Tag Archives: content strategy

No such thing as a free lunch

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Mashable published this article today outlining what has been the topic of conversation for the past few months – the free Facebook lunch is over.

This will be much better for the site as a whole.  In general the quality of content on Facebook could definitely be improved.  It could be more strategic and harder working for brands.  More relevant and “on brand” – less of the generic “Hit Like if you are happy it’s Friday” posts. More valuable and rewarding to the fans and just more considered overall.  In my experience the amount of time a marketing manager will spend making sure that the artwork for a press ad is perfect, or the edit of a TV ad is bang on, is in direct proportion to the amount of money it is costing.

So maybe if Facebook requires an investment, more time will be invested in creating a better page and Facebook will keep going from strength to strength.

Small businesses shouldn’t have to struggle

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This article from Silicon Republic demonstrates the need for social media but reinforces the fact that many small companies struggle to implement it.  It does eat into your staff’s time, but I can show you ways to create an efficient social media strategy that minimises time spent and resources used.  Social media is a fabulous way to keep consumers up to date and aware of your services and products and needn’t be the headache that pushes you away from it.

Ways I can help:

  • Identify essential social media channels
  • Develop a content strategy that pushes out your key messages
  • Determine the most suitable candidates in the organisation to post, monitor and maintain the sites – or do that for you
  • Workshop a conversation calendar that takes the head-scratching away from what to post

social media, small businesses

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/30008-small-businesses-struggle-w#

Corporate Facebook page parody

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This Facebook page is doing the rounds on Twitter… @rickygervais just sent it to @Glinner – two of the biggest tweeters in the UK.facebook, parody, social media, strategy, content strategy

Proving the rather obvious point that brands need interesting and relevant content and not just blatant self-promoting drone and facebook, parody, social media, strategy, content strategy
quick wins all the time.   It’s pretty easy to keep posting up photo caption competitions, photos of sunset beaches and cute cat videos in a bid to get “likes” and “people talking about you”.  This social media whoring will not benefit the brand in any sense – whatever the communication objectives are, and it’s unlikely people will even remember the brand name even if they do engage and like and share and so on.

The very core of my business is establishing communication pillars that will help sustain a brand’s social media (and other) presence long-term.  Certainly branding is an important part of the mix, but as communications with consumers evolve, the key is to find a way to present interesting and valuable content to your target audience that will consistently put your brand in a relevant light.

Take South Africa Uncorked – a project I am working on to promote South African wines in Ireland.  In a nutshell, we establish a very clear target – male foodies who are interested in wine and who would like to broaden their horizons and improve their wine tasting skills.  Our objective is to put South African wines on their consideration list when they are shopping for wine to go with a meal that they are preparing.  The facts are firstly that this target is currently more familiar with wines from other countries, and secondly that South African wine is a robust tipple, best appreciated with food.  And so we map out our content strategy to give this cohort tips about wine, recipes that go well with South African wines, information about the country and its wine heritage.  We’ve loads to write about now, and the aim is that it will resonate with our audience and build a connection that goes above and beyond, at best generic entertainment, at worst spam.

Question is will Facebook take it down or will they have a sense of humour about it?facebook, parody, social media, strategy, content strategy