What’s my Social Media Return on Investment?
When we consult with clients for the first time, many of them ask, “What’s going to be my ROI with social media?” Let’s start with a big disclaimer -social media is not magic! It’s not a silver bullet, a cure for a broken business, another advertising channel, a membership to an exclusive club and it’s certainly not a one-way ticket to immediate profits. Social media is a form of communication; a platform for building relationships. And, like most relationships, it takes time, effort, and energy.
Social media integration
How is social media different from traditional marketing? First, social media doesn’t receive a separate distinction or category. If I had a marketing pie, social media would not have its own slice. When used optimally, social media is combined with the other slices of the pie. Those other slices include functions like public relations, advertising, and direct marketing. Put simply: social media does not effectively exist in a vacuum. It should be integrated with your current efforts to enhance your overall marketing presence.
The marketing mindsets
There are two different marketing mindsets. The first: a company decides to invest money on an advertising campaign. Once the money is gone, the campaign is done. If the business has more customers at the end of the campaign than when it started, the marketing efforts have usually paid off. The second mindset: a company decides to invest time into relationship-building. The business offers value by giving its audience solutions to challenges and problems. The result: the audience is naturally attracted to value and soon begins to know, like and trust the business and thus decides to inquire about its products and services.
Until social media evolved, the latter was likely done via networking, referrals, and WOM. Social media simply takes this a step further and includes an online component. This is powerful because we now have the opportunity to reach more people in less time while still enhancing our existing relationships. Here’s another way to look at it: leads come from WOM, WOM is social, social media is social, so leads can also come from social media.
So, where are businesses going wrong? They are viewing social media in the first mindset! Social media is not an advertising campaign. It’s not a one-way channel that starts and stops with hopes that there are new customers at your doorstep at the end of the run. Social media is a way to build the relationships that establish trust and enable people to feel comfortable investing in a business.
Steps to Achieving ROI
Other ways to achieve ROI include having audience/content balance, establishing clear goals, listening, finding a unique voice, producing compelling content, and evaluating performance regularly.
Having audience/content balance
If you’re just starting out, we suggest establishing goals that will build your audience. This means increasing your number of fans and followers. We’re not saying this alone will increase your social media ROI. But this is foundational. Too many times we see people get hung up on the number of fans they have and miss the big picture of consistently providing compelling and engaging content. At the same time, we often see people who spend hours writing compelling content when they only have five Facebook fans. It’s important to strike a balance with this, but as general rule, building your audience must be considered when starting out.
Establishing clear goals
You may want track the number of hits to your website from social media sites, foot traffic to your location, your number of fans and followers, and audience interaction. For those who have a foundational following, you may want to forecast what you would like to see happen in six months or a year, and work backward with specific steps toward achieving these goals.
Listening
This is part of the relationship-building mindset. It’s important to be studying your audience, listening to your customers, and monitoring your prospects’ needs and wants. The more you listen, the better equipped you’ll be to both communicate and provide solutions to their challenges.
Finding a unique voice
Each business should have a point of differentiation. What makes your product or service stand out from the competition? Each business should also be able to communicate this in a way that’s relevant to their customers and prospects – this is ‘voice.’ Simply answer the question, “what makes your business rock?”
Producing compelling content
Content takes many forms – writing, audio, video, etc. Even a photo is worth a 1,000 words. Be sure the content you’re communicating does two things:
1) provides answers/solutions/responses to the needs of your audience and potential customers and
2) is compelling enough to attract new followers and prospects.
Evaluating regularly
We recently had a meeting in which a client actually scratched out “evaluation” from our list of suggested maintenance. He said it wasn’t a ‘necessary’ task. What? If you aren’t evaluating, how do you know how well you’re doing? It’s true that not every aspect of social media is measurable, especially as the line is blurred by marketing integration. However, to remove evaluation from list is like going to college for four years and never earning a degree. It’s all pointless if you aren’t going to track and measure your progress.
I’m sure you’re probably wondering what we’ve experienced with our clients. Overall, those who got the most return on their investment:
• identified their ideal client
• established themselves on networks that include their ideal clients
• listened, communicated value, and offered solutions
• took the time to do these things consistently
• evaluated their progress and made adjustments when necessary
• accepted up front that, even with contracting outside help, success would be more likely if they invested time, energy, and creativity.
Ready to Achieve Social Media ROI?
If all this seems like a lot of work, it is. Like we’ve said, it’s not magic. It takes time, energy, and creativity. But, with specific goals, a measurable strategy, marketing integration, and value-added content, social media ROI is attainable.
