point, at that time in 2014 when Facebook allowed you to run ads on its Timeline from your Business Page, I was a professional photographer on the side, and was going to be at fitness event in Dallas, Tx. 

To get the word out, I created a graphic like I typically would, wrote the caption copy and ran it as an ad beginning 14 days out from the event to allow for pre-booking of any photography sessions.

To my surprise, within 48 hours of running my ad, I was completely sold out having only spent $225 in ad spend, which in turn generated $8,400 in photography session revenue.

I’d say that’s a damn good ROI (Return On Investment), wouldn’t you?

Had I not run that ad, it would have been up to hustling the crowd, handing out flyers, posting organic content and tagging people I knew and booking at most, half of my time.

The ad did its job by getting my photography services in front of people who were going to that event. Even better, it got people’s attention at-scale like never before.

What happened next is what taught me the greatest lesson in the power of a small business and the ability to “brand” on the platform.

When I spoke to each of the people who booked a session, they said it was after they went through my Facebook Timeline and seeing my videos and posts did they decide I was the photographer they wanted to book a session while at the event.

And though my ad got their attention, they scrolled through to watch the many production and behind-the-scenes videos and photos to get a feel for what the experience would be like as well as seeing the end result of my photos of the models and magazine features my photos were used.

You see, it’s the daily organic content you can post that gives users a way to get to know you, your brand, your products in ways that isn’t “salesy” or gimmicky, but an authentic experience without pressure. 

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE BUSINESSES ARE MAKING

Did you know we spend just over 2 hours a day on social media*? That means, we spend 30 days a year giving our attention to social media.

30 days! 

BUT … we also spend an average of 3 hours a day watching TV and typically in unison with our doom-scrolling through our phones.

As our insatiable appetite to be entertained means we no longer want to be sold in that process.

And this is the mistake so many businesses and big brands make when it comes to social media marketing.

What do I mean?

Social media, in it’s origin, was designed to connect people who share common interests. Plain and simple.

Thus, it’s become the place we like to mentally unplug from the world and “hang out”.

And the last thing we want is to be chilling at home, swiping and sharing all-things that make us laugh or get us to go, “OMG!” and then be disturbed with a door-to-door salesman trying to peddle a cleaner, pest control service or home security!

That’s why we prefer to binge-watch our programs now without any ads, because are tired of sales campaigns trying to convince us to buy something we don’t need.

Which has made it even more difficult now for brands to get our attention because the old school method of tv ads no longer convert because if we are watching any program, even on YouTube, and a commercial pops up, we run to grab a snack, take a bathroom break OR … grab our phones and start scrolling.

That’s why the traditional sales-type ads that most businesses try to post are so ineffective and we quickly opt for the “skip ad” tab when its available. If not, we simply exit out of the video we watch, even if we liked it, to avoid having our attention wasted on a sales pitch.

As users, we don’t want to be interrupted and sold anything while we are being entertained in this day and age. Unless we are watching the Super Bowl, that is.

That is THE only time we as consumers sit around and wait for brands to entertain us with their most creative, jaw-dropping ads.

And that is why the Super Bowl ad even at $7 million for 30-sconds is still the most underpriced attention-grab there is, because everyone is watching with the intent of waiting for the commercials!

Over the years as I’ve attended countless Super Bowl parties I’ve watched people wait to take a bathroom break until the commercials are over and the game comes back on.

I laugh every time. 

Now, I’m not saying ads are pointless and don’t work on social platforms or Google, as they do. One of the big variables comes down to type and style of creative used in the ad along with your organic content strategy (more on that a bit later). 

What resonates the most and gets users to stop swiping at a rapid pace is when the ad itself is authentic, damn near self-produced in self-mode on your cell phone. 

Why? Because it feels and looks like the organic content we are accustomed to seeing from our friends, family and content that is entertaining us.

If your voice or that of the subject in your ad is key to the message, keep in mind that the audio quality is really important so as not to lose the attention of the audience due to a muffled voice or background noise that is taking over.

