1. You can’t put it out there and walk away: So much of traditional media involves putting up an ad on a billboard, or on TV, walking away and waiting to watch your sales soar. Digital Marketing doesn’t work that way. You can’t put up a Facebook post, or content on your website without continuously checking how many people are commenting on it, reading it or clicking on it. Remember it is a blessing that you can be agile and change your strategy half way through if people aren’t engaging, but you have to spend the time and effort monitoring your content.
(So, always keep a spare pair of plain regulation kneesocks in your locker, incase halfway through the school day the principal sees your fancy socks and asks you to change.)
2. Try something new: There are so many platforms out there to converse with consumers, and you won’t know if it will work until you try. Now, this isn’t to say you should have a presence on every single platform that exists, but don’t hold back. Just because you as an internet user are not a fan of Twitter, doesn’t mean your customers aren’t using Twitter. The same goes for content, don’t be afraid to try something new.
(Don’t put on all your pairs of kneesocks at once and don’t be afraid to try out that bold new polka dot pair of kneesocks.)
3. Don’t just rely on the metrics: Everyone loves to see more likes and traffic on a page. Numbers are important. But the comments users leave, as well as what they are liking and what they are spending time viewing are equally if not more important than metrics. Take notice of this, and use it to figure out what resonates with your audience.
(Dear High School Disciplinarian: As more and more of us started “bending the rules” on our uniforms, it wasn’t to create a school wide rebellion. We were just teenagers trying to figure out who we were and what our style was. Thanks for giving us extra time to think about our style while we sat in detention for not following the dress code one too many times.)
4. Visual is everything. Aesthetics can make or break a digital experience. The text and content might be great, but if a consumer gets to the page and immediately feels overwhelmed or not enticed to stay on the page, chances are they will never get to the great content. This does not only relate to images and pictures, it is important for text layout as well. Keep it simple, well designed, eye catching and easy to navigate. Once you hook them, they will come back, but not hooking them due to poor visual design is an unnecessary reason to lose your audience.
(If you’re going to stand out by wearing patterned kneesocks, you better make sure that pattern looks good, because it is going to get noticed.)
5. Be yourself & show your human side: At the end of the day, it’s still about human interaction. People have computers, but people are not computers. They are still impulsive and gravitate towards what they feel strong emotions for. People still want to be loved. Be personal, have a human (not a computer) respond to comments both good and bad. Show that you care about them so that your relationship is not one they ever choose to walk away from.
(I didn’t make friends in high school because I wore patterned kneesocks, but rather because of the loyal, fun and outgoing person I was. I like to think I’d still have the same friends with or without my patterned kneesocks.)
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| By the end of senior year, uniform violations were in full swing for the class of 2005. Take note of the uniform offenders: patterned kneesocks, colored undershirts, sweaters and sweatshirts. No one dared to try this until we knew we had already met all of our requirements to graduate. I am in the 2nd row, third from the left. |
