What is the actual value of your social media pages? If you’re a business owner or chief marketing officer, you likely wear a lot of hats. Filling social media queues can seem like one more item on your to-do list. You may be asking yourself, “how valuable are my social media pages?” and “Do I really need these?”

The short answer is yes; in today’s day and age, businesses need to have some social media presence.

Today is the 3rd in our series on social media marketing, where we want to help you determine the overall value of your social media pages. And while we want to make sure we tell you that while 90% of people with access to the internet use social media, they are not all there waiting for your marketing message. Instead, you will be more successful by being SOCIAL, engaging in conversations, following related pages, and responding to comments and questions.

If you can do that, your social media efforts will yield a positive return.

Here are the top reasons social media is valuable to businesses:

  1. Increase Awareness
    1. To people not currently aware of or buying from your company
    2. Of related or other products that current customers are using/buying
    3. Nearly half the world’s population uses social media
    4. Over half of all social media users check social media multiple times a day. This means your business has countless opportunities to get in front of your target audience
  2. Increase Website Traffic
    1. Social media posts are vital to driving traffic to your website. Sharing great content from your blog or website to your social channels is a great way to get readers as soon as you publish a new post.
    2. If you are not sure how much, log into your google analytics, look at your ACQUISITION and see what is bringing the most traffic to your website.
    3. There is not a “standard” for all businesses to follow
  3. Provide accessibility for customers
    1. Social media changes the conversations with your clients from a push message to connecting with you when they are ready or have a question.
    2. Is an excellent customer service tool so that customers/ prospects to reach out directly to a business
  4. Keep up with industry goings-on
    1. Once you find your industry’s niche, you can join a specific conversation and stay up to date on changes in your industry.
    2. In joining these conversations, you will establish your business as one that values staying up to date.
  5. Keep an eye on your competition
        1. See how you stack up against your competitio

These are all great reasons to invest in SMM. But, let me give you another one, ROI. Of course, your business is unique, so how you attribute return will also vary from other companies and industries – but I can assure you that it is there, and it is measurable!

  • Start by stating your objective. What do you want to accomplish through your marketing efforts? Then, ask yourself, what needs to happen within the next six months for you to say you are happy with the time and financial investment?
  • Write down your GOALS. These should be specific and measurable and should be directly related to your objective.
    • EXAMPLE: if your objective is to grow your email list in your CRM, your GOAL would be to acquire 100 new opt-ins to your mailing list.
  • Set up tracking so that you have real-time monitoring to tell you how you are doing.

From here, you can determine the financial value of your marketing efforts by applying the math learned in Episode 8 of our Down & Digi series (determining the value of a lead).

Here are some tips to simplify your social media strategy:

  • Don’t use every platform
    • Research what platforms your target audience uses the most. Only use these platforms.
  • Post only at peak times
    • More isn’t more. Use your analytics to determine when your target audience is online and post then.
  • Don’t reinvent the wheel
    • Revise high-performing posts from the past and repost
    • Create pillar content and leverage it by turning it into several different formats
      • Write a blog. Use this blog for:
        • A short video (use a template from Canva!)
        • An audio file of the blog
        • A Twitter thread
        • An Infographic or ebook
        • An Instagram post
  • Use a scheduling/ management tool
        • These time-saving tools allow you to manage multiple accounts, schedule posts, store content, manage engagement, and streamline collaboration.

As always, if you could use some help determining the value of your social media pages and managing them, our digital media experts are eager to help you grow your business, contact us today!

Sources:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/

https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/8-tips-to-simplify-your-social-media-marketing/

https://stephtaylor.co/simplify-social-media-marketing/

https://blog.hootsuite.com/measure-social-media-roi-business/