Thousands of marketing directors log on to social media each day to monitor and post for their respective businesses. Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin are among popular sites to troll. In today’s digital world, it is ingrained in all marketing managers to implement a social media strategy. We write up a plan, come up with posts, and go for it. Sometimes responding to customers can be a primary focus, or it can be left alone. We know it’s valuable, but what exactly is the value of using social media to reach our target audiences?
Followers will promote your positive reputation.
It seems as though the easiest, most effective way to get in touch with your customer base is on social media. Keeping your followers happy by responding to comments and complaints goes a long way. The theory of an innovative idea of communicating with prospects online has now become commonplace and a business necessity. If you introduce your customers or prospects to the online voice of the company, they will feel more loyal to your brand, especially if you keep up with the comments. Followers are more likely to promote your name on their personal pages if the response you give is helpful. Another free advertising post for your company would be if your followers share the compelling content you post. This creates awareness of your business as well as creates customer loyalty. You can’t measure that in dollars, but in sense it will drive your sales upward.
Lead generation will be increased.
Ad-ology put out a Small Business Marketing Forecast in 2010 and their statement that 50% of small businesses see that lead generation is the largest benefit of social networking. This was five years ago! That percentage has increased significantly. Other stats were taken to showcase the effect forums have on potential buyers. Almost eighty percent of forum contributors assist friends in product decision making, and also close to seventy percent share advice in person based on information posted by a company online. Talk about word-of-mouth marketing.
Social media allows for one-to-one marketing.
According to Forbes, the formula for 1:1 marketing is Mobile Devices + Triggers + Social Media + Point of Sale Data. Connecting with customers in more personal ways drives your customer care through the roof. Marketing directors are now analyzing customer behavior and pairing that with online activity. Targeting consumers that interact online such as store check-ins or expressing interest in items posted (with Likes) is worth using another marketing tactic to reach them. For example, an email blast or banner ads updating that particular customer that the item is in stock or is available to look at again just might be the hook to get the potential customer to buy. Tailoring your marketing to the wants of the end user boosts sales and proves the value of social response.
Social analytics can be used to compare apples to apples.
Social analytics has allowed a business to identify the value of social media interaction and what posts and/or products are most relevant to the target audience. It also allows marketing directors to analyze and change posting tactics based on what is working and what isn’t. For example, posts that get the most response at a certain time of day will be posted at that time. Impressions, likes, comments, and shares can be written down and compared with that of competitors. The difficult part is figuring out what numbers are a good goal for your business arena. Analytics allows you to see what traffic to your website came from social media mediums. Compare the number of purchases with the percentage of visits via social referral to the site during the time period you want.
Figuring out the value of social response for your company is different than others. Develop the standards you want to see and what your ROI is. Formulate the social strategy around that and use analytics to reveal if you are hitting the return on investment.
Channel Communications has the answers.
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Channel Communications, located in Towson, Maryland, enjoys solving marketing problems. We can do it all – print advertising, branding and identify programs, direct response, marketing communications, websites, and online and digital marketing.
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