this video is a part of the google digital marketing and e-commerce certificate providing you with job-ready skills to start or advance your career in digital marketing and e-commerce get access to hands-on activities quizzes discussion forums job search help and more on coursera and you can earn your official certificate visit grow.google digital marketing to enroll in the full learning experience today [Music] imagine that you're responsible for the social media marketing for a small company unfortunately one of your company's products has a small defect and customers have been complaining about this product on social media if you aren't aware of these posts and don't take steps to address the issue your company's reputation could be jeopardized but because you listen to your customers on social media and engage with them to address their concerns you're able to keep your company's reputation intact that brings us to the third pillar of social media marketing listening and engagement in this section you'll learn about how to implement social listening which refers to tracking and analyzing conversations and trends related to your brand we'll talk about how to listen to your customers and followers on social media and analyze those conversations to gain insights you'll also learn about some social listening tools that can help you in this process then we'll talk about how you can take what you've learned from listening to your customers to increase their engagement with your brand we'll discuss different ways to communicate with customers and how to respond to different types of communications from them taking these interactions further we'll explore strategies for developing ongoing relationships with your customers you'll also learn how to write and design engaging content for social media and how to develop your brand voice on different platforms and we'll explore how to save time and resources by taking your existing content and repurposing it in new ways ready to find out how to listen learn from and engage your customers on social media let's go [Music] let's say you've published multiple posts on the social media platforms you've selected for your campaign now what to find out how people are reacting to these posts you need to use social listening in this video we'll discuss what social listening is and why it's such an important component of your social media campaign social listening refers to tracking and analyzing conversation and trends related to your brand it helps you understand what people think about your brand which can inform your marketing and product development decisions moving forward social listening is a two-step process step one involves monitoring social media platforms for mentions of your brand product services competitors and any related keywords step two is when you analyze the information you've collected and plan actions based on what you've learned these actions can be as small as responding to a dissatisfied customer or as big as adjusting your entire social media strategy listening is a key part of your social media marketing strategy for a number of reasons to begin with social listening helps you understand the social media sentiment around your brand social media sentiment is the attitude and feelings people have about your brand on social media learning how people feel about your brand helps you identify what's working with your social media marketing strategy and where you need to make changes social listening also provides an opportunity for you to engage with your customers and followers about your brand for example if a customer comments about how much they love your product or ask a question this is a great opportunity for you to engage with them directly customers want to feel heard on social media responding to them can elicit brand loyalty and increase customer retention rates when there is negative social media sentiment being expressed about your brand social listening can help you pinpoint its cause and address the issue what are your customers pain points can you offer a solution to the problems people are talking about if you can be sure to tell people about it on social media for example let's say a number of customers have been monitoring a problem with ordering from your company's app you could escalate the issue to your company's i.t department and then publish a post that lets customers know you're addressing their concerns that being said you want to be mindful of what messaging you share to respond to individual users directly versus those you post publicly an issue impacting a small group of people may not be affecting the majority of your audience and posting publicly about the issue may bring more attention to it social listening is a great tool for analyzing the competition it allows you to learn what your competitors are up to and find out how their customers feel about it for instance you might learn that your competitors customers are unhappy with a particular product then you could strategize ways to improve upon a similar product or you might find that some of your competitors content outperforms your own you could analyze why their content resonates well with your shared audience and make adjustments to your own content accordingly you can also use social listening to increase customer acquisition social media provides many opportunities for reaching potential new customers after all your followers aren't just your existing customers there are also people who simply have an interest in your content using social listening you can discover the kinds of content your followers enjoy then you can create content that appeals to them and potentially draws them into your brand social listening will be a key component of your social media campaigns the insights you gain from social listening can help you create content your followers are interested in come up with new ideas based on trends in your industry and adjust your marketing strategy to fit the current marketplace coming up we'll talk about some helpful social listening strategies and tools [Music] you've learned that social listening is tracking and analyzing conversations and trends related to your brand you've also learned how social listening can help you understand how people feel about your brand which allows you to engage with them more effectively now that you know what social listening is and why it's important let's discuss how to do it to get started with social listening you'll need to identify the key words