5 Tips To Jazz Up Social Media Marketing Of “Boring” Industries

When it comes to social media marketing, I used to have the misguided belief that some industries are inherently more interesting to market than others. Looking back, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Experience has taught me that with a creative mind and the right approach, social media can be used to laser focus public interest in just about anything.

How to do the social media marketing of a „Boring Industry”? – A Good Story

I learned that so-called “boring” industries are just ones without many compelling stories coming out of them at the moment. What is and is not “boring” is subjective and changes constantly. Social media is the perfect marketing tool here as it can create engaging conversations around nearly anything.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at three recent examples of topics that were deemed “boring” but have made a comeback thanks to some great social media storytelling:

• GameStop & trading. What better way to get people interested in a topic than a good David vs. Goliath story. In this instance, Reddit vs. Wall Street, where countless amateur investors bought stocks in GameStop, a company that many hedge funds had betted on going bankrupt. Interest in trading, especially amongst younger age groups, has increased, with many social media updates going viral.
• Queen’s Gambit & chess. Sales of chess books and chess sets were in decline for years before Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” came out. In the first month, over 62 million households in the US watched the show. Sales of chess sets subsequently went up by 87%, while chess book sales went up 603%.
• Pixar with literally anything. Pixar is the studio that made you care about the plight of inanimate objects, environmentalism and personified abstract concepts. Andrew Stanton, a writer at Pixar, and his team know exactly how to tell a compelling story about literally anything.

There’s one common theme that runs through the examples above — their story. Every product, company, and industry has a story that’s waiting to be told.

It’s all about how creative you’re willing to get to make something you think is “boring” into something that garners the attention of millions of people.

As Susan Erz once said, “Boredom comes simply from ignorance and lack of imagination.”

It doesn’t matter what product you’re selling or what industry you’re in; when it comes to marketing, storytelling is essential.

Storytelling is a universal language that everyone can understand. An article on social media storytelling by Jade Nguyen defines it as “the process of using facts and narratives to communicate and convey specific messages to the audience.”

So, where does social media come into play here? Well, there are numerous benefits of social media. It is the perfect platform for companies to practice their storytelling. It’s a tool that can open up your brand to an audience and create a relationship with customers.

In the next section, I’ll share some practical tips on how you can ensure your content does well on social media.

Six ways to ensure your content does well on social media

So far, there are two things to remember: there’s no such thing as a “boring” industry, and social media is the perfect vehicle for a well-told story.

That’s all good, but how can you put this into practice? Here are six methods that will help your content (no matter the industry) do well on social media.

Reach Beyond Your Core Audience

Ever heard of the “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon”? It’s a game where a random actor is chosen, and players connect actors who have been in a film together, repeating the process in six or fewer steps until a film with Kevin Bacon is discovered. The basis of the game is that all Hollywood actors are somehow connected to a film with Kevin Bacon.

Why am I bringing up Kevin Bacon? The game demonstrates the power of networks – how everyone has someone in common. If we apply this to social media, we can see the opportunity of marketing not just to your core audience but also to their network.

Think beyond just your core audience of your product. What’s something your core audience and their friends and family have in common? Focus on shareable content meant for friends and family of the core audience because chances are your audience will share it with their network.

It will help you spread word of mouth and strengthen your social proof – the best growth derivative on social media for small businesses working in boring industries.

Know Your Platforms and Have a Plan

Different types of content do well on different platforms. The key is knowing which platforms are best suited to your brand. Although you won’t know which platform works best until you test them out, a recommended method is to research where your audience is already hanging out.

If your audience is mainly on LinkedIn, then the chances are that having an elaborate Instagram content strategy might not be the best allocation of your resources.

Once you know your platform, you need to have a clear plan — random posting will get you nowhere. When it comes to creating your social media plan:

• Start with your goal in mind. What are you trying to achieve with your marketing efforts?
• Next, study your audience inside out. Do they have common interests? What kind of content are they engaging with already?
• Finally, create a social media content calendar to keep things organized. Consistency is key in the world of social media algorithms, and having a calendar can ensure you don’t miss a day of posting.

Being in Tune with the Cultural Zeitgeist

Stay true to your company and brand, but at the same time, stay up to date with what people are into and what they want to talk about at the moment.

A good way of keeping up with trends is through Reddit, Twitter trending, or BuzzSumo mentions. Another great way of staying in tune with the cultural zeitgeist is signing up for relevant newsletters. However, avoid getting drowned in email updates.

An email client, like Mailbird, can help you keep your inbox organized by setting up an automated filtering system. Moreover, you can set up an effective way of communicating hot news items with your team by integrating apps like Slack or WhatsApp.

Find Ways to Be Topical

Engage users in conversations through your company. Ever heard of newsjacking? Newsjacking is when a company aligns itself with a current event to boost the brand’s media attention and exposure.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how to effectively news jack:

1. Use social listening tools. Tools like SocialPilot let you find what people are talking about through their curation feature. You can then use post-scheduling to join the conversation at the most opportune time.
2. Choose a platform. This relates to the point above on knowing your platform and having a plan. Each platform excels at its thing, and as such, users will generally have different intentions when posting. For your plan to work, you need to tailor your content to that platform and its sharing methods.
3. Write your story. This is where you need to act fast. You want to be one of the first to publish a story; otherwise, you won’t receive nearly as much traffic. A good rule to follow when writing is to see what’s been written already and use your piece to fill in the gaps.
4. Promote the story. Get the story on your social media, send it to your newsletter, and do what you can so that your article gets attention. If you’ve done your job well, then hopefully, the story will go viral, and you’ll see a boost in traffic for your brand.

