Social media is just like any other marketing channel. The real question becomes, “What are you trying to build?” Here are the four most common goals people use to build a social media strategy and suggestions on how to measure the effectiveness. Paid social is a great thing to consider here, as well as creating content that encourages your audience to like, share, post and get your content in front of their networks. Metrics to consider: Engagement – The number of unique people who are responding to your content (clicked, liked, commented on or shared your post). Follower growth – Increasing the number of people who are interested in your brand is the ultimate goal. The free content (if they find it engaging) will entice them to provide personal information for more: in other words, “Hello, lead!” Highly targeted paid social is a good tactic here as well as good content placement with influencers and optimizing timing of posts to drive clicks. If so, it’s time to proactively change the conversation around your brand. Metrics to consider: Sentiment – This measures how people feel about your brand by looking at the positive and negative words used to talk about you. You’ve built a following and have a good reputation online, but you want to increase your influence with your target audience and spread the conversation about your brand to new audiences. Having strong goals and a strategy for social media will set you up for success.
Social media is just like any other marketing channel. But in B2B, it’s hard to know if you’re using it effectively, especially with the evolving platforms and speed of adoption. While some B2B brands have mastered the art of social, others struggle to figure out a results-driven method—whether that’s implementing an editorial calendar, hiring a dedicated team or building out a strategy.
And like any other channel (email, search, media), you need goals. Without them, you could be wasting your time—or worse, causing damage to your overall marketing efforts. With tools like Hootsuite, Sprinklr and others, you can manage your entire social presence together, but if you’re not sure of what your end goals are, you won’t know how to use them effectively. The real question becomes, “What are you trying to build?”
Here are the four most common goals people use to build a social media strategy and suggestions on how to measure the effectiveness.
- Brand AwarenessYou want to get in front of
people. You built your company profiles on Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn and a few other social networks you think make sense for
your business. You know that certain segments of your audience
favor certain channels over others and are
using that knowledge strategically to engage them. You’ve even
gone as far to build a content strategy to keep a consistent voice.
Now that you have the foundational elements, it’s time to amplify.Boosting your posts, images and content beyond your web and
social traffic should guide your plan and tactics. Paid social is a
great thing to consider here, as well as creating content that
encourages your audience to like, share, post and get your content
in front of their networks. Think of content that’s helpful or
informative instead of just a sales pitch.Metrics to consider:
- Engagement – The number of unique people who are
responding to your content (clicked, liked, commented on or shared
your post). This is key because the more people that interact with
your content, the more their network will see that
interaction. - Reach/impressions – If more people see your brand and
your content, that means you’re doing something right. Aiming for
high reach/impressions is ideal when you’re building your
brand. - Follower growth – Increasing the number of people who
are interested in your brand is the ultimate goal. Anything you can
do here to measure demographics to ensure your growth matches your
ideal customer is an added bonus.
- Lead Generation People are noticing you.
You’ve gained followers, you’re getting a healthy number of
impressions and people are engaging with your posts. Now, it’s all
about targeting the right audience with the right content. High
quality content across different stages in the buying journey is
key, but you
should balance “free” content with gated content. The free
content (if they find it engaging) will entice them to provide
personal information for…
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