Social Media Marketing Tips and Tricks
Getting Results from Social Media!
The question of Social Media ROI and whether social media marketing is effective is one that is constantly on the forefront of businesses. It is no longer a question of whether a company needs to be in social media, but more how to measure the efforts.
In the infographic below, thanks to MDG, we get a better look at additional factors to determine effectiveness beyond the obvious “did someone buy our stuff”.
Infographic by MDG Advertising
[…] Even when it comes to Social Media marketing, keywords are essential. Before I setup up any campaigns in either Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn on our social traffic suite of tools, I always first start with researching what are the keywords being used by YOU, my target audience (that is right, I know exactly what YOU are looking for, but that is for another blog post). Then, I begin to look at what content I can provide you (i.e. the enclosed as an example) to add value to your life/businesses, help you build your business, and help you determine what the best activities you can be doing online (i.e. ROI). […]
Hmm really nice infographic. I think these days seo is not matter. If you are doing good in social media like fans engagement, promotional offer sharing, sharing about your business news, It helps to build your online branding as well as it drives traffic to your website. I always prefer social media.
Agreed, thanks Sandeep
Good find Bill! Kasi, you make a good point. No doubt there are mundane businesses services that will struggle to use the likes of Facebook. However this doesn’t mean they can’t make use of social media. In these cases using social media can be less about trying to make a service sexy, or making sales and more focussed on giving the mundane a bit of life!
The issues that most mundane businesses face is a self-imposed barrier between social media platforms and the brand. Essentially it is fear of the unknown, resulting from various horror stories about failing social media campaigns etc. that make professional businesses take a stand offish approach.
This is not to say they shouldn’t use social media, more that in order to succeed they would need to be honest, open and approachable. Behind every brand there is personality and social media platforms can be used to improve public awareness of this.
The issue really is that businesses see ROI as increased sales, where really it should be measured by brand awareness, public opinion and influence.
p.s. this turned into a bit of an essay…apologies!
Holy Infographic Bill!
Thanks for tweeting this out to me. I was stoked to see that business are seeing long term ROI off their social media marketing investments as well as how more and more businesses will be investing in video content marketing.
Jam packed information, great resource!
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Great Jacob, glad you like it!
I agree with Kasi, I think social media b2b is not the best way to go. I see it every day in my day job. companies trying to do social but only doing it half ways and they only end up losing money.
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Great post Bill, it’s always nice to read the opinion of prominent figures in the industry! In today’s age, where everything is online, it’s often very easy to dismiss direct marketing as an antiquated channel, but like anything else, I think it all boils down to execution. An imaginative, well-planned direct campaign will always trump a poorly executed online campaign.
Bill you the master
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What Alex says in his comment rings true; more than ever, companies can lose a big chunk of their advertising budget on Facebook ads that, honestly, are difficult to translate into real-world numbers. There must be a better way of justifying spending hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on social media ads BUT if the end-goal is more on brand awareness and increased brand love, then I’m all for it. For ads? Maybe not so much.
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Nice graphic displaying some impressive statistics, the role of social media can be seen everywhere today, a lot of companies instead of using their web address now use their Facebook page as part of their branding. No doubt for larger companies they have the resources to experiment with social media channels and target specific groups.
I agree with Kasi in that I believe social media is not the automatic choice for everyone. Companies, especially small businesses, should think twice before jumping into social media. To use it effectively, it can be an enormous drain on resources and you really need some expertise to make it work for you in a business sense. Social media has to be weighed up carefully against other communication options in the context of the audience you are trying to reach. Amateurs can sometimes do more harm to their company brands than good. Sure, it may be ‘free’ to put yourself out there but at what cost to your business if you get it wrong?
Sweet infographics. I think it’s effective if you know what you’re doing. It’s also very easy to lose ALOT of money for some Facebook Ads that will net you nothing in return. Trial and error. Trial and error. It’s the best way to learn!
I still don’t think that every business needs to “get into” social media. B2B social media, in my opinion, can be really challenging. How do you make mundane business services sexy and get people talking about them? If no one is talking, then you’ve just got a Facebook Wall of posts that you did and no one is responding to them.
I am the social media manager for Visualead. They generate Visual QR Codes. There is nothing less “sexy” than QR Codes and it is for that reason exactly that a strong social media presence is needed.
Kasi, social media is not only about making sales. It is about engaging the world and branding your business in a personal way.
When I write content for Visualead or run their social media platforms and channels, the last thing I want to push is QR Codes. I want to offer people interesting entertaining and valuable content together with some info about what we do.
When a company runs a good social media platform people get to know them, when a company runs an advertisement people get to know the company. Would you rather know the company or the people behind the company?
Business is personal so you better get to know your customers and what their cat’s name is.
Kasi,
B2B marketing is probably the easiest client to close on a social media campaign. They typically have advertising budgets, know how to measure success and know the value of building relationships. The current / recent research by the big firms (Nielsen, JD Power, Forbes, Inc., etc) all indicate that B2B marketing improves significantly with a social campaign.
We can spin all kinds of anecdotal evidence and stories as to why it works but the simple fact is: brands without a social presence will lose customers. There is really no denying it now. When I read the following, I cannot ignore the social media trends: “Social Media Marketing Ranks as B2B Marketers’ Most Popular Tactic” and “Customers are 71% more likely to purchase based on social media…”
I can go on and on. But the statistics are here now for our use. We can use them to convince our clients that they need an enhanced social media presence or we can allow our clients’ competition to strike first and increase their market share while we “hope that our clients learn on their own and come to us for help later.”
Obviously if we sit and wait for our clients to “see the light” then they will not likely want to hire us for that inevitable social media campaign when they do realize they need it. And why should they hire us? If we allowed their competition to increase their relative position while we ignored the application of SMM on our clients, then we have failed our responsibility to the clients and, frankly, deserve to lose the business.