people use most when discussing your brand previously you learned about doing keyword research for search engine optimization for seo you find the keywords customers search for the most and put those on your web page to help people find your content for social listening you identify the keywords that will help you find conversations about your brand you'll want to use the keywords that are most relevant to your and your competitors brands brand and product names include any variations or common misspellings slogans names of key people in the company industry buzzwords hashtags related to the brand a hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the pound symbol that indicates that a piece of content relates to a specific topic or category hashtags are the kind of digital label that help people find content across social media platforms for example a coffee company might use hashtags like coffeetime coffeelover hashtag bestcoffee or hashtag coffeedrinker once you've identified the best keywords to use you'll need to determine where you're going to listen for them for example people may talk differently about your business on linkedin than they do on facebook or they might mention your business more frequently on twitter than on instagram in order to develop the best strategies for different platforms you'll need to listen to how people are talking about you on each of them next you'll want to find out what people are saying about your brand search for the answers to questions like what do customers like most about your brand what are their most common issues what are their most frequently asked questions what are associations people have with your brand what kind of content do people share about your brand these questions help you identify customer comments issues and sentiment around your brand understanding how people feel about your brand and products can help you improve your strategy you'll get insights into the feelings people have around your brand and the specific products or features their most interested in instead of just acting on your assumptions you'll understand what your customer truly needs you'll also use social listening to assess your competition evaluate things about your competition like which of their content is performing better than yours and how could you improve your content to resonate better with your shared audience which of their products are customers dissatisfied with and what learnings could you apply to improve your own products what new products or solutions they are offering and how do they compare to your offerings social listening can show you what your competitors do well and what customers like about them but it can also highlight where they make mistakes so you can see what not to do for example if a competitor posts content that receives a lot of negative responses you can avoid posting similar content you can save yourself time energy and resources by learning from your competitor's mistake and then avoiding those mistakes yourself in addition to learning from your direct competition social listening can help you learn what's happening in your industry such as trends or how the market is performing to use social listening to gain industry insights consider the following are there any gaps in the industry that a new product or solution could help solve are there any major events or issues happening in the world that are relevant to your brand which frequently asked questions could you create content around to address your audience's needs in order to help you implement all of these social listening tactics you could use a social listening tool a social listening tool is a software that helps you track mentions of your brands relevant keywords and direct feedback from multiple social media platforms in one place later in this lesson we'll discuss some popular social listening tools and how to choose one for your campaigns now that you've learned some useful tactics to help you get the most out of your social listening efforts we'll discuss how to use these lessons to inform how you engage with your customers and followers [Music] earlier you learn the benefits of social listening and some tactics for implementing it effectively social listening not only helps you understand your target audience better it increases their engagement with your brand in this video we'll discuss how to boost your current and potential customers engagement on social media social media engagement measures how people are interacting with your social media accounts and content engagement refers to their actions people take on social media such as likes favorites comments shares retweets saves clicks hashtags and mentions studying engagement can help you determine whether the content you're creating resonates with your audience one way to increase your audience engagement on social media is by connecting with them social media is an ideal channel for making meaningful connections with your customers and potential customers a report by sprout social found that when customers feel connected to a brand more than half of them will increase their spending on that brand and more than three quarters will continue to buy from them rather than from a competitor so let's discuss some ways to connect with your customers and increase their engagement on social media to engage people on social media you need to be social with them this means communicating with your customers and followers frequently it's like being the host of a party you're not always going to be the center of attention but you want to make sure everyone is having a good time as an entry-level digital market it might not be your responsibility to interact directly with customers on social media but let's discuss some helpful tips for when you need to do so in the future a best practice is to respond to comments and mentions or to users talking about your brand this opens up two-way communication and can help you establish a healthy meaningful relationship with your customers you'll also want to provide excellent customer service on your social media platforms be prepared to answer customers questions provide resources that can help them with their issues and show empathy for any challenges they've faced related to your brand when customers reach out to you on social media be sure to respond to them quickly listening and responding to customers rapidly make them feel heard and shows them that you care a speedy response can also lead to increased customer satisfaction