August 1, 2003 a new concept of interacting online was launched. It was called MySpace and while it didn’t take off straight away, it was what a lot of us had our first experience of social media with.
A year later what was to become Facebook was launched though most of us didn’t arrive on it until 2008.
Instagram arrived in 2010.
And about a year later an app called Picaboo was launched that would later be called SnapChat.
All this means that
Social Media now over 20 years old.
And despite two decades of learning about it, using it and running businesses on it, it seems that we still have no idea how to use it as businesses.
And that’s mostly because…
We can’t seem to stop trying to sell things on it.
And I suppose it’s understandable. We grew up with Harvey Norman selling us televisions and mattresses on TV. We grew up with catchy jingles selling us soft drinks on radio. And some of us might even remember picking up a newspaper and seeing more ads than news in them.
Everything we know about advertising comes from the advertising we saw growing up.
That’s until we learned to ignore it. And thus began the downfall of traditional media as the internet taught us that we can block ads or pay to avoid them.
Which gets me to thinking…
Why do we hate ads so much?
They are the backbone of modern media and they’re the whole reason why social media still exists. If no one bought ads, then these platforms wouldn’t exist as they’d go broke within a year. But have you ever considered that
If no one acted on the ads, no one would buy them.
The confusing fact about advertising is that we universally hate ads, but they seem to work. Because if they didn’t, no one would advertise. So why do we hate ads, but still allow them to guide our purchasing decisions?
A few years ago, Meta commissioned Neilsen to conduct a massive consumer survey to find out what it was about ads that made them work.
Amongst the many findings was the one thing that made any kind of online content appear as “premium” to the viewer.
Relevance.
People ovrerwhelmingly listed relevance to them as the number one reason why something would seem premium - and it was that premium nature that could turn an ad from an annoyance to something compelling enough to respond positively to.
And it makes sense.
It is important to make sure that the message appeals, and so is relevant, to your target audience.
Otherwise, you will become yet another speedhump on someone’s way to the content they actually want to see.
An Infogroup study even showed that 90% of consumers find it annoying to receive messages not personally relevant to them.
Do you really want to annoy 90% of your audience?
So, how do you make what you’re presenting as relevant as possible to your audience?
1. Address a common problem that most of your audience experiences.
Those who don’t have that problem will drop off, and that’s ok. But because you’re being relevant to most of them, the ones that matter will stick around.
2. Mention something you noticed that most of your audience would either be entertained by or be curious about. Again, some people will be annoyed by it. But it won’t be 90% of them.
3. Be funny. You’d be surprised by how many people leverage their sense of humour to get attention online and then continue to keep that attention. Humour is like a lighthouse in a stormy world. Sure, not everyone is going to like you, but then, do you really want to work with those who don’t?
There is always going to be one thousand things you want to say about yourself or your business.
And your potential customer doesn’t want to hear about any of them. Because absolutely no one goes on to social media to be advertised to.
Be relevant. Be premium. Be successful online.
4 май 2024
