Take a good look at this mailbox:
Is this a great mailbox or the greatest of all time?
As the Chief Creative Officer of a social media marketing company, Five Seasons Media, that proudly calls the “corn state” home, I feel obligated to go with the latter. If it were goat themed, however, I could be convinced otherwise (looking at you Lowe’s, make it happen).
It wasn’t until I saw this mailbox that it hit me: mailboxes and social media marketing have a lot in common. On one hand, while anyone can obtain either a social media account or a mailbox easily, getting either to stand out and leave a lasting impression is a challenge that takes a professional.
It’s not enough to grab someone’s attention and not give them something in return. In the case of this mailbox, it’s functional. The postal delivery person will keep coming back.
For you and your social media page, you have to deliver a message worth sharing and encourages people to continue to interact with your brand.
To be fair, if this mailbox were a Facebook page, it would be the equivalent of one that exclusively shares cat videos. While it certainly would get views and drive engagement (it never ceases to amaze me how many people love watching cat videos), where it would struggle is converting those views into sales.
As I’ve said before, good digital content comes down to storytelling. If you want to increase your digital footprint, tell a good story. With cats, you will never be surprised with how they continue to surprise you. I’m not going to say they’re storytellers but when they’re captured on video, there is definitely something happening along those lines. If cats can figure out how to monetize their daily lives into a scalable business, watch out Elon Musk.
Every business has a story.
Let me be clear: Every. Business. Has. A. Story.
Beyond industry buzzwords and digital algorithms, the best indicator of whether a piece of content will do well on social media or not comes down to if it emotionally resonates. In our case, we’ve done work with companies that sell expensive heavy machinery to tech companies that produce apps for your smartphone to winemakers and everything in between. I can assure you, if you can give people a compelling reason to engage with you they will.
If your goal is to sell a product online, don’t focus on trying to make a sale, as has been done with traditional TV advertising for decades. In short, people do not watch ads, they watch stories. If what is happening to television providers isn’t enough evidence to convince you of this new reality, ask yourself this: do you watch a program and look forward to the commercials? Unless you’re watching The Bachelor, the answer is no.
Your target audience, whoever they may be, is becoming increasingly discerning at being able to identify what is an ad. If they think you’re one of the hundreds of ads they see a week, chances are they’ll swipe down and move on to the next piece of content.
The bottom line: try and be a corn themed mailbox and make a lasting impact.
This blog article was written by Five Seasons Media’s Chief Creative Officer, Josh Scheinblum. For questions about how Five Seasons Media can help your organization, please contact Josh via email at Josh@5SeasonsMedia.com.
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