Walls don’t talk back, and neither will your social media campaigns without good strategy. Just as companies set sales objectives, they need to be able to measure social media, gauge results and make sound decisions.
Measurement depends on your objectives. Simple or complex, it’s likely the results will be subjective Start with objectives that exclude outside variables. For example, test across your social media platforms for engagement levels by monitoring how active your followers based on posting activity. Set an ideal average of posts per person per week or how many people are posting in general and then gauge over a period of time. Then let the social community with higher levels of discussion promote new products as well as gather insight for developing new products.
Measuring sales objectives through social media can be done. If social media and other online marketing vehicles are being used as supporting tools in a campaign, determining if there is a direct affect on sales can be difficult. For example, a social media exclusive promotion using coded coupons is a way to track salesdirectly. You can set traffic flow objectives to and from your website and social media sites using a query string link that allows for tracking.
Don’t think you need social media? Granted, not every company needs to have a social media platform as part of their business model as it may not complement the business. There is no doubt though that social media is more than just a craze. Many companies are jumping on the bandwagon and if your company has yet to catch on, you may be losing ground to the competition.
Just think of the ‘bandwagon’ as a metaphor for a political campaign bus and the politician is your competitor. They are driving past you going down Facebook Avenue, Twitter Road, and getting LinkedIn with anyone who is willing to hear their story, and they are winning people over. This is not to say you should be on every social media platform and speak to everyone; you should however, engage actively with your desired target audience.
By engaging with your target audience you show a human element to your brand. Connecting socially is one of our most basic human needs. When you engage with your audience you are demonstrating that they are more important than just a business transaction. This alone may very well convince them to do business with you again or even refer you to a friend. How you engage is up to you, just make sure the activity is aligned with your brand and is relevant to your audience.
Engagement activities can vary greatly. Take My Starbucks Idea for example. Starbucks set up a community in which customers are able to submit ideas for the company. Those ideas are then voted upon by other users with the best ideas chosen to be implemented by Starbucks. This is a great way to create consumer interaction with each other. Another example is with Dell. Dell entered the virtual world by creating an island in Second Life. Second life offers a unique experience with more and more brands interacting with consumers in the virtual world via conferences, events, or even online store fronts. Check out the Second Life video in the Dell link at the end of this post. For more great examples like these, click on Mashable – Corporate Social Media in Action.
One statistic that gives very good reason to utilise social media is that referrals through this type of medium can result in a 50% increase in buying intention. If you’re already on or just signing up to social media, be it Facebook or Twitter or any of the numerous others such as StumbleUpon which surpassed Facebook for social media referrals between the months of December and January in U.S. (Blogs.Forbes.com), you must proceed with caution.
It may take just a few minutes to sign up to any of these communities which are also free, but social media can be very expensive and laborious to maintain. Someone has to design the look, update the content andrespond to inquiries. And this all takes time and money.
How much time and money you spend will depend on how you are using social media (brand awareness, support service, promoting, etc.) and whether it is set up in-house or if you acquire professional services. If you were to use what is present on social media sites, there will only be time spent by an in-house employee to set up a business/fan page and that shouldn’t take all that long. However, if you want some design elements or graphics that require a designer that could cost anywhere from less than $100 to $1000’s depending on talent and details of the project.
Refreshing content will vary as well. Status updates are quick and easy and should be done daily. It is okay to update Twitter feeds more often throughout the day as feeds are constantly coming through, but be careful to not overdo it with other communities as you may start to annoy your audience. Blog often as possible as fresher content is picked up by search engines. Aim for a minimum of once a week. Consider the time it may take to write a post which is time out of conducting other business. Also, if possible have an executive posting as this will increase credibility of the post and the blog.
Above all, you must know what you want out of these communities and how you’ll measure their success otherwise you won’t know how that function of your business is affecting the bottom line.
Dell-Second Life video | Mashable – Corporate Social Media in Action
