Social Media Marketing. How important is it? How can you measure your ROI in the field? Is it worth it? These are some of the questions many have asked. At the dawn of social media, a floodgate was opened up with a massive amount of data being shared from platform to platform, and that data then being used to mine information for marketing purposes. This pool has now become one of the largest data farms ever created and it allows a company to hone in on their target demographics with pinpoint accuracy. The foundation was shaky at the beginning, but as these platforms grew the data became richer and richer. And now as the mobile phone industry expands, a device picks up on conversations and then targets advertising on platforms based on these conversations. Part of this is genius, and part of this is scary. The idea that we have allowed social media platforms this amount of entry into our private lives proves the point that privacy is dead, and nothing is free. If it is free, you are the product, not the consumer. This being said, social media has now positioned themselves as the most important purveyor of information on the planet, and have the access to what any marketer wants personal data.
I am not a believer in Social Media Marketing as a way to increase sales. I am not a person who feels that any ROI on social media is a good return. It is important to go into a campaign with specific goals and acknowledging if you reached these goals. I am an advocate of developing a Social Media campaign that builds brand awareness and helps to bring the brand to different markets. I am an advocate for developing lasting customer relationships and building a sales channel of repeat customers. Social Media should be about storytelling. What I believe that social media is for when a company decides to enter this as a marketing tool, is to just simply be present. Social Media is a great way to develop relationships simply by being present in a digital environment.
Social Media Marketing isn’t just about marketing. It’s about customer service. Your content is placed out there to be seen by the world, and for the first time, the consumer can immediately respond to the content and to your business. You have to field negative and positive responses and deliver on promises. The consumer has the ability to interact instantly, and your team has to be there to manage the responses and point the consumer to the correct knowledge base or answer the questions directly. A marketing team must second as a customer service or reposition internal assets to provide customer service needs to the Social Media channels.
Just because you don’t have a campaign on a platform doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on it. To me, Twitter is the cesspool of the universe and there is a lot of negative there. There is also a considerable amount of positive. I would not put a campaign on Twitter, but I would utilize resources to monitor the platform by researching hashtags and working with actual issues from people @ the brand. This is why I believe being present on social media is the most important. Be there, and be the content. Once the content is there, make sure your brand pays attention to how consumers are engaging with the posts.