C.R.A.V.E and why it's a great strategy for social media

In yesterdays post I went over how to ID and why you need a target audience. If you missed the piece, here's a handy link:

https://www.writingforums.org/entry/identifying-your-target-audience-reader.64327/

So, you've got your target audience, now what? Yeah, they're essential, but how does that help you in marketing your latest endeavor? Today we'll be taking what we've learned a step further by discussing the CRAVE method and how it can help you take your social media to that next level.

CRAVE is an acronym used for a set of five elements which can help you build and engage your social media audience, get around pesky algorithms, and make your platform all that it needs to be. These five strategies revolve around content, reliability, asking questions, providing value, and audience engagement.

Content- As many of us know, not all content is created equal. It's evident everywhere you look online these days. Here in the forum, the endless sea of blog posts available, and so on. With so much information available online, it can become easy to fall through the cracks with your platform. The solution? Provide and become a source of quality content. The type of content that your reader actively seeks out. A few examples of this might be The Bangor Main Police Facebook page, their Sgt TC posts hilarious pieces that have become a staple online, and garner attention all over the country. The point is people actively seek out the page and don't necessarily wait to receive updates via their feeds for this page. TC achieved this by brandishing a razor-sharp wit while reciting overly fictionalized events, and by promoting the departments Duck of Justice. Twitter has many equally funny examples like Ryan Reynolds, and the list goes on.

Reliability- I know this isn't my strong suit, but that's why it's on this list (which I didn't create btw). The problem for many of us is that to get to the point where people crave our posts/interaction we have to provide reliable content. It may not always be funny, but it should be consistent, and it should be on average good content. Everyone has a bad day, but you still need to post and stick to whatever your posting schedule is.

Ask Questions- So much of social media marketing anymore is driven toward engagement, which we'll talk about later, but equally important is drawing your audience in. That goes hand in hand with feedback. It can make or break a platform if you don't have feedback from your audience. They also need to know that you care what they think. Asking questions starts a dialogue that will benefit both you and your audience innumerably.

Value- Even in our digital world readers/audiences need a sense of value. They're giving you their time and attention in exchange for something that they hope will be of equal or greater value, usually knowledge of some kind. Know your audience, and always offer them something of value. This will also drive them to seek out your platform over others, and keep them coming back for more even if you aren't necessarily toppling their news feeds.

Engagement- This is another biggie that I struggle with. Engaging people has been hard for me. But I'm learning that to engage a platform it means more than just trying to get a dialogue going. Sometimes it means letting your audience know that you're there for them. How do you do that? As we talked about yesterday, this step involves being active in the places where you are finding your readers to haunt most frequently. It could mean being more involved in a forum, local events, or in online groups. Where ever your target audience is, so should you be.

As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. If you feel like there is something you’d like to see me cover, or I haven’t covered correctly, please leave a comment below. Happy writing!

-Corbyn