How important is it to engage in effective social media marketing? What exactly defines effective social media marketing in the first place?
Social media is not a simple field, and in many of its marketing aspects, it’s challenging to gain concrete figures upon which you can base ROI projections. Furthermore, what may seem like positive metrics can in fact yield little to no ROI – for instance, the number of “Likes” your Facebook page receives has no bearing on your marketing performance nor your conversion, or even your referral traffic rates, because people who “Like” your page wouldn’t need to visit your actual website to do so.
So how can you gain value from social media? Where’s the real value of this exciting and promising field of Internet marketing?
* The value of a social media not only shows in how many fans or followers you have across multiple platforms, but how you leverage them. Social media provides two sorts of valuable social followings that are not necessarily mutually exclusive: clients (who actually avail themselves of goods and services), and influencers (who help spread word of mouth). You should identify and nurture leads into sales (clients) but also identify and engage with fans or followers who actively interact with and share your social business profile’s content (influencers). This way, you can boost both sales and word of mouth marketing.
* The value of posting updates on social media platforms is in how the content is crafted. Social content posted in different platforms should be as diverse as their venues. Facebook updates are inherently different from Twitter Tweets or Pinterest Pins. You should know how to properly craft social content for maximum impact on the social crowd depending on the platform of publishing. Use the unique features of each platform to make updates easier to interact with and more efficient. Understand that social content is micro-content – you can optimize it for keywords, use social platform features like tagging and hashtags to make it more visible, and use calls to action in them especially if your updates have important links.
* The value of social media not only lies in the social buzz created around your business, but in the effective monitoring of all the chatter. By analyzing social intelligence and analytics, you can pinpoint and leverage trends that can potentially improve your business marketing in general, or perhaps avoid a bigger problem by nipping developing concerns in the bud. Make it a priority to know what’s “hot” and “viral,” and know how to take advantage of it for the benefit of your business.
These are just three facets of social media marketing metrics that seem to relay positive information, but the real gems are in fact deeper than the initial data. Dig deep into your efforts
