Welcome to “The Mailbag” a place where we take the best emails and questions that we receive each day about Digital, Social, Branding and Content Marketing and we share our thoughts to help Small and Medium Businesses build stronger online brands.
Question: Our leadership team is very impatient for Social Media ROI. What are some quick ways to show success that will keep the leadership team committed.?
This is definitely a tough position to be in. Much like the building of a company’s business or clients, social media can be a longer road. Especially if the goal is to build lasting relationships that turn into meaningful business in the long run.
Before I jump into some of the quick wins, I do want to be clear that most short wins won’t translate into revenue. This is especially true as the products and services you offer become more complex. The buyer’s journey of selling through social media tends to closely match the 3D buyer’s journey that often includes multiple meetings and presentations before a purchase is made.
Having said that, if the goal is quick wins and so long as you clearly articulate that most of them are going to be more drivers of visibility than sales, there are some things a company can do to show immediate success with social media.
Here are a few examples of some quick wins that can help show the boss the potential of social media.
1. Build A Newsroom: There is a lot of discussion around the brand newsroom. While many comapnies think this means they will have to create a ton of content, some companies are very effective at growing a social presence through the use of curation and social automation tools that allow them to find, optimize, schedule and share great content from around the web in just a short amount of time. Often times an active feed leads to new connections, engagements and onlookers which leads me to number 2.
2. Build A Following: One of the hottest trends in social is showing influence. While having a strong following doesn’t necessarily correlate with influence it does directly relate to reach and the more people you can reach the more people you can potentially engage. If you build the newsroom like I said in number one and stay active and attentive you can increase followers and likes of your social pages which will lead to more people seeing your posts.
3. Build Traffic To Owned Properties: As part of a social strategy it is key to move people to your owned properties so they can learn more about your business. By staying active and visible in social and leveraging the right tools (Again as I mention in #1) then you can drive people through earned and shared media back to owned properties. Since reading brand content is instrumental to building trust, it is important whether you are creating a lot of new content or not for them to see the thought leadership of the company.
4. Build Engagement and Conversations: Perhaps the one quick win on social that could lead to an immediate opportunity is the ability to target and start conversations. With platforms like Twitter it is easy to launch a conversation with anyone and that can lead to a real business opportunity. One great way to engage is to join chats on a subject or to look at accounts that feature certain hashtags and follow along. Once you follow pay attention to what the account is saying and look for opportunities to jump in. This can lead many places, including a quick sale which in just about any managers book, is a quick win!
How are you showing quick wins for your marketing organization? While the long term is always key, ROI starts today, right?
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