It can be difficult to define and implement a social strategy that will provide the most ROI.
However, with the right preparation and defined goals, you will see great results.
To help you get started, I’ve shared below 5 simple steps to gain control over your social media initiatives.
Use the right social channels
Choosing the right social channel requires some simple but effective research. You want to ensure you choose the right network that fits your target audience, your overall social goals and the strengths and weaknesses of each site.
To connect with your ideal audience you must consolidate results from objective data and market analysis to help identify who your audience is and what social channel(s) will help create that relationship.
Data available for you to analyse includes; demographics, competitor and buyer analysis, audience segmentation and social channel popularity.
Organising and obtaining your data to select the right social channel will help you see the highest return on your investment. As the saying goes, “A little bit of effort will go a long way!”
Curate relevant content
Now that you have narrowed down your audience, the next step is to organise content to drive traffic to your sites.
You need to focus on what content is currently driving the most engagement or monitor what content is trending through popular keywords or topics. There are tools available to help you filter through this content such as Buzzsumo.
Curating exciting and relevant content will help you start building relationships with your buyers which in turn, will drive more engagement.
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Keep in mind that high-quality content has the potential to fast track users beyond brand awareness and drive leads down your sales funnel, so quality is always better than quantity. Getting people’s attention for the right reason is always a great payoff.
Follow the 3 steps below to help find and use valuable content to drive social ROI:
1 – Think Outside The Box
Don’t restrict yourself to just articles or blogs.
Visual content is a great way for customers to SEE the message you are trying to say.
Organising your message in a video, infographic or eBook will only help increase your engagement. For example, a new trend that is driving customer interest is vlogging, meaning video blog or video log.
Portraying your message in a face-to-face manner will allow your customers/users to trust you and help build a trusting relationship.
2 – Don’t Think You Are Giving Too Much Away
Providing valuable content or information will only improve your ROI through your social media channels.
Your customers will know when content is valuable and when it is not. Don’t drive them away from your site to a competitor portal because you’re afraid of providing too much information.
Remember, you want to build their trust and loyalty, and view you as an influencer within your industry.
3 – Incorporate Content Marketing KPIs into Your Social Strategy
When researching what content you want to use in your strategy, make sure you are clear on what your content KPIs are.
A clear understanding of your performance indicators will help you provide a cleaner report and provide visibility to achieving ROI.
Examples of KPIs you can focus on are: number of content social post shares, content downloads, inbound links earned or time spent on a page.
Have a flexible mindset
Consumers have a short attention span as they have multiple companies fighting for their attention, so it is up to you to stand out from the noise. You must gain your customer’s attention, interests, time and of course, money.
In order to stay on top of your customer’s mind, you must be flexible with your social strategy. This is done by constantly analysing the market, finding out what your customers find engaging, taking the results and innovating your approach.
Don’t be afraid to test new content or new social channels. Taking a risk sometimes produces the best ROIs.
Be social
Social media is all about being social.
You won’t see any ROIs if you don’t appear authentic and consistent within your social media channel(s). This can be done through three simple steps.
- Mention people
- Join conversations
- Engage with your followers
Track your ROI
Now that you know how to increase your ROI, how do you track your efforts?
If you are using multiple channels or implementing multiple campaigns, it can be tricky to see or evaluate your ROI.
An easy way to monitor this is to use UTM tags. This will allow you to see traffic through multiple channels using Google Analytics.
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UTM codes are bits of text added to your URL to help you monitor the success of each link. The text helps you identify what channel and campaign the traffic is coming from to understand what is driving buyer engagement.
Getting more ROI from social media can be extremely beneficial to your marketing strategy with the right preparation and monitoring. Using the right social channels to track your ROI will have a significant impact that will help you boost lead generation and raise brand awareness.
Both objectives need a flexible social media strategy and with the right plan in place, your efforts will go a long way!
This article was contributed by Alexandra Sutton.
