Practical, up-to-date social media marketing

“One thing I’m not going to tell you today is that as a founder or as a producer that you need to start recording more videos and being on social media more. I recognize that everyone’s busy,” said Mallory Seargeant, a marketing strategist and founder of Ramper Creative.

Rather, Seargeant emphasized social media marketing strategies that actually work for busy entrepreneurs during a presentation for the Maine Grain Alliance funded by the Transition to Organic Partnership Program.

Know Your Unique Value

Take the time to think about why you started your brand and business and what differentiates you in the marketplace. In marketing, this is often called a unique selling proposition. It should be customer-focused, solving a specific pain point for the target audience.

Seargeant encouraged talking to existing customers to find out why they choose to purchase from you, follow you on social media and care about your story. Understanding this psychological side of the customer will help you determine how to best represent your business on social media.

She cautioned that garnering social media “likes” does not necessarily mean you have connected with your audience about your unique value. “While those are helpful, they don’t define real value in how you’re presenting your brand out into the ecosystem,” she said. “Those can be ego metrics in a way that don’t actually show whether you have a loyal audience – whether you’re actually growing brand awareness.”

She also noted that you don’t need to be on every platform to build a brand and grow a business. Choose platforms based on your market and product rather than trying to be everywhere, she said.

Understand Algorithms

Algorithms are a set of rules used by social media platforms to determine which content is displayed to users. Seargeant said consistency across platforms builds trust with the artificial intelligence (AI) platforms scrolling the web.

These AI platforms generate the summary that a web user now sees at the beginning of their Google search. Customers are increasingly using this AI-generated content that summarizes results from across the internet rather than clicking individual links.

To appear as a reputable source in these AI search results, Seargeant said you need consistency in how you describe yourself and your brand across all your channels. The more consistent the messaging and verbiage, the more trust gets built with AI platforms that determine search visibility.

Seargeant said she is now using a search engine optimization blurb at the bottom of every social media post. This is especially important because all public posts on Instagram and Facebook can be indexed by Google, meaning Reels, images or captions can show up in a standard Google search alongside blogs, product pages, etc.

She cited an example from a client producing a snack brand with globally-inspired flavors. At the end of every social media post, she mentions the brand and all the flavors they offer. The goal is that when people search “I want a snack bar that tastes like baklava,” these products show up at the top of the search.

She also noted that hashtags are no longer effective on Instagram; businesses can stop using them.

Consider Using Influencer or User-Generated Content

Seargeant sees brands struggle that depend on the founder for marketing purposes. This isn’t always an effective strategy because it makes the founder the hero rather than the customer.

Influencers or user-generated content can be a more effective way to show how your product makes a customer feel and the problems that it solves for them.

Influencers are overrated, according to Seargeant, yet ironically one influencer post can do more for a brand than 10 of the owner’s posts. “It’s going to get out in front of more audiences, people who’ve never heard of your brand,” said Seargeant.

The right influencers for most clients are micro-influencers – those with approximately 7,000 to 25,000 followers who have an engaged audience. These micro-influencers may accept product exchanges instead of payment.

To find the right influencer, Seargeant recommended using Keywords Everywhere, a Chrome browser plugin, to check an influencer’s average likes, comments and engagement rate. She also suggests using Meta’s Creator Marketplace, which is built into Meta Business Suite and allows you to filter influencers by location, age and topic interests.

User-generated content – content made by customers rather than the brand – is another way to create authentic social media content and includes videos, photos and reviews. For example, you can provide a customer with some product and ask them to create content, remembering that it’s important to acknowledge and attribute the original creator when the content is used.

Lean Into Email & Digital Downloads

According to Seargeant, email marketing remains the highest return on investment channel. With email, you get direct access to customers rather than working with social media algorithms.

Emails should primarily be relational and include stories, recipes and educational insights. Promotions can be used judiciously, but they shouldn’t be the focus of every email.

Seargeant recommended emailing two to four times per month, but even monthly is impactful. “Try to be consistent with the time that you send it so people can recognize or they know when to expect that they’re going to see an email from you,” she said.

Digital downloads are another effective tool that can draw customers away from social media to your website. Digital downloads are typically PDFs that provide information or resources to an audience. For instance, a livestock producer might offer a digital cookbook highlighting different cuts of meat. Rather than sharing the recipes in your captions, you can ask social media users to comment “recipe.” They are then redirected to an external document or sometimes back to your website.

“Digital downloads serve as a lower-barrier call to action compared to asking people to ‘shop now’ or ‘DM me.’ They’re a much simpler ask that helps you get in front of people and provide them with more information,” said Seargeant.

by Sonja Heyck-Merlin