I suggest investing in a good microphone setup that easily connects to your cell phone or digital video camera. It’s amazing the quality of even the wireless lapel microphones available today that deliver professional quality sound at a fraction of the cost.

THE ALGORITHMS HAVE CHANGED

Let’s get “nerd” for a minute and talk about the great and powerful algorithm.

Often referred to as “algo” for short in case you want to sound like an expert and impress your friends, algorithms are the driving forced behind all social media platforms to ensure we continually see things we like.

By definition, a social media algorithm is a complex set of rules and mathematical calculations to prioritize the content that users see in their feeds. Often misunderstood, there is not just one single algorithm working behind the scenes, but rather countless algorithms at work auditing user behavior patterns and actions, keywords, sounds etc. all designed to give you the best experience in hopes that it owns your attention and keeps you coming back.

And why does this matter? Well, for all of these social media platforms where the majority are publicly traded companies, Active Monthly Users and Engagement Rate are two aspects that are critical in determining their value.

The last thing it wants to do is show you nothing but steak and meat content if you’re in fact a vegan. That would be a quick way to lose your attention.

Well, platforms like Facebook and Instagram were starting lose the number of Active Monthly Users because the big accounts and influencers who had amassed a large audience were taking over the feeds resulting in smaller accounts no longer getting on the platform as their posts were not getting the reach they once were.

So, like a domino effect, all of the major platforms from Facebook, Instagram TikTok and even Google made a dramatic shift in content prioritization in March of this year.

Let’s take Google for example.

If you were looking for a chiropractor in your area, more than likely you would be shown the ones who have been online a long time, often referred to as a legacy listing, and if looking at Google Maps listings, not only length of time listed, but also the Review Rating and having a lot of Reviews.

Google shifted its algorithms to now begin prioritizing relevant and consistently new content to their business website and their Google Business Listing. 

Note: if you have a brick-and-mortar business and do not have a Google Business Listing, I suggest you create one ASAP!

And what I have found with the many businesses and brands I consult and do marketing for, I have seen brand new business listings go from Page 5 to #1 and #2 by executing a simple strategy that requires no website SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Capture a minimum 5 new Google Reviews to your Google Business Listing per week, reply to them same-day with a human-type response as if you’re speaking to them face-to-face, and post two Updates to your listing per week.

So if you’re a local business and looking for a way to get in front of people who may not know your business by name but are looking for options in your category, this is how you would outrank your competition who may have gotten lazy.

Just don’t freak out if you get a negative review. 

Remember, you can’t make everyone happy, AND to be fair, consumers actually have greater confidence in a business listing that has between a 4.2 and 4.6 rating**.

Because 81% of consumers use Google Listing / Reviews to evaluate a business, 45% use Facebook**, it’s an amazing tool to showcase your customer service in how you respond to Reviews both positive or negative.

I can’t tell you how many business owners hate to receive negative reviews. Even worse, don’t even reply to them. But these are the very opportunity that allow you to show prospective customers how you handle an unhappy customer.

My advice, first and foremost, don’t take it personal. Simply acknowledge their experience and offer an opportunity to make it right.

Here’s an example of a restaurant’s negative review response, 

“Hi John, it sounds like you definitely didn’t get the experience we have been known for, and we hate that. Would you be willing to give us another shot if we offered your next meal completely free PLUS a $10 gift card? If so, just show this review to our team on your next visit! Hope to see you again, John! Sincerely, Jane Doe, manager.”

Any prospective customer would see the review, also with the empathy that we’ve all witnessed the unhinged “Karen” that you can’t make happy no matter what you do, and see your reply being so authentic and sincere, that would reveal your dedication to customer service.

And because 8 out of 10 consumers consider an online review equal to that of a personal friend, your online reputation and customer service, is everything.

That being said, the fact that Google users are leaving reviews and you are responding to them consistently and timely, you will be rewarded with top ranking so as to maintain consumer confidence in the businesses it offers to those using its platform to find a business to visit.

YOUR ORGANIC CONTENT STRATEGY IS CRITICAL

Every brand or business that contacts me for help, one of my first steps is to perform a comprehensive audit on their social media. Especially if they have stated their struggle with underperforming ads that may have been running.

