The Two Acts Of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing today requires many different components that work together to achieve a desired result. From objectives, targeting, strategy and execution, the components must work together effectively. Combining the many analysis and executional elements are essential to an integrated social media program that can realize the defined objective.

Executional forces such as content marketing, engagement, curation and community growth are all actions contained within the overall objective. Together these executional elements are made up of two distinct “Acts” of social media marketing.

Attract and React

Let’s define and break down both of these “Acts” to better outline what they are, how to use them and the importance they play in your social media marketing efforts.

Attract

at·tract[ ə trákt ]*

1. entice somebody: to be appealing enough to make people visit a place or spend their money
2. get response: to win or illicit a response from people, especially support or encouragement
3. draw somebody’s attention: to draw or secure somebody’s attention, or become the focus of somebody’s attention

*source – Bing Dictionary

Everything you do in social media should first be designed to attract. If real results are desired, enticing your audience to get a response from them and draw attention are the attraction functions that you want to garner. To attract your target audience, there are four things you need to do;

1) Provide Value – In order to attract your audience you need to know what they are interested in. (Hint – it’s rarely what you do that interests them) Do the work to determine THEIR interests and make those topics what drives your posts.

2) Be Unique – It never ceases to amaze me how marketers and professionals in this industry (terms used very loosely) do, act, write and post the same things. If you want to attract, be different. Share different content from different sources than everyone else. Set yourself and your brand apart from the rest of the noise

3) Be Consistent – Probably the most overlooked and underutilized attract element within social media today is consistency. Consistency in posting regularly, of message, of topics, of hashtags, and responding. Everything must be consistent to attract your audience.

“If you don’t have a pole in the water, you’re not likely to catch any fish. Consistently have a line out attracting your audience.” 

4) Earn It – Look at your social media marketing results as something you earn. You earn results based on the value, uniqueness and consistency you bring to your execution. You attract and grow a community based on doing these things effectively and with sincerity, every single day, over an extended period of time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

ReACT

re·act[ ree ákt ]*

1. respond emotionally: to respond to something by showing the feelings or thoughts it arouses
2. respond by taking action: to respond to something by taking action

*source – Bing Dictionary

When you have effectively employed Attract into your social media management, you then want to execute and achieve the second “Act”, which is React. Reaction from attraction can be positive or negative. In our discussion we are going to make the assumption that you haven’t done anything stupid and/or are fortunate enough to avoid the many trolls online.

If we are looking for positive reaction to our attraction efforts, we want deep responses that draw on emotional impact. In other words, knowing your audiences pain points so well that empathy is displayed and feelings from your audience spark engagement with you or the content you create or share.

The end game of your social media management should drive reaction, then action. Clicks, shares, likes and comments that further your reach, thought leadership and relationships, one to many. You want your audience to take action.

The way YOU react when they do take action is the difference between furthering that relationship or starting over with someone else.

Take time to ensure that you have the two Acts of social media marketing present in your strategy AND execution. Combine these priorities into a workflow that can be scaled and replicated efficiently, then watch your results improve on a daily basis!