“Know, like and trust” is the most widely taught framework in marketing, referring to the idea that you should be sharing content and stories that help your customers get to know you and decide to buy from you. To position yourself as the expert that can solve their problems.

Two questions:

• Is this your approach?
• How is your social media performance?

If the first answer is “yes,” and the second answer is “meh,” you’re far from alone. A recent report from Forrester that said 68% of people think that brands do not share interesting content. 😱

It’s the wasted resources part for me.

I can’t stand to think about how much time, energy, money, and human resources small businesses are wasting on content that our customers ignore. Meanwhile, any potential prospect that hits your profile and bounces away without following you because they don’t see themselves in your content is a potential lost sale, and every day you subscribe to this methodology is another day that you’ve delayed getting it right.

Why know, like, and trust doesn’t work for social media:

• It’s ego-centric and has nothing to do with your customers. That’s not how we socialize!
• It’s an “expert” based model that doesn’t make any sense at all for product-based brands…
• Regardless of what you’re selling, your customers don’t need to know that much about you. They need to know how well you know them. That’s what builds trust.

Are you open minded to hearing about a different way?

• Three custom content pillars that are aligned to your most important business goals: growing demand (audience growth), converting demand (sales), and driving loyalty (better profit margins).
• That first pillar is where you center the customer as the hero of your brand story. It’s about establishing mutual ground and common interest, providing value that will make an immediate impact on them.
• The second pillar centers your product or service, driving sales (you just need to approach this in a super specific way for it to work).
• The third and final pillar is where you finally get to talk about yourself (this drives loyalty and advocacy, if you do it right).

If this makes sense to you, then the next trick is in execution (something I don’t underestimate after 11 years as a content and social media marketer for brands like Burton Snowboards, Tata Harper, and W3LL PEOPLE).

If you want to learn how to apply this 3-Pillar framework to your own company’s content and social media program, register for our masterclass: The Zero-Waste Social System(going down LIVE on January 25th)!

I teach the exact three-step system that has empowered hundreds of brands to build growth-driving social media programs of their own over the past year with tons of examples from different industries. Register now and we’ll send you event details!

In your corner,

Katie