This week we’re going to discuss the social media workshop ‘How to blow away your clients on social media (and gain new ones)’ as presented by Roger Graham. This post is part of our DMSS series where we discuss some of the presentations that we attended at the Digital Marketing Skill Share (DMSS) 2018 conference in Bali.

Who is Roger Graham?

Roger Graham is the Head of Asia for Hootsuite, which is one of the most widely used social media management platforms. In this role Roger is responsible for expanding Hootsuite’s customer base and deepening strategic partner relationships to assist in growing Hootsuite’s business in Asia.

With over 20 years’ experience in business leadership, sales and marketing and a passion in entrepreneurship, Roger is an extremely knowledgeable and successful speaker, having presented at a range of different marketing conferences over the years.

The Workshop Details

The workshop itself was titled ‘how to blow away your clients on social media (and gain new ones)’. The DMSS conference explained that the presentation would cover the key steps to impress your clients and grow your business. The session was described to cover how to:

• Conduct a social media audit
• Create a social media marketing plan
• Set customised and realistic goals that impact the bottom line
• Create weekly or monthly reports to showcase the actual business value of your efforts
• Stay ahead on social before your client does

Starting the Presentation – And Introducing Hootsuite

Roger started the presentation by introducing Hootsuite and sharing a range of different marketing statistics. Including the following:

• There are 1.779 billion active social media users in the Asia-Pacific region.
• There are 1.713 billion active mobile social users in the Asia-Pacific region.
• There are 2.007 billion internet users in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Eastern Asia, Southern Asia and South East Asia are the top 3 regions for social media use.
• Thailand has the highest average time spent per day on the internet with an average of 9 hours and 38 minutes spent using the internet per day via any device. Following Thailand is the Phillipines, Brazil and Indonesia.
• The Phillipines has the highest average time spent using social media each day with an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes spent on social media each day via any device. Following the Phillipines is Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand.

All of these statistics showed the huge market potential that the Asia-Pacific region has in terms of social media.

Tip #1 Lead with Insights

The first tip that Roger gave was to lead with insights. Roger explained that typically the number one thing that a potential customer is interested in is what they don’t know, therefore it’s important to lead with insights. Show a potential customer what they don’t know.

Roger discussed the 3 steps to building value for clients. The first step was insight, where you make an impact by raising a concern about a customer’s business. The next step is impact, where you explain why that concern matters for the business, identifying the true cost of the status quo for the customer. The final step is value, where you reveal the new way forward with your unique solution that will solve the concern.

Tip #2 Propose Brand Collaborations

The next tip was proposing brand collaborations. Roger took us through a range of successful brand collaborations, from the collaboration between Levi’s and Google to the collaboration between Apple Music and Drake.

Roger explained that it’s important to continuously think about these types of opportunities and connect with people who you may be able to collaborate with. Roger explained that LinkedIn is a great place for connecting with people, suggesting that we connect with those we may want to partner with and begin discussing collaboration opportunities with them. While the though of reaching out to other brands to collaborate may seem nerve racking Roger explained that most brands are open to collaborating as long as you are a good fit for their brand.

For those working in agencies Roger said that you could assist in connecting different clients who may be able to collaborate together. Doing so can provide additional value from you to your clients.

Tip #3 Deliver Measurable Results

Roger’s third and final tip was to deliver measurable results. He explained that a client’s priority will always be value and ROI. As a client’s number one goal is typically to increase ROI and increase revenue.

At the start of a project you should outline the objectives and goals of the project and what metrics you should measure. Attached below is an example of this.

As tracking is significantly easier now that we are in a digital based society Roger explained that measuring metrics has never been easier. We can measure metrics throughout the entire customer journey from the awareness stage through to the advocacy stage. The full list of social metrics that can be measured throughout the customer journey is presented below:

What Can We Take From This Presentation?

This presentation provided us with 3 powerful tips that can assist agency owners/workers and business owners/employees around the world in blowing away their clients and gaining new clients on social media. In addition to these 3 fantastic tips, Roger opened many eyes to the huge social media marketing potential that the Asia-Pacific region has.

By Lydia Barley

With the rapid uptake of social media, which has become such an integral part of our day to day lives, it’s no surprise that social media marketing is also a key element to the marketing strategy of many businesses. If your business isn’t on social media, you’re missing out on an opportunity to engage with your existing customers and reach hundreds, possibly thousands of potential customers.

As fantastic as social media can be, the idea of being on social media can be extremely daunting to a number of businesses. To make the process a little less daunting we’ve put together 4 social media tips that will guide your business to social media success.

1.    Know your audience

Now I’m pretty sure every single social media blog post discusses the importance of knowing your audience. This blog is no exception. Knowing your audience is essential for social media success. Without knowing your audience you’ll have no idea how to appeal to them. Your social media strategy should be catered towards your audience. If you post content that means nothing to your audience, your social media efforts will be useless, which is a waste of time and resources.

Take the time to learn about your audience; what their interests are, what motivates them and what frustrates them. In addition to this you should know the demographics of your audience: where do they live, what is their age, what is their gender, what is their profession, what is their income, what is their education level? By taking the time to get to know your audience you will begin to recognise what content they are interested in and which content will bring you the greatest return from your social media efforts.

2.    Don’t try and be on every platform

For most businesses, particularly small businesses, it’s impossible to be effective on every single social media platform. Social media eats up a considerable amount of time and resources. If you try and be on every single social media platform available to you, you won’t have enough time to effectively create content and build relationships with your audience, which can impact both your budget and your success.

Make sure to have accounts on the platforms that your audience is on. And following on from our previous point, by knowing your audience you should recognise what social media platforms they commonly use.

3.    Don’t try and sell your product 24/7

As tempting as it is to want to push out sales posts to your audience, don’t. Social media is about being social, your audience don’t connect with you to be bombarded with ads, instead they want to connect with your business on another level. Focus on nurturing relationships, building trust and creating brand love – doing so will make you top of mind when your audience has the need for your product or service.

Instead of being salesy try and provide your audience with something of value; whether that’s entertainment or education. Depending on your business there are a range of different ways you can provide value to your audience, such as; showing the behind the scenes of your business, sharing recipes that include your product or showcasing tips and tricks for using or repurposing your product.

For example: The team at Ignite Search provide value to their audience in the form of educational videos and blogs.

4.    Take the time to engage with your audience and attract new audiences

In our final point we want to stress the importance of nurturing your audience, your social media strategy should never be to ‘post it and leave it’. Doing so will result in an unengaged (and potentially unhappy) audience. There are many different ways to engage with your audience, some of which are listed below:

• Liking and replying to comments
• Liking and commenting on photos that you are tagged in
• Replying to messages
• Sharing photos that were taken by your customers and clients

In addition to undertaking these activities to nurture your audience it’s important to take the time to engage with new people, with the goal of attracting new audience members. This step is often overlooked by businesses of all sizes however it is extremely effective in growing your audience. To attract new audience members, schedule some time each day to go through your social media platform and engage with new people. You can engage with them by liking or commenting on their posts. Doing so will result in that person noticing you, which could lead to them liking or following your page.

Hopefully by now, you feel a little more comfortable with the idea of effectively incorporating social media into your marketing strategy, and with our 4 tips you’ll be on your way to social media success in no time.you