and trust in your brand it's important to develop an authentic personal voice on social media people are more likely to engage with your brand when they feel like there's an actual person reading and responding to comments you can make your voice on social media more personal by doing things like signing off on your posts addressing customers by their first name and responding to comments with humor or warmth showing images or videos of employees can also help your brand seem more personable and relatable as we've discussed previously it is important to know the audience you're trying to engage on social media the sort of language you use the tone of your posts and the images you present will differ depending on that audience the content that resonates with the audience of a company that sells video games for example is likely to be quite different from the content of a quilting supply company knowing your audience also means creating content that will be most valuable to them what can you teach them how can you inspire them what resources can you provide engaging with your customers by giving them helpful content that addresses their needs and pain points proves you're a credible source of information in your industry and sharing your expertise builds their trust some of your content should also help your audience imagine themselves interacting with your product or service and what they would gain from that experience that said not every post or interaction you have with your customer has to be about your products social media platforms can sometimes just be a way to connect with your target audience about the topics they're interested in encouraging people to engage with your brand on social media also means getting creative with your posts you can entice people to engage with you by holding contests posting polls developing quizzes asking questions spotlighting customers and employees eliciting user generated content offering coupons and discounts and offering giveaways in exchange for followers likes retweets or tags when customers are engaged on social media you can learn from them better meet their needs and increase their confidence in your brand coming up we'll talk more about engaging with your customers and gaining followers on social media [Music] we've talked about some ways to increase engagement on social media platforms now we're going to discuss how to attract more of the people who will have the highest level of engagement with your brand followers a follower is someone who opts in to receive updates from a business or brand on social media platform followers have chosen to see all of the posts of another user like a friend or a business in their news feed as we've discussed engagement measures how people interact with your social media content such as by liking or sharing it people like share or retweet posts they find value in on the other hand people follow a brand or business when they're interested in getting frequent updates from them gaining followers on social media platforms is often considered a key measure of social media campaign success increasing your followers indicate that you are posting relevant engaging content and have influence in the space and followers are important because you can reach them with your organic content every time you post you'll want to employ different tactics to increase your followers on all of your social media platforms these tactics will differ from one platform to another based on a variety of factors such as how the platform works or which segment of your audience visited that platform most often as an example let's explore ways to grow your following on a specific platform twitter twitter is designed to encourage conversations in the form of short frequent messages these are called tweets a tweet is any message posted to twitter and may contain elements like text photos videos links and audio twitter is a useful platform for connecting and developing relationships with your audience to increase your followers on twitter as on any social media platform you'll want to actively engage with your audience often you can do this by linking tagging retweeting or replying to other people's tweets regularly engaging with your audience shows potential followers that you're human and helps more people discover your brand unlike on some other social media platforms posting more often is better on twitter feeds on twitter move quickly so you should tweet frequently posting new content often can help you maximize engagement and increase followers as we discussed earlier a social media calendar can help you plan and publish regular tweets another tactic to increase your following on twitter is effectively using hashtags a hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the pound symbol that indicates that a piece of content relates to a specific topic or category hashtags make your posts searchable kind of like seo for your twitter account therefore adding a couple of hashtags to each of your tweets can help new followers find your account that being said be careful not to include too many hashtags in your tweets as this can be distracting you can also attract followers by adding eye-catching visuals to your tweets this could include anything from photographs to infographics to user-generated content images are more effective than text at grabbing people's attention and encouraging them to take a look at your post in fact tweets with images are far more likely to be retweeted than those without one twitter feature that can help you guide users to your profile is a twitter bio twitter bio allows you to introduce your brand they help you share what you do describe your products or services and describe what makes your brand special all in 160 characters or fewer the most effective twitter bios are creative original and capture your brand's personality be sure to include relevant keywords to help people find you in searches you can also add a link to your website and finally one more way to increase your followers on twitter is to promote your social media account through other marketing channels such as email your website or materials in your store there are many ways to gain followers on social media and the strategies you use will differ somewhat from platform to platform best practices like the ones we've described for twitter can be applied on a number of different platforms to help you increase your followers and your overall social media engagement coming up we'll discuss even