Reserved only for those with the finest of social involvement, the Society of Good Taste was born.
1. Targeted
2. Focused
Ensure that your campaign is of the direct response variety and focused on a specific issue, customer pain point or a competitor.
3. Measurable
That means your campaign may end up having completely different outcomes from the ones you’re expecting. For example, you may not have as many micro-conversions (email opt-ins, Twitter followers, Facebook fans and RSS subscribers) as you’d hoped for but the engagement levels for those you do have may be much higher or you may find that you’re seeing an increase in off-line sales.
4. Great Content
The cornerstone of any effective social media campaign is great content presented in an interesting and engaging way.
If you've done your homework on your audience, if you know what they are passionate about, their pain points, the type of content they readily share and what they respond to you’ll have pretty good idea of what is going to get them excited. Finding a different and intriguing way to deliver your content is then your secret sauce.
5. Simple
As social media campaigns become ever more complex it’s worth reflecting on whether this what users really want.
Creativity is a wonderful thing, but if you ask too much of your audience they will quickly get bored and move on. Instead, keep it simple and immediate and offer something your users are going to value as a reward for their engagement. This doesn't have to be anything expensive or even anything tangible, so long as your campaign is relevant, fun and engaging. Think Evian’s Roller Babies, the most watched online ad ever which generated over 60 million views and 54,000 comments or Johnson’s Facebook baby photo contest which generated more than 1 million visits, half a million votes and tripled the company’s fan base.
6. The Right Medium For The Message
Having a great message is one of the things that makes great campaigns stand out from the rest.
But just having a great message isn't enough – you also have to communicate it via the right channels. It can be tempting to just focus your efforts on the big 3 – Facebook, Twitter and Youtube – but if that’s not where your target audience hangs out it isn't going to do you much good.
It also pays to remember that people tend to behave differently on different networks so think about the actions you want your users to take and match the medium to the message.
Example: if you want an immediate response you’d probably want to use Twitter, whereas Facebook is more suited to opinion sharing.
Finally, make sure that your social media campaign is fully integrated with all your other marketing, advertising and PR activities, both online and offline.
This will not only increase your campaign’s impact but also ensure that you aren’t putting out contradictory messages that will confuse your audience.
7. Memorable
The most successful social media campaigns forge an emotional connection between the brand and the audience by providing not just great content but an experience.
Make your campaign memorable by telling stories that have an emotional resonance for your audience and they can immediately identify with.
Engage your users in an ongoing conversation, make it personal and show that you care about them and their custom and you will engender a powerful sense of belonging that will translate into long term loyalty.
8. Profitable
For any small business, a positive return on investment is going to be a key campaign success measure.
There are plenty of siren voices that will say you can’t put a price on customer engagement. Ignore them.
If you’re a small business and you can’t demonstrate that your social media campaign is directly contributing to your bottom line it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Of course measuring the long term impact of social media campaigns is an art not a science, but that doesn't mean that you won’t need a plan for monetizing all that additional traffic and engagement and converting it to cold hard cash.
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