The ROI of social media is often questioned, and with good reason. If marketers aren’t measuring the return they get in terms of actual leads and customers received from a social media campaign, then what good is it? Also, is it all about the money?
When you first make the decision to embark on a campaign to start using social media for your business, you need to think of a couple of things first. How are you going to use it? A few options: customer service, brand awareness, create buzz (contests & original share worthy content).
After that decide, what events, or things should follow after creating the accounts on social networks and beginning to engage, as many social media gurus like to call it.
Depending on your purpose to begin with you may want to generate new sales leads, get volunteers, or just create brand awareness for a particular product.
How long does it take?
So how long does it really take to get any kind of results from social media? Better yet, a first result. Good news, it can be immediate! Sure, you might not have ten thousand fans or followers, but you can have an immediate impact.
How is this done?
By following this simple process:
S.M.A.R.T social media
Starting line
On the starting line you are down ready for a full sprint. You have to start somewhere right? Just bear down and get ready. Be prepared to be flexible.
Mix it up
Don’t spend 100% of your time tweeting or sharing updates on Facebook talking about your product and service. Share some great industry news, and also take time to thank those who are supporting your company.
Ask for feedback
By asking for feedback, you truly can put the social back into social media. Your fans and followers are likely ready to give feedback, especially if you have a growing customer base!
Respond
Want a quick way to get some almost instant engagement via social media? Go to X (formerly Twitter) and search for key words that might trigger some conversation around your industry or companies brands. Answer people’s questions on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn Answers, Quora and Facebook. If you give them a URL, create a tracking URL (URL Builder tool) so that you can tie the social media engagement and response to your analytics and website stats.
Timing can be everything
The timing of your message can be everything in some respects. Think about your ideal buyer personas and the times they are most likely to be on the Internet looking for information. Are they likely to be looking in the morning, mid day, or evening? Weekdays or weekends? Time your message to be most visible during the key times.
No matter how quick or slow the results, measure it
Dan Zarrella, the self proclaimed (but has data to back himself up) Social Media Scientist, often says, “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense”. So true Dan, and thanks for the reminder.
If your company is going to invest time, effort, money and resources whether completely in-house or outsourced social media campaigns, at least, please be measuring it. Tie your social media events back to your analytics, and reporting dashboards.