Is it possible that you are not connecting with your audience in a way that is meaningful to them? If you feel like your social strategy is becoming stale it could be time to look towards a greater source for inspiration as I had to do just recently for a client.
This might seem off topic, but bare with me for just a moment. I’m not sure how familiar you are with the works of Henry David Thoreau, however, if you’re a literature junkie like me, it’s likely you’ve come across his works once or twice before. One of my favorite quotes begins like this, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach…”
I had come to a point where I knew something in my social strategy needed to change. Or perhaps something new needed to be born. For days I pondered over this, what should I do? I could see my numbers coming to a crawl. I needed to come up with something FAST. Sound familiar?
At that time I decided to do the only thing I had left to do and take the advice of my old companion Henry (we’re pretty much on a first name basis now) and make haste to my favorite place to go this time of year where I knew I would find the inspiration I needed. If you haven’t guessed it already, I am talking about a walk in the woods (don’t judge, you’d do it too if you lived in Maine). Here is what the woods showed me on my walk: the three steps to a new and more meaningful approach to social media marketing.
Redefine Your Relationship
I have taken this walk among these very old green Giants hundreds of times and every time I have the same experience: I feel so small, like a spec on the Earth. For some reason this time my walk was different. I’m not exactly sure why, perhaps because I had a new focus. This time, I felt enormous, mentally speaking. I was more like the trees. I was connected to them, taking in their energy, breathing in the oxygen and exhaling the carbon dioxide. It was at this moment that I realized I had just redefined my relationship with the forest and drawn inspiration from this newfound relationship. That’s what I needed to do with my client’s brand. I needed to fall in love with it, as I had done with the old oaks and redefine myself as a part of their brand.
There are many paths, which one you choose doesn’t matter
My next thought on this walk was how many options I was faced with. Not just in the woods, but also in my current dilemma. How do you pick the right path when there are so many to chose from? It’s never a question to me when I’m walking. It’s subconscious. I go where my eyes and my heart take me. Why wasn’t I doing this in my social strategy? Why was I being so robotic? The idea is to experience the walk, not just get to point B. If I just wanted to rush through it, it’s doubtful anyone would want to come with me. The question I faced at this point was: now that I had redefined my relationship and fallen in love, how would I create experiences? More, how do I get others to do the same?
Let them see through your eyes, not as a marketer but as a person in love
The most incredible quality about social media is the abundance of opportunity to create shared experiences with mass amounts of people. When I walk in the woods, I want to photograph every single tree, every leaf, every flower I walk past. I have an innate desire to come right home and upload my photos to Instagram. Why? Because I want to recreate the feelings the trees create within me in others.
When you are creating posts for a brand, whether it be your own or someone else’s, the process should be the same. If you feel your social media is becoming stale or not having the effect on people you desire, perhaps it’s time for you to take a walk in the woods. Perhaps it’s time to redefine your personal relationship with the brand, see it with new eyes, fall in love, create a meaningful experience for yourself, and then recreate that experience for your followers. Good luck and feel free to share you comments (aka experiences) below!
Jennifer Grace is a freelance marketer who helps companies achieve results through strategic business development, content creation, and social media marketing. She is a writer, photographer, and lover of print. Her extensive experience in print sales and marketing helps printers authentically connect with their customers, prospects, and millennials. Jen is a contributor to Print Media Centr’s News From The Printerverse, and a regular at #PrintChat Wednesday’s at 4PM ET on Twitter.
Connect with Jen: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | jen@lovetreemarketing.com
