Social Media Personalization: 5 Steps to Get Started in Your Business
If you have been hunting for that one strategy that can level-up your social media game – without a doubt, it’s personalization.
Reaching one’s target audience with individualized messages can work wonders for your business – that is, only if you know how to get it right!
Earlier, it was believed that any interaction with the consumers must begin from the grass-root level, but that has changed. Now, if you want to be successful, you need to interact with them on a personal level. In fact, if you are offering a personalized experience, the chance of consumers interacting with you rises by 80 percent. And what would be a better platform than social media that boasts an extraordinary number of users of all age groups?
I know you are saying “hold up…. personalization on social media too?”. Yes, the surge of personalized experiences sweeping websites has crashed on the shores of social too.
It is far less complicated or time consuming than it sounds though. And here are FIVE clear steps, with examples to inspire your efforts.
1. Post your own Personalized Marketing Videos
The myth that video marketing is gameplay for the giants is no longer true.
Technology has become so affordable, and with homemade videos being the norm it is a cakewalk to generate personalized videos through automation.
Breast Cancer Now recently published personalized videos on social media to show their gratitude to donors for a successful campaign. And it certainly proved why there’s nothing like video marketing and its absolute results. What makes it more delectable is the presence of the donor’s name in the video – it generates a sense of pride and belongingness amidst the donors.
2. Retarget them with Customized Advertisements
What good would it serve a tea seller, if he advertises to a die-hard coffee fan?
Right, nothing! A waste of time, resources and effort. This is what my next point brings to your kitty.
What I am trying to say is, make people see ads on the basis of their needs and wants. But how do you do that? Trust me, it’s not rocket science.
Just customize your ads on the basis of the interactions prospects have had on your website.
Take into account their buyer’s journey. For example, if they have read a few blogs that clearly shows that they are just coming to terms with a problem they’re grappling with, serve them ads that lead them to a piece of content that is created to satisfy that TOP OF THE FUNNEL curiosity.
If they’ve seen the checkout page but not converted – well, these prospects are clearly facing resistance to action completion. Ask yourself… what may be the reason keeping them away from clicking that “BUY” button.
Run multiple ad variants targeting these individuals (Yup… Testing saves the day, yet again) and make sure that each variant through its copy and visuals addresses a particular hesitation that the customer may have. For example, one variant can talk about how you offer FREE shipping on orders over a certain value, while another may feature a testimonial from an evangelist talking about the secure checkout on your site.
Great examples of such personalization come from the e-commerce champions Flipkart and Amazon. They display products on the basis of your previous orders, or on the basis of what users with interests similar to yours, have ordered later.
In fact, Facebook itself, for the last couple of years has, to up its marketing game, tested retargeting ads, to push people from stores to purchase online.
Here’s a quick example for better understanding. You visit Amazon and search for tourist bags, you spend considerable time with a bag, take detailed notes on each of the features but do not make a purchase.
What would Amazon do? They will reach out to you on your Facebook feed with the same product!
This pushes the prospective customer to take a look at the product once again, and this time with more intention to make the final purchase.
3. Send out Personalized Direct Messages
If you are on Twitter, I am sure you must have got a message like “hey, thank you to follow, please check our website,” or “happy to connect, learn more.” But we all know, they are generally from a robot or a bot, programmed to send everyone the same and in our minds, we have tagged them irrelevant.
On the contrary, when the messages are from real people, we are more inclined to text back. So, if you want to ace the game of personalization, talk real with real people and ensure that the receiver on the other end can distinctly recognize that you are a real face and not a bot. I know, this can be a tedious and lengthy procedure, but well, as it’s said, ‘You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic’.
Here’s a little bit of fact check for this strategy: Direct messages are such an amazing promotional tool, that over Instagram, it makes 56.8% of sales.
For example, Saleshare allows people who follow their founder to chat with him, directly! In fact a whopping 50% of people who interacted over this channel ultimately became customers.
4. Publish Personalized Quizzes and Questionnaires
When you publish online quizzes and questionnaires, you are actually showing the world that you care about its opinion.
This is the 4th – interactive wave of Content Marketing and it increases engagement, drives instant response and collects valuable data for you (what else do you want?).
How do you go about creating “personal” quizzes? No, we are not suggesting you pull one together for each and every person on social.
- Divide your social following into broad personas. Tools like Facebook Audience Insights prove invaluable here.
- Next craft short, fun, but insightful quizzes for each type of persona. A quiz does not need to be involved and long to be valuable. For both parties.
- Make sure the answers offer some sort of “Aha” moment for the takers. For example, if you are selling an email automation solution, then for your persona of social media followers who are not investing in automation right away – the output can be the ROI they are losing out on every quarter (of course, as an approximation!).
- The next step is for you to make good on your hard work – and give them a free trial. Perhaps even one that extends longer than the regular trial on your site!
Use tools like LeadQuizzes to design these quizzes and make them fun.
5. Use Real-life Campaigns on Social Media for Tribe Segments
Just because you are operating digitally, doesn’t mean you need to think just digitally.
You can always prioritize real-life connections, which is a very valuable stance in the age of social media.
And hashtags make it remarkably easy to start campaigns around causes that stir emotions and response in your ideal tribe, and then let the movement take on its own life!
Think of Gillette and its ‘break the beard’ surge. Gillette asked people to post videos or shots of them shaving their beards with their Gillette razors or trimmers, while narrating their story with the hashtag #breakthebeard. The initiative became so popular that even celebrities took part in it and led to increased sales of the brand.
I know that the examples showcased here all belong to large brands with the budget to go all out. But that’s only because the popularity of these bigger brands makes the examples more relatable. And viral.
You may not have the same success Amazon does. But these simple tips will help you consistently do and be a better company for your prospects, and this perseverance wins out.
