“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” Whether time flows slow or fast, winning marketers seize the moment.
Rebekah Radice bites off and manages days-, weeks- and months-long chunks of time to keep ahead of the pack. Staying at home and sitting back is not an option.
As a marketing performance strategist and co-founder of BRIL.LA, a women-owned, customer-experience design firm, Radice relies on a dynamic social media and content calendar strategy. From this she generates engaging and click-worthy captions.
Chelsea Krost, a millennial expert, global speaker and LinkedIn instructor, caught up with Radice during Krost’s #MillennialTalk Twitter chat to talk about all things social media, including strategy, content, sales process, tools and more productivity hacks.
Even when the world seems like crisis management on steroids, a thorough social media strategy should take disasters into account.
“Start networking online,” Krost said. “If you’re accustomed to attending live events, now you’ll spend more time engaging on social media. Allow time each day to devote to the platforms where your target audience is.
“Create content relevant to the current environment,” she said. “People are spending more time online digesting content. It’s a great opportunity to reach more of them. Even if you aren’t making money yet, share value and form relationships.”
Be consoled by knowing no one is alone.
“Everyone is going through isolation and uncertainty together,” Krost said. “I love seeing everyone being real, authentic and stripped down in their content on social media and even national broadcast TV. It’s time to be more human — more relatable.”
Radice said that adjusting social media strategy takes these updates into account:
- Tone
- Message
- Context
- Content
- Timing
A resource for innovation
“Now isn’t the time to go silent across social media,” Radice said. “Update your strategy to meet your audience where they’re at right now.
“Live video engagement is up by more than 50 percent,” she said. “As your audience looks to video to increase skills, learn a new hobby, generate an income, identify what you can to teach, coach and build. Use video to share that information. Be a resource.”
Content can build trust at each stage and across each channel. For example, Radice sees these stages:
- Strangers
- Visitors
- Leads
- Customers
- Promoters
“Create a content plan that matches intent — what they need — at each stage,” Radice said.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult time to navigate,” she said. “It’s very fluid, and there’s so much fear involved. How are you doing with the ebb and flow of your business?”
In a crisis, put automation on the back burner. This is the time to be responsive with an added emphasis on value. Do not risk posting content insensitive to major events.
Radice prescribes these seven elements of a successful social media content strategy:
- Track Your Starting Point
- Know Your Audience
- Choose Social Networks
- Be a Valuable Resource
- Establish Rhythm, Tone and Voice
- Create a Consistent Schedule
- Be an Expert Networker
Then write high-quality social media content with these goals:
- Drive traffic
- Attract attention
- Create conversation
- Encourage action
“The more you write, the better you get,” Radice said. “The better you get, the more momentum you create. The more momentum, the more opportunity.
“I’ve updated my ‘11 Essential Elements of an Effective Social Media Business Plan,’” she said. “While there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to social strategy, you can succeed with the right plan in place.”
Make them want more
Krost listed her own social media strategy approach:
- Define clear goals such as awareness, list building, sales and engagement.
- Define your target audience.
- Create a content library — still and video — with consistency.
- Think of each piece of content like a mini-training.
- Give bite-size value, and tease for more in your call to action.
“Think: What is your objective?” Krost said. “If you’re creating content to eventually warm up and convert your audience, you need a strategy when planning content.
“Where are you taking people after providing content?” she said. “For example, do you have a product or service in mind? How are you going to drive them there — such as a landing page, webinar, email funnel and so on?”
With strategies come tools to bring them to life. In the rest of their conversation, Radice and Krost talked in greater detail about how tools of the trade light the spark for memorable content.
