Abide by the “3 Cs” when it comes to social media.
Conversation, Community, and Curation are the “3 Cs” of social media. Everything is based from the main “C” which stands for Content development with a purpose. Since the cannabis industry cannot pay for digital media, all MarijuanaRates.com traffic comes through organic marketing. A lot of our traffic and brand recognition is due to the 3 C’s.
Conversation
Think before you speak is a saying heard many times from educators to their students. The same rule applies for online conversations. Don’t post or send a message without reading through what you are writing. Consider your audience and PLEASE don’t use the word “should.” Pose questions and gather input. Thank your responders and just be genuine. Fakeness can be seen quickly through words and online conversations.
- Create your own platform to speak to your target audience. For example, if you want to discuss personal finance for cannabis, now you can here. Before I created a sub-reddit, I participated and still participate in other sub-reddits but felt it was time to launch our own.
- Comment on posts and genuinely show interest in points made by blogger and comment as early as possible on the post; provide some insight or offer another angle.
- Pose questions and find specific problems, tasks or goals associated with our audience. Pose them as questions on influencer’s social media post or blog.
- Share your content within a comment or in response on a Facebook or Instagram post, offer a link to content that answers someone else’s concern.
- Respond to existing conversations and jump into a comment thread on a blog, reply to a Twitter conversation, LinkedIn postings or just Like or Heart some good sentiments.
Community
Besides the typical social media networks, look for niche sites or forums. Reddit has grown into a great place to connect to individuals and companies who want to discuss specific topics. A connection in my network made this suggestion for MarijuanaRates.com and it has been one of the greatest suggestions. We have been accepted into a few of the marijuana forums and everyone is willing to help us with our editorial.
- Leverage influencers and followers to create events, Tweet chats, Facebook Live events, Instagram stories, AMAs, and Google Hang-Outs.
- Coordinate with in-house experts and selected influencers.
- Leverage influencers with greater footprint than you.
- Format with specific questions that can be used in articles or videos afterward.
- Record the event.
- Use email newsletter distribution to internal contacts and your network.
- Once you have 50-100 relationships, consider offering a newsletter.
- Attend events and conferences to reinforce relationships.
- Create a reason and strategy for this information that provides value.
- Shake hands, get a coffee, and interact.
- Use prize driven contests and hashtag creation.
- Leverage “sweepers” to gain attention to your topic.
Content Curation
- Read and research authority websites, blogs, publications, associations for high-quality content. Post or tweet with a point from the content. Possibly use a question to create engagement. Use:
- Partner content
- Influencer content
- Industry associations
- Share this content on proper networks, based on topic and target audience.
- Change message “marketing copy” to connect with your audience.
- Curate from past contributors to create notifications to current followers. This keeps your activity always current and relevant.