more strategies for engaging your audience [Music] you can employ lots of great strategies to increase your engagement and followers on social media but they won't help your campaign succeed if the content you post isn't compelling to your audience how companies approach developing marketing content depends on the size and resources some companies may have the internal resources dedicated to marketing content others may outsource the creation of assets to freelancers or media agencies whether you're writing and designing the content yourself or coordinating its development with others you need to understand the principles for engaging content ultimately you are responsible for the content reflecting well on your brand and reaching your audience in this video we'll discuss best practices for writing social media content to begin make sure you write to your audience as we discussed before this means doing research to get to know them what are their interests and values what needs obstacles or challenges do they have if you want your audience to notice and engage with your social media posts you need to put their needs at the center of your writing think about their perspective and then describe how your business or product can improve their life this also helps to write as though you are speaking directly to each person in addition to considering your audience's perspective you'll want to learn to speak like your audience research the type of language your target audiences uses to communicate then use similar language in your content so that it will resonate with them you'll also need to be able to tailor your writing to each platform for example a post geared at professionals on linkedin should generally use different language than a post targeted at young adults on facebook that being said intentionally using language that differs from what people are used to seeing on a given platform can be very effective at grabbing their attention people are exposed to a ton of content on social media every day to catch your audience's attention in this brief time they're spending on your content keep your posts short and simple some ways to do this include avoiding jargon breaking up messages using headlines bullets and lists keeping sentences and paragraphs short and bolding important information this helps make your posts easy for your audience to scan and understand at the end of your social media posts include a call to action a call to action is an instruction that tells the customer what to do next calls to actions are used in many digital marketing channels such as display ads and email marketing on social media calls to action include things like asking your audience to like or share a post answer a question take a quiz read another piece of content go to your website subscribe to your newsletter or connect with you on another social media platform even if people find your content interesting and valuable they might not take any action after reading it a call to action encourages them to connect with you further although you should write social media posts in the language of your target audience your overall message should be written in your brand's voice your brand's voice is the distinct personality a brand takes on in its communications it's the language and the tone you use when writing your content or interacting with your audience for example your brand voice might be casual and conversational or it might be professional and serious your brand voice needs to be consistent throughout the content you create for all your marketing channels including social media this consistency helps your audience recognize and gain familiarity with you we will talk more about developing your brand's voice on social media later in this lesson last but not least as with all your marketing copy you definitely want to pay attention to grammar and spelling even if your brand voice is casual posting content with errors in it reflects poorly on your business nice work implementing these principles for effective social media writing can help you reach and engage your audience we'll continue discussing how to develop engaging content for social media throughout the rest of this lesson [Music] previously you learned some tips for writing engaging content on social media one best practice we discussed was writing in your brand's voice in this video we'll further explore what a brand voice is why it's important and how to develop one for social media to review a brand's voice is the distinct personality a brand takes on in its communication it's how the attitudes and values of a brand are reflected in all of its content developing a clear consistent brand voice is essential for a number of reasons to start it helps you stand out on social media in the crowded social media space having a distinct brand voice can make you more memorable and distinguish you from your competitors having a distinct brand voice also helps make your brand more recognizable this can increase your current and potential customers familiarity with your brand and your overall brand awareness and creating a brand voice is all about delivering consistent language and messaging across all of your marketing content this consistency helps build customers trust and loyalty now that you understand why having a distinct brand voice is important let's discuss how you can go about developing one for social media to start defining your brand's voice on social media first think about how you would like to describe your brand's personality if your brand were a person what would they be like what would they say how would they act what would their relationship to the customer be like would they act like a coach a friend or a parent think about some adjectives you might use to describe your brand's personality are you friendly upbeat and helpful smart confident and formal casual sarcastic and bold in order to further define your brand's voice review your company's current and past content study examples from all of your marketing communication to get a sense of what your brand voice is like currently how does your target audience speak and how do they interact with you what content has resonated with your audience in the past what language do they use from here you'll be able to get a sense of what your brand's personality is currently like and begin thinking about how to shape it further it's important that your brand voice be honest and authentic avoid complicated terminology acronyms jargon and anything else