How to Get Social Media to Work for You

So you’ve been told you need social media channels and you are either paying your web team or someone in your business to be active on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Do you know if it’s working? Ultimately while it’s nice to have a following and people liking what you say, you really want to expand your business and get more leads, right?

Measuring return on investment with digital marketing can be difficult, but it is possible if you set up the right tracking. Custom URLs and trackable phone numbers can really help do this and they are very inexpensive to get going. The most important thing you want to be thinking about with your social campaigns is to have a strategy. Don’t just post because you think you should. Post for a purpose.

Here is what we know:

• Social Media has proven successful in driving traffic to business websites
• Social Media is practically a necessity for businesses looking for more online exposure
• Social Media is great for promoting new products/services to existing customers

With the proper strategy, you can use these concepts to your advantage. Here’s how:

Do Your Research – Know the demographic you are targeting and be authentic within the channel to get them on board. Facebook has it own demographic with expectations about what makes for good content. People on Twitter have very different expectations. Know what makes people tick on these social sites and market accordingly.

Post Good Content – Have a clear focus and be consistent. Don’t do what everyone else is doing (i.e. “Did you know it’s [crazy dumb holiday] today?” posts). Prove your expertise in your market, use photos wherever you can, and post info that people will want to share.

Engage – Repost, retweet, and link to interesting articles in your market. Respond to comments and questions quickly. Offer to write guest posts on other blogs and let people post on yours. Encourage involvement from your fans and followers.

Cross Promote – Promote your content on your other social channels, blog, and website. Use social sharing buttons and even consider a contest or giveaway that leverages a brand or product you carry.

Measure and Track Results – Configure Google Analytics and consider using other social monitoring tools to track engagement and success.

With the right research and tools, and a lot of day-to-day grunt work, you can get your social media to work for you. If it seems like a lot of work and planning, then talk to your web marketing team and develop a plan to offload the things that will be too time consuming for you to run successfully.