Social Media Marketing Services

In addition to the one-off and continuing copywriting work that I carry out, I'm also asked whether I offer social media marketing services. Well yes, I do. In essence, social media marketing taps much more deeply into aspects of consumer psychology than website text alone, as it's much more time-sensitive and interactional.

A number of clients retain my social media marketing services on a monthly basis, with the fee for this based on their needs. If you know my views on freelance copywriter prices, you'll know I'm a fan of clear and simple pricing policies - but nothing's clear and simple in the social networking space.

Rather, it's about setting a level of engagement - producing and promoting content via Facebook and Twitter, responding to customer concerns, developing a chatty persona. Not all of the available options will suit every company, and often the scale of activity will be guided by how well a particular page or profile is embraced by other social network users.

These are real people - it's impossible to predict how well they will respond to any one effort. Compare how well Cadbury's Gorilla advert was received with how poorly its Spots vs. Stripes campaign performed. Could you have known in advance which would build the buzz, and which would see the bubble burst?

Social Media Marketing via Twitter

Twitter is a great platform for social media marketing. You can see who's following you, who's tweeting at you, who's retweeting you and who's listed you as part of a group of like-minded tweeters. In return, you just have to occasionally come up with 140 characters or fewer - in fact, shorter tweets are preferable for a number of reasons (including, but not limited to, the fact that people can add their own brief comment when retweeting you).

You can adopt any one of a number of personas on Twitter - tech support to help turn disgruntled customers into repeat custom, industry participants by working with your competitors, rather than against them, or the much-coveted 'thought leader' moniker that comes with insightful blog posts and alerting your followers to the latest news developments in your sector.

To discuss the options, contact me via email or on Twitter.

Social Media Marketing via Facebook

Facebook is a tougher cookie to crack - I won't lie about that. But like all cookies, it can crumble, and those crumbs can be mighty tasty. The difference between Facebook and Twitter is that, on Twitter, all you need to come up with is 140 characters now and then. On Facebook, you're basically combining short-form status updates with longer posts updating your fans or group members with your latest offers, views or any other information you want them to read.

I personally believe Facebook takes more effort - it's much harder to bring fans to your page, rather than, as on Twitter, to simply engage them in conversation on their own territory. But it can be done, and if this is your chosen route to success I'd be happy to help you lay the foundations and build your profile accordingly.

To discuss the options, contact me via email or on Twitter.

Social Media Marketing via Blogging

Blogging is something of a crossover platform - you're producing site content (if your blog is within your main website's URL structure) or, at least, content that will remain search-visible even after its 'moment' has passed. You can apply the rules of on-page search engine optimisation to it, increasing the amount of search traffic that reaches the page, but it's also very much linked to social networking.

On social networks, blog posts are a kind of currency - they portray you as a thought leader, or as responsive to industry issues. They feed people's hunger for news. They give you something to tweet about, when all your other tweets fall flat. Something to pad out your sparse-looking Facebook company profile. If the post is good enough, it may even drive readers to hit that all-important 'Like' button.

Most importantly, blog posts are subject to less stringent rules than the 'actual' pages of a site. They can be a bit more frivolous, a bit less necessary to your day-to-day operations, yet they still help to bulk out your site.

To discuss the options, contact me via email or on Twitter.