Social media marketing is constantly evolving and it’s evident that many businesses or marketers just aren’t keeping pace by using each of the mediums correctly. In this article, you’ll learn some of the biggest mistakes you’re making in social media marketing and understand how you can fix them.

Which room in the house are you in?

Most business people ignore the context of each social media platform. Content may be king, but context of that content is even more important. I recommend you study & learn exactly what type of content is “native” to each platform or what I call a “room” in the house.

Let’s look at it this way: do you have a sink in the middle of your bedroom? Chances are your answer is a “big bag of nope!”

The same logic goes for social media—the various platforms should be viewed as individual “rooms” in your house. Each serves a different purpose and how you negotiate or interact in each room is different. So to elevate your social media marketing, think about how your content will perform in each of the “rooms” you’ll put it in and make sure you’re always sharing valuable, native content that’s congruent to the visitors of that “room.”

Millions of business owners and amateur marketers see social networks or social media as places to distribute content and bring you somewhere else … rather than viewing each social media realm as separate places or “rooms” to natively tell their stories. To reiterate, we’ll refer to individual social media sites as platforms or “rooms.” They’re not looking for relationships, they just throw stuff out there to see what sticks!

Great social media marketing starts with listening and understanding how to relate to your audience

YES! Even the haters. You just have to understand that people just want to be heard—even if it is negative. They also want to see that there’s some effort being invested towards them from your end. How do you prove it to them? My mantra is: “Care about your people with your social media marketing and they’ll care about you.”

I hope by now it’s obvious to you that JC Marketing Communications creates “meaningful” relationships with all our customers or followers. Those customers or followers who are looking for something less … we sorta find a nice way to part ways with them. But I digress …

So you want to learn what “the best practices in social media” is all about?

To fully understand, let’s look at the psychology of why somebody may be on a specific social site.

Room #1 (Pinterest)
Female subject “A”—let’s call her Sally and the time is 8 p.m. EST
Why is Sally on Pinterest at 8 p.m. at night? Why is Sally on Pinterest at all? The data shows analytically and anecdotally “it’s because “she has the intent to buy something” …

The data has shown that if someone “PINs” something, it’s one of two scenarios: 1) it’s highly likely and significant enough that Sally has “pinned” it because she is ready to buy. Otherwise, why would she “pin” it? 2) Conversely, Sally might “pin” something because her intent or immediate aspiration is “to make that purchase someday soon.” What have you learned from this? You now know that beautiful images and infographics do well on Pinterest.

You must understand that this social media destination has to be treated differently from …

Room #2 (facebook)
Female subject “B”—let’s call her Hannah and it’s also 8 p.m. EST
Why Hannah is “going through her facebook at 8 p.m. on her smartphone.” Obviously, Hannah’s clearly doing that to keep in touch with her friends and her world. In essence, this is all about “context” and should be treated as such. She’s there for that specific reason. What have you learned from this? You now know that Hannah is NOT there to buy anything.

Look at it this in simpler terms …
Have you ever noticed the way you and a friend might interact when you meet at a mall on a Friday night is different from each of you meeting at a conference in a hotel on a Saturday morning? Each of us acts differently depending on the context of the situation we are in. The same goes for social media. The wittiness that does well on twitter … is different from the picture that is posted on instagram.. or the silly animated GIF on Tumblr. In closing, you must respect the context of the “room” or platform in which you are storytelling.

That’s the blueprint—if you want to follow it, you WILL achieve the results you want to achieve.

However, if you want to throw your hands up and say “it’s too difficult,” then you have two choices …
1) Hire a professional with a sophisticated, and proven track record of success in social media marketing … or …
2) The alternative is to “not do anything” and “live” with the consequences of “doing nothing.”

So there you have it.

REMEMBER:
Your customer doesn’t need to understand your product, they just need to know you understand them. After all, people don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.