Before you can begin to build your social media strategy your website should be filled with interesting and compelling content (blog posts, videos, webinars, eBooks, and whitepapers). Why is that important? When used properly social media can extend the reach of your site’s content, get it shared and draw more traffic back to your site. Ideally, you want potential customers to find your website so you can turn that prospect into a customer.
Without using your own content as the basis of your social media strategy the chances for your social media strategy’s profitability is greatly diminished. As marketing expert and author Jay Baer famously says, “every company is its own TV station, magazine, and newspaper” and “the goal of social media is to turn customers into a volunteer marketing army.” If your social media campaign can accomplish those two tasks that will translate very well to the profitability of your social media campaign.
According to the book, “Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment” by Jim Sterne, every business has three big goals. They are:
- Increased revenue
- Lower costs
- Improved customer satisfaction
Sterne believes that these three goals are all that matter for the long term success of a company and if the effort you put forward doesn’t result in an uptick of at least one of these goals you are wasting your time and spinning your wheels.
How do you measure what works and what doesn’t when it comes to social media?
Social media puts businesses in a unique position. The best advertising is word of mouth, right? Well, social media is another form of word-of-mouth recommendations, but one that we can actually listen and respond to. That’s a pretty unique position to be in and open to all types of marketing possibilities.
To make your social media work efforts the most profitable, follow these tips:
Identify your ideal buyer – Research who you believe your ideal buyer is. Create a picture in your mind of who you think would want to buy the products or services you sell. Start a list of qualities for this persona. If this is a potential buyer what information would they be asking or evaluating before making a decision? Understand which social media platforms your ideal buyer uses. Are there groups within the social media platforms that you should be joining and targeting? Are there particular networks for a niche industry or niche market?-
Write good social media posts – In the social media world, it’s often recommended to stick to the 80/20 rule. This means sharing useful, interesting content at least 80% of the time with pictures, videos, eBooks, blog posts, contests, and questions that will lead the follower back to your website – like Hansel and Gretel breadcrumbs. The other 20% of your social media posts can direct people to offers and other more promotional content.
Analyze your social media campaigns. The only way you’ll know what works, and ultimately what is profitable, is to understand your content through analytics. Basic metrics to watch include: the number of visits you get from social media, number of leads generated through social media and which of those leads become customers; and most importantly – the level of engagement of your followers. Is your content being shared? Which are your most popular posts? Which posts get the most shares and comments?
After Analytics – The Facebook Page Insights tab (on top of the navigation bar at the top of the admin panel on your Facebook page.) provides tons of useful information. Analyze and then take advantage of the new information to rework your posts. Here is the type of information that you can learn and implement in your social media strategy.
- When are most of your fans online? Post within 30 minutes of your followers peak activity time.
- Which days get the most activity? Publish your most important posts on the most active days.
- Which are your highest performing posts? See if you can find a pattern. .Here are some things to consider when trying to determine why your posts are popular: Is there a particular theme that’s popular? Are the headlines catchy? Do they include images?
When you use analytics to rework and improve your posts you will begin to see just how profitable your social media campaigns can be.