Page 71 - The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business - PDFDrive.com

in a bottle out into a vast (and apparently lifeless!) ocean. There was just no
connection.

While this result may seem depressing, let’s return to the actual result and
consider the digital dynamics at work. The ability to create content that moves
through the Internet is a legitimate source of power. In fact, this is most likely
the only source of influence I had with any donor! Think of the incredible
potential we all possess. From a standing start in 2008, I created a global
community who responded to an appeal in one blog post and contributed $6,000
in 48 hours. And that’s pretty cool.

Clearly, not all social media fans and followers are created equal. Here are
three lessons from this case study:

The initial audience connections made through social media are weak links
that don’t drive action on their own.
Building emotional connections and relationships with these weak links can
convert them to a loyal strong link Alpha Audience that you can activate.
Influence doesn’t come from audience size alone.

Don’t confuse “activity” with audience

If you think your careful attention to social media analytics, monitoring, and
customer relations means you know who is in your Alpha Audience, think again.
All that social media data may be misleading you—because it’s only showing
you a narrow and atypical slice of your customer base.

Research reveals2 that almost 90 percent of what you hear on social media
comes from fewer than 30 percent of the most vocal social media users. And
they’re fundamentally different from the quieter folks who make up the vast
majority of your online audience (and potentially your most important Alpha
Audience members). Don’t mistake quiet for irrelevant. Even though they’re
barely posting, the vast majority of lurkers can still be very loyal, sharing your
content through more private “dark” modes like text messages, email, and word
of mouth.

You can’t necessarily use loud social media enthusiasts as a proxy for your
customers as a whole. I’ve learned this time and again—often people who are
completely off the social media radar are out there quietly igniting my content,
recommending my books, and sharing my ideas in ways I can’t measure. I’ll
cover this phenomenon more thoroughly in Chapter 11.

The awesome power to ignite