Social Media is not a Marketing Tool.

If you are using social media to build your business, it is no game. Social media is a valuable tool in modern marketing, but it takes a whole brand new way of thinking. You’ve got to think like a social media user and not a business. On your personal social media accounts, you use social media as a lifestyle tool if you like rather than a way to get people to buy something and that is how you should see it working for your business. I’m not saying you should not sell, but you have to take an approach that perhaps you’re not used to. You have to be able to express the lifestyle of your brand through the content that you share. First and foremost.

That being said, I want you to think of these the aspects of building your tribe on social media and content creation that will successfully develop your brand.

1. Build Brand Culture

Most businesses are very structured, and they run in offices, and they have certain operations that they perform. And marketing usually means adverts, commercials and cold calling. Moreso in the past but still very much so for even the most established business. And so what happens Social media becomes another tool for companies to tell the world about what their company does, the services they provide and goods they sell but social media does not work that. It’s not another advertising tool. You can place ads on social media, but social media itself is for socialising and entertainment.

Social media has been designed to connect people. It connects people who like or want to like one another. The people within Social media groups and followings have similar hobbies, interests. They have particular buying habits, aspirations, perhaps backgrounds and perceptions of life. And it’s crucial your company is astutely in tune with the culture of your intended customers. And then you must create your own culture that embodies some of these similarities that are also relevant to your brand story.

What story are you trying to tell? Where does the brand culture meet audience culture? How do we create content that communicates we have the same culture as the customers that we are attracting and how do we create content in a way that matches the real purpose of social media. These are essential questions for the people with your company to answer because they reveal solutions towards building your tribe.

2. Have a Voice

Tribes are all about relationships; relationships involve talking. You’d think this was obvious, but I’m still not seeing enough brands talking with customers. If they are talking, it seems like they talk at customers. Grave Mistake. Talk to your customer as you would a friend or someone that you want to build a long lasting relationship with. Get to know one another. Do the podcasts, do the lives, the videos, the life one-to-ones — all of that. If your company does not, you haven’t understood the vehicle of social media, and you will be left behind. You have no option but to develop a voice on social media.

3. Create a sense of belonging.

Another aspect of tribe development is creating a sense of belonging. There must be a way that your audience feels they belong to the brand culture. They must feel that they are your equals, that you share a commonality, and yes while it’s true that your fans have an aspiration that you are leading them towards and helping them to fulfil, you have to be careful not to alienate audiences.

Social media is a very level playing field, and audiences want to be able to feel that they belong in the same circle as their influences or at least believe that what they see their influencers achieving is attainable for them in their own lives. If you talk at or down to customers, you lose them. You may be the influencer, leading audiences towards an end goal but you have got to be relatable and real.

Now these pointers that I have given today are incredibly important because many people, especially organisations and the larger the organisation, the harder it becomes; many organisation almost make social media an outside tool or an add on. It’s not an add-on; it requires a culture shift in your company.