Now, to be clear, there are many factors that come into play when determining the performance of an ad campaign, and the creative is one of them, which I explained earlier. 

But, what I see as the common denominator in the majority of brands is the lack of consistent or engaging organic content.

Why this matters, is when you have a Business Page (META, TikTok or LinkedIn), your consistency AND engagement rate organically will be audited by the algorithms and those factors will dictate the quality of the audience your ad will be shown to in the timeline or Story feed.

When I see a business with limited or non-existent organic content, I advise to immediately suspend any ad campaigns and spend the next 45 to 60 days deploying content and acquiring new reviews (Facebook / Instagram).

I will audit all of the platforms to determine the best days and times when users are most engaged, and line out a strategic content schedule that will not only increase consistency, but get the audience to interact with the posts.

As I mentioned earlier how the algorithms have changed, how that translates to social media platforms comes down to Shares.

For the longest time, Likes and/or Views (for videos) were the metrics used to determine if a piece of content would be rewarded with more Reach. Which is why accounts with huge followings were dominating the attention.

But now, in our desire to want to share what we find funny, compelling or helpful with our friends and others we are connected to, creating Share-worthy content is the goal, and small accounts are being rewarded with more exposure than ever as a result.

You’ve probably noticed this when it comes to suggested content that’s being shown on your feed that you’re seeing posts from very small accounts, many times less than 5,000 followers.

This is an effort to increase Active Monthly Users AND give users a wide range of profiles to potentially connect and enjoy their creative content.

For Facebook and Instagram, Carousel posts are gaining speed as the top content tool that’s driving engagement and Shares, with REELs coming in a close second when paired with a trending music track, which is indicated with a slanted up-arrow in the music library.

Now, if you have an Instagram profile for your business and you’re not able to access the popular or trending music, you will need to switch your profile type to “Content Creator” instead of “Business”.

This is due to commercial rights limitations.

Not to worry when you do switch as the only change you’ll notice as a “Content Creator” type is not having your business address listed in the bio. That’s the only difference.

Social media content has for a very long time been able to fall into what I refer to as the 3E’s – Entertain – Empower & Educate. And in today’s current content climate, the two types of content that are dominating Entertain and Educate. And if you combine them both into your content, well that my friend is a homerun!

Just think of your social media as your daily PR outlet giving an audience the opportunity to get to know you, even like you, by showing them what you’re about, how you go about it and what makes you different.

Because in the end, people want to do business with those they like, and they only like you because they’ve become familiar with you. And how they become familiar with you? By showing up consistently where they are giving the majority of their attention.

SWITCHING FROM HASHTAGS TO KEYWORDS

Now as I wind down what I hope has been a helpful overview of how to better approach your social media marketing, one final change was integrated into Facebook and Instagram that is driving account growth and Reach, and that is keyword focus instead of hashtags.

It used to be that hashtags were all the rage and what became a strategy itself knowing what hashtags to add or avoid if they found themselves on the flagged list which in turn would throttle your post to getting no exposure.

They were an ideal way to align your content as we were finding ourselves swiping through content associated with certain hashtags like #MotivationalMondays or #inspriation.

Now, social platforms are taking a bit of a Google / SEO approach where keywords used in your caption are being crawled by the algorithms and used to determine what users will be shown your content based on the content they have been absorbing and/or searching.

All in all, what I hope you have gathered here is that consistency is key in your overall approach to using social media platforms as not only one of the greatest gifts to the small business, but also the most strategic and powerful to branding your business.

Believe your ads could perform better?

Like to know what your peak days / times are for posting?

Looking for experience guidance to improve your social media presence and transition your business into a distinct brand?

Like to know if your current marketing agency is guiding you correctly?

Would you love a step-by-step, customized social media blueprint telling you exactly what you should be doing with your marketing and social media?

If you answered YES to any of the above questions, it’s time to put me, MD “The Brand Doctor” to work for you! 

Just visit www.TheBrandDoctor.co and let’s get the needle moving the right direction!