How To Get A Hole In One In Digital Marketing
Years ago, I made a gold trophy from an orphan golf ball, cardboard cone, and some spray paint. You see, my hubby got his first hole in one while golfing, and that was a BIG deal! Some golfers go their entire life without getting a hole in one. I’m going to guess that the feeling he had when he realized he had gotten an “ace” felt more amazing than when I first had content go viral on social media, but I bet those feelings were pretty similar even still. It’s fun when something you create or you curate goes viral on social media. The reality is that you won’t have viral content all the time. However, just because you know it won’t happen every time, doesn’t mean you stop aiming for it!
Here are a few similarities I saw when I compared viral content to golfing…
Pure Luck
Sometimes a hole in one can be just pure luck. While rare, you could have the wind just right, the course just right, and your muscles just happen to operate that golf club just right, and you have no idea what you did to get that hole in one. Sometimes that happens on social media. The audience conditions might be just right, you just happen to put it out there on a platform that works, and you just happen to pull the right content out of your pocket at the right time. You may not have done anything intentional, but it just goes viral. It’s just luck.
Precision
As a seasoned social media manager, viral posts happen more and more. And while I’ll often call it just luck at the moment, I know that there is something innate in me that knows about how audiences behave, how social media platforms perform, and what kinds of information will be relevant to audiences. Over time, a good social media manager will have gut feelings about what kinds of posts and information will perform well. It comes from years of “swinging the golf club,” if you will.
When you are starting off a new strategy for your social media, take note that it takes a little bit of time to understand your audience and learn patterns. Don’t be discouraged if you have to try a few things to learn what your audience responds to best. This is why we encourage businesses to commit to a social media strategy for at least 6-9 months. This allows you to tweak the strategy as you go with the same team. When you constantly switch things up, you can’t see patterns or learn from past campaigns.
New Courses
One of the most fun things about golf is getting to golf on different courses. The landscapes are different and challenging in different ways. The same is true on social media. Twitter is different from Instagram. Facebook is different from LinkedIn. They all have different challenges, obstacles, and opportunities. A savvy golfer, or social media manager, will read the landscape to decide what strategies are best to employ in that environment.
When you understand your landscape more fully, you can make wise decisions to hit closer to the hole, or even get a hole in one. You could become an expert on LinkedIn in October of 2013, but it will be drastically different in October of 2015. You have to be comfortable with watching your digital landscapes and willing to adapt to new changes on that digital platform.
Muscle Memory
So much of success in golf comes from muscle memory and the practice of taking swings with different clubs at different distances. You have to stay in shape to continue to improve as a golfer. The same is true with social media marketing and content marketing. You need to have consistency with you strategies in order to improve your digital footprint. Sporadic postings will not benefit you anywhere as much as consistent content creation and social media interaction.
Social media takes skill and changes constantly. As involved as a game of golf can be, so too, social media and content management can be an involved process when done correctly. It’s not impossible, though! An expert in social media and content marketing will ultimately be able to help you take your brand from hitting into the weeds to hitting more hole in ones.