A recent study by LinkedIn indicated that 81% of
businesses in North America utilize social media to help drive business (Weiss, 2014). Certainly social media is now an
important marketing strategy for many businesses. Social media can indeed be an
effective marketing tactic, or a waste of time. Below are a few basic tips to
increase the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool.
1. Identify your target audience. Prior to spending time developing
communications to send via any social media channel, think about who your
existing and potential customers are. To the extent that you understand this
customer segment, you will better know which social media networks they utilize
and the most attractive way to communicate in order to generate the desired
response.
2. Utilize an assortment of networks. The time required to select the one perfect
social media network to reach the most customers/potential customers may not be
practical. Instead, start with one and keep expanding and experimenting to
determine which provide the best reach and results. Facebook is the most talked
about social media network, but it may not be the most utilized by your target
audience. Additional considerations should include Twitter, Instagram,
LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, and a growing number of others.
3. Assign a dedicated manager.
Coordinating the online outreach for a business via the various social media
outlets can be a big job, so if possible, a business should appoint a dedicated
manager/staff person whose job it is to develop, distribute, follow-up, keep
track of the results and refine activities as needed. If this is not possible,
as is likely with a small business or organization, check out one of the new social
media manager programs that can make managing communications with the various
sites much easier. Sites such as HootSuite and Ping.fm provide the ability to
manage multiple social media sites from one account. Some simpler
programs/applications are even free.
4. Utilize pictures. Social
media networks like Pinterest and Instagram have grown dramatically recently, indicating
the popularity of visual content. Regardless of the social network, pictures
(and videos) are a great way to grab people’s attention and dramatically
improve reach and response.
5. Engage followers. Social media
should not be just a one-way communication where a business is just pushing
product and marketing messages. If possible, engage followers in a two-way
conversation. In other words, ask questions, seek input and ideas, and treat
followers like friends on a social media network.
6. Consistent commitment. Once an
organization’s social media sites are going, a strategy to communicate on a
frequent and consistent basis is critical. Depending on the business, frequent
probably means as much as several times each day, to several times each week.
7. Measure everything. The owner
of a successful small business once told me that “you can’t expect what you’re
not willing to inspect,” meaning, if you do not monitor results you cannot
expect results to improve. Most of the social media networks allow for some
degree of results monitoring, so take advantage of such information and keep
tweaking e-marketing communications based on results.
Utilizing social media as part of an organization’s
comprehensive marketing strategy is no longer just an option; it really should
be a requirement. However, if the process is treated like a task that simple
must to done without attention to audience, effective network selection,
dedicated and consistent application, engaging and strong visual content, and
results measurement – the whole activity may indeed be a waste of time. But,
with attention to some of basic principles outline above, social media can be a very effective marketing tactic (Hansen, 2014).
References
Hansen, P. (2014, April 22). Ways to Use Social Media
to Boost Your Small Business. Retrieved from Social Media Today:
http://socialmediatoday.com/paisleyhansen/2366846/7-ways-use-social-media-boost-your-small-business?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=
twitter&utm_campaign=hootsuite_tweets
twitter&utm_campaign=hootsuite_tweets
Weiss, G. (2014, February 13). This Is How Small
Businesses Are Using Social Media. Retrieved from Entrepreneur:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231515
I agree with all points and number 3 goes hand in hand with number 5. Assigning a person to manage social media sites is a very important, but maybe often overlooked, aspect of a business operation. People today like everything instantly including feedback and communication. If a person has a comment or a question they will want a reply instantly not the following day or even two hours later. Unfortunately many business owners make FB pages or Twitter accounts but don't understand how to manage them to their fullest potential. Oftem times the difference between a successful eBay or Amazon business and a failure is the response time (or lack thereof) to their clients.
ReplyDeleteExcellent feedback! One of the biggest advantages of social media marketing is the highly interactive opportunity that marketers have to engage with consumers. However, with that opportunity also comes the requirement to consistently communicate in a timely manner. Thanks!
DeleteThese are very good points that a business can use to help increase the effectiveness of the social media sites that they are using. One of the points that you made, that I find very important, is the point about consistent commitment. I think this is a very important point because if a business starts using a social media site they need to make sure that they are updating it as much as possible. If a company has expectations of reaching existing or potential customers, they need to manage their social media sites very well. Companies need to keep customers interested so that those customers will keep going back to their website to see what they have to offer.
ReplyDeleteFor a business to be completely successful using a social media site, businesses need to make sure they know how to manage these social media sites. On Facebook, I have liked a few businesses that I found interesting, but overtime I kept see less and less information so I was not as interested in them as I was before. Businesses like this need to find ways to keep customers, like me, interested in what they have to offer other customers.
Great blog!
Great points Alyssa! When I go to a website or Facebook page for a business, one of the first things I look at is the date of their last update or communication. If it is not recent, then I assume (as I'm sure many consumers do) that everything on the site is also outdated and therefore not as valuable to me. Just like anything else in a successful business, in addition to developing strategy and tactics, you also have to consistently implement!
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