3 Essential Social Media Marketing Strategies

As a social media marketer, you know that social media platforms have a powerful potential to transform your business' brand.

In fact, sixty percent of marketers are increasing spend on digital marketing, according to a recent Gigaom Report. And, according to the report, the largest slice of the digital marketing pie is made up of social media campaigns.

Investing in social media strategy is one thing...actually executing on your strategy is another.

First, Can You Really Measure the ROI on Social Media Presence?

It’s the most intensely debated topic in the industry: How can you actually measure the ROI of social media? After all, what’s the point of strategizing if you can’t even be entirely sure that what you’re doing is making any money?

Most world-renowned experts have expressed sheer public frustration at this question posed by nearly all businessman.

Because—the ROI is not about dollars and cents. It’s about strengthening your relationship with your consumer.

“Word-of-mouth is the currency of how people spend their money, and that’s what the entire ecosystem [of social media] is built on,” Gary Vaynerchuk, renowned co-founder and CEO of a social media brand consulting agency, says in LE Web conference back in 2011.

Still frustrated in 2014, he recently shared a great SlideShare that breaks down exactly how ROI of social media is misunderstood by many people. It’s worth a look!

Viewing social media ROI with a more holistic approach gives you a better understanding of ROI than dollars and cents alone. So, even though there’s no hard-core science to the ROI of social media, it’s a powerful tool for businesses to listen, engage and convert with consumers.

Here are three of the most current and crucial tips that are key to establishing a strong presence and engagement:

1. Choose your Platforms Carefully: Be Where Your Audience Is

Having a ton of eyes on your content is great….but if it’s stops there, then you’re not maximizing the opportunity to turn leads (eyeballs) into conversions (action).

“Brand content needs to tell a different story in order to really make an impact. I believe in the next year [2015], you'll see more brands focus on owning a channel (instead of 'spray and pray' in multiple channels) and move to a 'less-is-more' strategy by focusing on truly differentiated content. At least, I hope this is the case,” says Joe Pulizzi, Founder of The Content Marketing Institute said earlier this year on HubSpot.

Nicole Knox, social media strategist at Chatter Buzz, would agree and points out that many brands feel the need to be everywhere. “But if your audience isn’t on Instagram, it doesn’t make sense for you to be,” Chatter says. “It’s best to have two quality social media platforms than five who are barely paying attention.”

2. Moving Toward Mobile: Think about Context

58 percent of Americans use smartphones—chances are much of your community will consume that content at the palm of their hands via mobile or tablet.

Still not convinced? ShareThis released a recent study on mobile behavior and found “consumers are nearly twice as likely to click and share content on social networks through mobile devices as opposed to desktop.”

Bufferapp offers a breakdown by platform of what’s different between mobile vs. desktop or social media marketing. Sites like responsinator.com allow you to test and preview your website on various mobile devices.This can mean real-time feedback, hyper-connectivity and a bigger focus on context. So, reframe your strategy to cater to folks on the go.

3. Quantity Over Quality of Users Can Be Fruitless

Really though, this point can’t be stressed enough. Expanding on No. 2, the WSJ recently reported that shortly after Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. launched its Facebook ad campaign, the execs were upset with the outcome.

Too many fans! Not enough quality engagement.

With just a modest Facebook community of just about 500,000 fans, they happily use Facebook as a tool to analyze conversations with their customers. They focus on building the right relationships.

“We were fearful our engagement and connection with our community was dropping" as the fan base grew, says Allison Sitch, Ritz-Carlton's vice president of global public relations. Don’t drown out the voice of your valued customers or users by dialing up the noise produced from irrelevancy.

“Social media and content marketing are about creating communities for like-minded people to gather,” Renee Warren of Onboardly tells Open Forum. “It's not about cross-selling and pushing sales onto unsuspecting individuals or groups."

 

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