that might get in the way of your audience understanding your message rather speak naturally to your audience as you would if you were saying something to them in person audiences need to feel comfortable engaging with you online and want to speak to a real person having an authentic brand voice will help you form connections and build relationship with your customers in addition to developing your social media brand voice you can start thinking about a related concept finding your tone while voice is an expression of your brand's personality tone is how your brand's voice is applied the tone of your content can differ based on factors like audience situation and platform for example you might use an upbeat excited tone to describe the launch of your latest product whereas you would use a serious empathetic tone to convey support for community members who have just been through a natural disaster essentially you will have one brand voice but it will use many different tones to express that voice to help maintain consistency across all marketing channels companies often create brand voice guidelines these guidelines describe the way your brand should be presented in writing they include things like your brand's mission and values personality target audience common vocabulary and phrases tone in different situations or on different platforms and examples brand guidelines are a useful reference when you have to write in your brand's voice or review the work of others they can help multiple contributors create content that reflect your brand and ensures a brand consistency and as someone new to the field or organization they can provide helpful direction it's important to express your brand voice on social media because it helps you stand out from your competitors makes your brand more recognizable and builds your customers trust and loyalty coming up we'll tell you about black and bold a coffee company that values investing in communities representing diversity and producing and providing access to quality drinks we'll explore how black and bold expresses these values through their brand voice on social media meet you in the next video [Music] as a digital marketer posting on social media you need to know best practices for writing and designing new content whether you're the one developing it yourself or you're overseeing someone else's work however it can be time consuming to continually have to develop fresh content for all of your social media platforms for this reason it's useful to repurpose content on social media repurposing allows you to take your best content and make it do more work for you repurposing content is a process of recreating and republishing content in different formats for example you could take the content from one webinar and turn it into a video an ebook a blog post a podcast and a checklist besides saving you time repurposing content on social media has other benefits it can reinforce your brand's message give your content an seo boost and reach audiences who missed the post the first time you published it repurposing content also allows you to create something completely new and original from your existing images videos and text when considering what content to repurpose prioritize content that has performed well and can help you meet the goals defined in your strategy like driving more traffic to your website generating more leads or raising brand awareness another thing to consider is whether the content is ever green meaning that it will be relevant over a long period of time or time constrained for example event specific content would not be ideal to repurpose once you've selected high performing evergreen content to repurpose you can go about determining how to repurpose it there are endless approaches to repurposing content on social media and these will differ based on the platform you want to use a five-minute tutorial video may work well on youtube for example but it is probably too long for twitter here are a few common ways that you can repurpose content on social media let's start with lists or listicles listicles are articles written in a list format maybe you've posted a how-to guide with bullet points or a list of suggestions you can break that list up into a series of posts for instance your home improvement companies post on five ways to update your kitchen on a budget could become five new standalone posts each elaborating on the original list each post could provide additional information and links which increases the original post value for your audience you can also transform texts into images posts that contain data or statistics translate well into infographics for example images help readers understand complex concepts furthermore visual content generates high engagement than text so repurposing written content as images allows you to reach more people another creative way to repurpose content is to take fun or amusing video clips or animations and turn them into gifs a gif is an animated image a number of tools exists that can help you create fun eye-catching gifs that can help you promote your content you can also identify frequent questions on your social media platforms and answer them with an existing article by repurposing relevant content and linking it to your responses you build relationships and help others asking the same question find you there are many tools available that are designed to help you repurpose content these tools can help you do things like convert a podcast into a blog post create articles from short youtube videos and take a blog post and turn it into a podcast episode for example wordpress a tool that helps digital marketers create websites and blogs offer a feature that automatically publishes blog posts simultaneously as twitter threads with two extra clicks we've discussed just a few of the many ways to repurpose your social media content here you can research numerous other approaches to repurposing content or come up with your own you've learned so much about how to listen and engage with your audience and you'll soon get the opportunity to put these lessons into practice congratulations on finishing this video from the google digital marketing and e-commerce certificate access the full experience on coursera including job search help and start earning the official certificate by clicking the icon or the link in the description watch the next video in the course by clicking here and subscribe to our channel for more lessons from google career certificate
