The Power of Social Media:
How One Navajo Man Used His TikTok Popularity to Spread Awareness
By
Quenton Yazzie
Social media is powerful and has quickly become the backbone for consumer engagement and loyalty for businesses across all industries. After the year we had, it’s clear that a strong strategy is critical.
Social media can be used for a number of purposes: to encourage, communicate, share, and most importantly, influence. Companies have been able to utilize social media to create brand awareness and promote sales and support within the community. Smart companies invest in their social channels and content creators to help get their message across, much like Southern Solutions Environmental (SSE) did with me. I was able to bring a fresh set of eyes to their social channels.
There are many ways to keep brand awareness up. I like to schedule content that promotes the hard work SSE does within the Navajo Nation, and the changes they’ve made. I’ve updated all of SSE’s accounts to pro or business profiles, in order to gather more details and analytics on engagement. When it comes to community engagement, I’ve seen the most success with TikTok. I’ve been able to take advantage of the storytelling platforms to show what work we do and how we do it, creating a learning tool for employees and followers.
When used strategically, social media can be the most powerful marketing tool for a business. It allows companies to engage with customers (new and existing) but can also influence them to make a decision. But if used incorrectly, social media can do more harm than good.
There are so many different social platforms, the most popular being Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. But that doesn’t mean each channel is appropriate for a business to use. SSE is a U.S. contractor service specializing in biosecurity and viral pathogen containment, and although Instagram and TikTok are great channels to share what we do behind the scenes, a platform like Pinterest or Tumblr may not make sense. It’s important to keep your target audience in mind when planning for social posts, and the voice you use and the channel you share on are very important.
Engagement is also key. You want to do more than “ask for likes.” In fact, asking for likes is like asking for a compliment, and your followers will see right through it. You want to build an organic and transparent relationship with your followers. Ask questions and interact with followers as much as you can. If a post works, the audience will engage, follow, and hopefully share!
All in all, social media is an efficient and effective way to build trust with consumers. It’s something businesses ultimately can’t avoid as we live in a world that is very tech savvy and reliant. At SSE, we’ve seen the impact it can have on our community and our business, and I encourage businesses to really tap into the power of social media. It takes trial and error, trust me, but the outcome is so worth it. Good luck!
Quenton Yazzie is the Social Media Manager for Southern Solutions Environmental [@SSE_global].
