Mind it. Mindset matters!

There is a clear divide in the mindset of people using the social media space, between personal and professional. You may not have noticed it, but if you look at your own usage of Social Media, you will understand what I am talking about. When you log in to Facebook, you are primarily looking at spending some time to reconnect with old friends from school but in Linked-in, the same you are looking for career opportunities. Understanding this mindset divide will naturally help marketers target their messages more accurately, increasing the penetrability and effect.

People approach platforms like Facebook with a casual frame of mind and are either there to socialize or stay in touch, or to be entertained and kill time. However, people approaching platforms like Linked-in are more purposeful in their mindset and are there to refurbish their personal brands, hook up with people the perceive to be useful, search for better career / business opportunities and to be present in the happening space.

Going by the same vein, people in FB will be looking for updates from friends and family, latest on the entertainment field and other information of personal interest, while those in a more professional platform will be looking for career enhancing information, updates on various brands and companies and matters relating to news and current affairs.

Thus, social media marketers must recognize the divide and create their content in a manner that it has the maximum impact. A five step approach should suffice:

01.   Recognize and Divide. Recognize the difference between personal and professional. Personal Media platforms for example are Facebook, Twitter and Printerest. Professional Media platforms will include Linked-in, BranchOut, BeKnown, Xing and Viadeo.

02.   Marry Message to Mindset. Maximize the effectiveness of your message by aligning your brand with the right emotion.

03.   Confucius Say. Engage the seekers of information with meaningful and targeted content.

04.    Teach & Preach. Explain how your brand can help professionals in their quest.

05.   Relate & Equate. Engage in conversations and build meaningful relationships. Participate, share and above all listen.

Content writers will do well to remember these points while they go about perfecting their messages. For example, understand the mindset of people in Facebook, they can use a slight, playful tone to talk about their products and services. There is no need to subject recipients with an in-depth banter or deluging them with information that they will be in no mood to access.

However, people in professional platforms – even the same people from Facebook, when they are in, say, Linked-in, will be more receptive to hard news and information about brands, products or services. Remember content wallahs it is not who you are targeting alone, it is also where he is and what kind of a mind frame he is in that will determine the success or failure of your message.

Social media success too is a mind game. Not only is it about unraveling the mysteries of the targets mind, but also about the intrinsic art of telling him your story in the manner he wants to hear it. I guess that is what being a raconteur is all about. Isn’t it?
- Chawm Ganguly