Facebook came onto the scene back in the mid noughties and changed the face of online communication forever. Back then it was great tool to snoop on your ex-boyfriend or connect with people you went to school with to see if they had really achieved what they said they wanted to. I remember my cousin (who is 13 years younger than me) telling me around that time that Bebo was the best social platform and Facebook was for “older people.” Ahem, and how did Bebo work out for you?
Facebook developed at pace, it looked for other opportunities and it continually learned (in those early years at least) to update, adapt and change to the needs of the user and its underlying principles. It also had a great story of it's inception (which became much less fluffy in the 2010 film, The Social Network) which inspired people sitting in their bedrooms dreaming of making a fortune online. The story appealed to students and those in their early 20s (their core users at the time) because it connected to them. It sparked something in people dreaming of making their mark on the world through technology.
But then it changed. It was no longer the platform for the in crowd, it was the platform for everyone. Your Mum, your Auntie, her dog, your driving instructor and guess what? they all wanted to be Facebook friends with you. You started to see endless posts about cats, school uniforms and trips to the pub which were punctuated with check ins and images of their food. Everyone was sharing their likes and dislikes (literally) and with all this data businesses wanted in. And here in lies the issue.
Because Facebook started as an individual platform, some businesses developed the misconception that it was easy. It only takes a couple of minutes to take a photo and post - right? Of course it does, but does the post content speak your brand voice? Does the image reflect your message? Are you posting the message at the right time? Are you tagging relevant people? Yeah, of course the post takes two minutes but the strategy behind it takes time and most importantly skill.
Social media should be given the same respect as any other marketing tool and it takes resource, it takes time to nurture and grow your profile and lots of careful planning to build a network who will become your key client base.
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