Show a Human Face

Don’t worry; you do not need to know everything about digital marketing to promote your brand on social media successfully. The main thing is to be as genuine as possible. People want to interact with other people, not faceless companies.

There are several ways to make your brand more relatable. These include:

• Using humor. When appropriate, humor is a perfect way to show personality.
• Don’t make your brand’s messaging a one-way street. Ask questions and interact with your audience. Be creative and go beyond asking them if they use or like your product.
• Respond in a way that drives conversation. People will remember your company if you engage with them in a meaningful way.

Keep it consistent with scheduling tools

Consistency is the key to running a successful social media marketing campaign. When I say consistency, it means creating content which is similar in terms of story, visuals, tone, and aesthetics with each other.

Also, posting on social media is not a one-off task. You need to maintain a constant flow of storytelling content on all multiple social media platforms to get substantial reach and engagement.

You need tools that enable you to draw out your plans and help you visualize them beforehand.

A social media scheduling tool such as SocialPilot can help you pre-visualize your whole calendar plan and schedule every post way ahead of time with its scheduling features.

Once you have the flexibility to schedule a whole month’s plan beforehand, it gives you enough time to brainstorm on content ideas and maintain your consistency easily.

Give SocialPilot a try – Start the 14-day free trial!

5 killer brand examples to learn social media marketing

You might be thinking the five tips I mentioned above are interesting, but how do I put them into practice? To demonstrate that any company in any industry can produce interesting content, I’ve listed five examples below to teach you something new about promotion.

KFC UK

KFC, in the UK, recently received negative press on its fries, with people calling them soggy and bland. The fast-food chain developed a new fry, but quickly realized it wasn’t selling well. Why? Because funnily enough, people were used to the old fries.

KFC UK’s response was the “Ain’t No Small Fry” campaign. Instead of hiding from the criticism of the old fries, they used it to their advantage to create a funny advert. This brilliant social media strategy both converted the haters and increased sales of its fries by 62%.

Axa

The insurance niche is both highly competitive and hard for brands to differentiate themselves. That’s why Axa’s social media success is so interesting.

Through heavy investment in social listening tools, Axa’s social media strategy has been to produce high-effort content that answers audience questions about complex, insurance-related questions in an accessible way.

Mr. Clean

If there’s one golden example of why industry doesn’t have to be limited in its social media strategy, it’s Mr. Clean. It’s not every day that a cleaning product becomes a media sensation, but it happened in 2017 with Mr. Clean’s super bowl advert.

In the advert, Mr. Clean comes to life as the perfect man who cleans the house. The advert sparked a debate online about whether it was creepy or funny. Either way, it got people talking and stayed in people’s minds long after the super bowl.

MailChimp

Social media can be used to promote things that aren’t just your product or service. Take Mailchimp and their Instagram page for example. Instead of talking about their email marketing functions, they decided to focus on highlighting their culture.

In fact, in light of the impact of Covid-19 on businesses, they’ve started interviewing customers to find new ways for small businesses to grow in these difficult times. They’ve named the report “How Small Businesses Are Finding New Ways to Grow: A Mailchimp Report.” On social media, they share snippets of the interview with their audience.

TSA

When it comes to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a continuous challenge for them is public perception. It’s no surprise then that their social media channels are mostly used as Q&A about travel restrictions, updates, and day-in-the-life-off type of content.

What we want to give special mention to is how they’ve approached their Twitter and video content. Taking a page from reaction channels, most of their Tweets have to do with the weird items they’ve confiscated, which they then use as an opportunity to educate their audience. Their YouTube series “They Brought What?” follows a similar concept, except you also see the reactions of the presenters making for a surprisingly entertaining watching experience.

Key Takeaways

So what are the key takeaways from these five examples? Basically, that nothing is ever too boring to sell, especially on social media. As for what you can do to promote your own services/products, here’s a list:

1. A good story is crucial. As Beth Comstock, the former Vice Chairwoman of General Electric, once said, “You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” You don’t need to be a Hollywood screenwriter; however, it helps to understand the fundamentals of how good stories are structured.
2. Aim beyond your audience. Focus on content that your core audience’s friends or family would also enjoy. That way, your core audience will share the content within their network.
3. Spend time planning and testing your content across different platforms. Just because you didn’t succeed on one platform doesn’t mean all social media doesn’t work for your brand. Try and test other platforms until you find the one that works for your brand.
4. Know what people want to talk about on social media. A successful story needs an audience that’s willing to listen. Understand what people want to talk about on social media. Use social listening tools if you’re unsure where to start.
5. Know how to talk about those things on social media. If you’re new to a topic, do some research before discussing the subject on social media.
6. Be human. Brands that do well on social media are relatable and human. Avoid having a faceless brand as this will make it difficult for your audience to develop a relationship with your company.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has demonstrated that you don’t need to be limited by how interesting your industry is to grow your brand on social media. Remember, using social media for businesses to market „boring industries” needs a fresh perspective.

It requires that you know your audience, both their pain points AND what interests them.

Whatever your company sells, you can create engaging content that will drive traffic to your brand. However, the key is to become a good storyteller because nothing beats a good story at the end of the day.