Now that you know your target market, it’s time to look at what you bring to the table. Marketing on social media networks requires you to determine your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) just like in the rest of your marketing efforts. In fact, it might be even more important in social media because you’re competing with hundreds, even thousands of other voices vying for attention at the same time.
Find Your USP
When a person comes to your website, you still need to grab their attention, but there aren’t a bunch of other people shouting their status update or latest tweet all over the page. But that's the nature of the beast that is social media. Whether it’s the type of information you provide or your personality that shines through, there needs to be a reason your audience looks forward to your social media updates.
Start by thinking about why your followers are drawn to you. Why do they like and share your stuff? How are you easing their worries, helping them achieve their goals, or fulfilling their wishes? If you don’t already know why, just ask them.
Evaluate the Competition
If you’re still not sure what makes you different, take a look at other companies, including your competition, that you follow on social media. Check out what they do to make themselves standout. Come up with a list of about 10 companies and determine their unique social positioning. By no means do you want to copy exactly what someone else does, but by exploring it and finding the uniqueness, you will be able to find your own too.
Some of the things that might make you unique include the ability:
- to make people ask themselves tough questions
- to inspire people
- to make people laugh
This includes pretty much anything else that evokes a strong emotion or thought. How can you get your audience thinking and feeling about something?
Your uniqueness can also be found the type of media you are known for sharing, whether it’s images or video. But, there needs to be something unique about those images, videos or other media. After all, everyone and their dog has their own YouTube channel, but what makes your production different than everyone else?
Practice Self Development
One way to make sure your content is different is to realize that uniqueness requires some personal development too. It may sound airy-fairy, but it’s absolutely true. Offering something deeper doesn’t come because you want it to, it comes from being deeper yourself. That includes:
- Opening your mind to allow yourself to look at things from different perspectives. In addition to having your own opinion, take the time to understand different perspectives. The more you are able understand the opinions that differ from yours, the stronger your opinion will be.
- Avoiding simply copying what everyone else is doing. For instance, just because your competition is doing a series of videos on organic gardening tips, doesn’t mean you have to do the same. Keeping your audience's needs in the forefront of your mind will help you find your uniqueness among the masses.
- Sharing your opinion. Don’t ever be afraid to say what you think, even if it’s not conventional wisdom. It doesn’t matter if people think you’re wrong, the point is you’re getting people to think about what's is being shared and you’re showing that you are a person who is able to think for themselves as well.
The bottom line is that to stand out from the crowd, you need to dig deep to find your best self and serve your audience faithfully. Being unique really comes from breaking out of your shell and being the best you possible. Give it shot – the benefits will be well worth it both in your online business and your life!