There are billions of mobile devices out there. It could be in a single-digit or double, I don’t really know but it’s in billions for sure. The number is increasing by the day too. The eyeballs, they are mostly in these two places – social media platforms and search engines. The first reality check I can’t deny.
Here comes reality number two. Social media, a place where the attention span is super duper short. 8 seconds or lower, they say. Fine. Search engines, on the other hand, have too many variables to comply before one could ever make it right at the smack of the first page. And one needs a website too.
Based on these two points, I need to somehow match them with my company’s capability since the journey is going to be a long marathon.
I run NSE, a social media management company. It is a ‘covert’ operation of a handful of people. Ambitious, creative and hardworking characters, that’s what they are. Yet this very small, well-coordinated team is managing a large number of clients across a few countries. Majority of the brands here aren’t small, they are large well-known corporations. The operation is no joke, heavy-duty I must admit.
Established since 2011, the company doesn’t even have a website. Due to this, we don’t play on search engines. Instead, we put all our effort into the social media side. And we can only do it in our spare time. We use our 8 to 12 hours a day time to manage our clients’ social media activities but to manage our very own is tough. Yet, we still have to do it.
With a limited time in hand, we know that we have to work very smartly. Social media management is a B2B game, therefore we need to only focus on platforms where B2B professionals are hanging out. We put a bet on two key platforms – LinkedIn and Facebook. The rest, not so much despite the fact that we also have a presence there.
Why?
You see, almost all professionals are on LinkedIn. Here is where NSE generates leads, 100 percent. When the leads become hot and they want to text us in real-time for more information, we bring them to Facebook. Most people have Facebook. So on Facebook, I take advantage of its Facebook Messenger feature. All of NSE’s real-time interactions are being done here. Why Facebook? Almost everybody has Facebook. Not everybody, almost everybody.
We believe Facebook Messenger is way better than WhatsApp too. Here, we can avoid exposing our private mobile numbers. On WhatsApp, we can’t. While Facebook Messenger is suitable for short and real-time instant messaging, it is however not suitable for long-form texting. It is also not suitable if there are documents to be attached too. When this happens, we would use a normal email interaction instead. Did you know email still works great?
Front-end strategy is one thing, back-end is another.
Preparing a clean, easy-to-understand communication process flow for the clients to understand is important for NSE. Not only the process, but the services offered must also be well articulated too. Then comes the biggest strategy among all – how to generate good leads taking into account the first two facts we read earlier.
If you must know, NSE uses a method called microcontent to generate leads.
What is microcontent? This is our version of what microcontent is all about. It is a super short content for us to establish a rapport with our audience, grab their attention by making them stop scrolling, read the content for less than a minute, understand the underlying message shared, indirectly persuade them to use it for their business or professional life and last but not least keep them coming back for more. It could be a short caption with or without images, simple infographic or short video. Basically, people come to drop by, read it and go. This is how our microcontent looks like.
How does microcontent work for us? Easy, we post no less than 3 times a day. Sometimes it can go up to 15 posts per day. It doesn’t have to be newly created microcontent all the way, we recycle older ones too. To us, quality and quantity are equally important. As we go along, our audience will start to depend on us for social media and digital marketing tricks. After seeing our social media posting more than 21 times or so, they are able to relate NSE as a brand with anything that involves social media.
It starts with their reading. Then they will have the urge to interact via likes or comments at the open comments section of the posts. Slowly they will privately text us for more specific answers to their specific questions. From here we know the winning chances are already at 50 percent. All we have to do is to wait. True enough, patience is a virtue. They will come voluntarily and offer themselves as a client.
With the right business and marketing strategies, no push work is required.
Frankly, you can’t convert a visitor into paid clients through microcontent only. Microcontent is just one of the many variables you need to address. It’s just one of the dots. There are many other dots involved.
