8 Steps to Sending Effective Mass Messages Through Social Media

8 Steps to Sending Effective Mass Message Through Social Media
5Aug

There is nothing worse than receiving a mass message that has nothing to do with our needs from a person that we have never even heard of, right? I remember 4 years ago this rarely happened on Facebook and LinkedIn, but today I can log-in and be hit with 10-15 per day!

If you have taken the time to read these messages, some are very effective. They hit all of the right points to keep you engaged, while others COMPLETELY miss the mark and turn you off. Sometimes they can even anger you to the point where you remove the sender as a contact.

When done effectively with planning, these mass messages can truly benefit your social media marketing efforts.

Now a point of clarification. I am speaking about the messages which go into your inbox, not status updates that can be viewed in the newsfeed.

In this blog, I am focusing on Facebook and LinkedIn, as these two popular sites have this functionality. Here are some useful step-by-step guidelines for you to follow when creating your mass message using Facebook and LinkedIn in order to create buzz and engage your audience:

Step 1: What is My Message? First, you need to think of the reason why you are reaching out to your audience. Is it to offer them a discount, let them know about a new service or to share a new blog post with them? When writing this, you want to convey the message in a conversational way – seeming as if it was written directly for with the recipient. Remember, this is social media, not mass message central.

Step 2: Who is the Target Market for the Message? Second, you need to think about who you want to reach with the message (as the message should be completely tailored to this market). For example, sending a medical-based email to a recreational golf professional could result in removal, blocking, or spam flagging. Make sure you are aiming for the correct market.

Step 3: What is the Goal? If the goal of this is to get people to visit your website, blog, or even call in – make sure that you clearly present this information in the message. Sounds obvious, but it’s easily overlooked.

Step 4: Keep it Concise! There is nothing worse than opening a message on LinkedIn or Facebook that is miles long. Remember that on these sites communications are short and to the point. Make sure you can convey everything you want to in a very specific and concise manner.

Step 5: Choose a Greeting. Personally, after the subject line, the greeting line is the next point where I decide if I want to read on. Starting off with “Hello Friends” or “My Dear Friend” or “Treasured Business Associate” is not in your best interest. Why? Because this is not how people communicate with one another on LinkedIn….or in real life! You want to start off with something engaging that makes the reader feel as if you are writing directly to them!

Step 6: Choose a Subject Line. This is extremely important, as you want to write something compelling enough to get your audience to open the message. My biggest piece of advice is to lay off the Caps Lock key. There is nothing worse than looking at a subject line that is screaming at you. For that matter, leave out the excessive use of all capitals in the body of your message as well. This can be off-putting.

Step 7: Proof Read! In this extremely critical world, few things are worse than sending a message out to thousands of people and misspelling an element of your message. Even worse though? Get ready to be educated by the “Grammar and Spelling Police” as they give you lessons on how to spell words and form sentences. Proofreading protects you from this and gives your message that professional sparkle.

Step 8: Choose Your Platform. Personally, I believe that LinkedIn was made for communications like this. It is a networking platform and this can be viewed as an extension of networking. Facebook, on the other hand, is more specific. I would only do a mass message on Facebook if I have a target group created where they are familiar with me and my business. Why? Facebook users can be quite vigilant when it comes to hitting the “Spam” button on messages that they do not want to deal with. LinkedIn, on the other hand, allows you flexibility and makes it easy to send messages like this. The only drawback is that you can only send them in batches of 50. My top tip for LinkedIn is to make sure before you send the message to un-check the box next to “Allow recipients to see each other’s names and email addresses”. You will find this below the message box. This helps your message look more personal and direct.

Overall, these messages should be used within an overriding social media marketing strategy. Don’t send them in high frequency as they can be very annoying. Keep your messages written with your target market in mind and only reach out when absolutely necessary. Oh yeah, and drop the “Hello Friend”.

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Is Your Business Ready For Chatbots?

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26Sep

Well, we’re in 2016, and there are no flying cars or robot butlers yet. But, we’re getting there. The concept of chatbots is a big step forward for both technological advancements and social media marketing. There has been a lot of buzz around these talkative programs lately, and the hype is only rising. So, here’s everything you need to know about chatbots and their impact on social media marketing.

First of all, you might be unsure of what exactly we’re talking about. A chatbot is an automated program that people converse with on a variety of messaging applications. Most likely, you’ve already had dealings with bots without even realizing it. Apple’s Siri is one of the most popular and accessible- although a vast majority of bots use text to speak instead of a robotic voice. Now, more and more businesses are creating their own AI systems to create a brand new experience.Here are the incredibly simple steps someone takes to chat with a company’s bot.

1. Choose your platform. Many people will utilize Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp to speak with bots since they already use these messaging tools. Still, many platforms such as Kik, Skype, and We Chat are adopting chatbot features as well.

As you can see, you don’t have to download the Nike app to chat with their chatbot, or the Wall Street Journal’s app to chat with theirs. Instead, they are using the most popular platforms to be in their audiences’ line of sight, just like they do with traditional social media.

2. Choose your bot. First, we tested CNN’s chatbot. On Facebook Messenger, we simply searched for CNN and picked the bot from the results. (It had the lightning bolt-emblazoned Messenger logo next to the profile image.)

3. Start chatting!  After choosing CNN’s bot, we chose “top stories” from the chat menu, and it started giving us all the headlines we could ask for! Then, we searched for “social media marketing” news, and it gave us a customized result.

Each bot has unique commands, prompts, and buttons. For example, Uber’s bot has a car button that you can press to start scheduling a ride. It’s a new way to customize communication with your customers that works along side your pre-existing social media marketing.

Business owners from many industries have begun creating chatbots. There’s a bit of irony, however. There’s a less human side to this area of social media, but people feel closer to their brands because of the “one on one” feel of the chat. Conversation truly is an artform, even with a robot.

The big question is quality. Chatbots are created to be able to respond a wide variety of user-generated prompts. Yet as we have seen with Siri, an AI can only do so much. Still, updates are released every day, and the future seems bright for robot-kind.

These bots may not be the robots we all thought we would have in the future, but they appear to be doing a good job. While the bots are slowly dominating messenger apps, it remains to be seen just how receptive audiences will be. So far, people like them for their instant response and convenience. And if fans start to congregate towards a new communication device, marketers must adapt.

Are you struggling to adapt to all these social media updates? Contact us today to see how we can handle it for you!

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