Orig article www.businessnewsdaily.com | Re-Post So-Mark Consulting 1/13/2015 –
This is a great article to read before kicking off your 2016 Social Media Efforts. There are two main questions you need to answer. 1. What should we do? 2. How should we do it?
You know you should be on social media. You kinda know which channels are most active for your business & industry. And you’re pretty sure you don’t know all of the best practices and techniques used on each social site. Even at So-Mark we are still growing and improving our execution and strategy for the use of social media. For example, we have clearly been more focused on broadcasting than engaging with people. So our goal for 2016 is to engage and interact more with our tribe and improve the personalization of our messaging and conversations.
What do you need to improve in 2016? Let’s us know how we can help.
Jim Anthony – So-Mark Founder
Facebook page, Twitter handle and Instagram account? Check. Daily posts on each network? Check. A platform to monitor relevant hashtags, current events and industry trends? Check. If you have these things, your brand’s social media presence is off to a great start. But you might not have all your bases covered yet.
“Brands have caught on to the sheer power and reach of social,” said Andrew Caravella, vice president of marketing for social media management software Sprout Social. “According to the Q4 2015 Sprout Social Index, the number of messages sent by retail brands has risen 45 percent since the beginning of 2015. Yet they’re focusing too much of their energy on broadcasting instead of taking that crucial next step to engage in meaningful conversations.”
What do “meaningful conversations” entail? For starters, brands should be answering the numerous customer queries that come up on social media. The Sprout Social Index found that the number of messages consumers are posting to brands’ social pages is steadily increasing but that just 16 percent of those inbound messages were actually answered.
“In 2014, retail brands sent three times as many promotional messages as replies on social media,” Caravella said. “This preoccupation with broadcasting comes at the expense of sound customer service — eight in nine messages from customers that warrant a response go unanswered within 72 hours. That is not to say brands should stop broadcasting altogether, but there has to be a more delicate and thoughtful balance.”
If your business needs a little help striking that balance, here are a few smart ways to make your social media strategy more efficient and effective.
Put Yourself In Your Customers’ Shoes
Take off your “business” hat for a moment, and think about what you, as a consumer, want from the brands you follow on social media. You’d probably be put off by a company that only shares its own links and nothing else — and so would your own customers.
“Many businesses approach social media as a one-way street and inundate their potential consumers with transactional messaging in efforts to drive sales,” said Ben Hordell, a partner at DXagency digital marketing and advertising firm. “To remedy this, companies must think [about the] customer first … to determine what the consumers would want out of their relationship on social, and work from there.”
“We know that traditional advertising and marketing methods are no longer effective,” added Devon Wijesinghe, CEO of InsightPool, a word-of-mouth social marketing platform. “Consumers don’t respond to mass messaging, pushy strategies or unrelated communications. In the age of social media, people expect highly personalized messaging that serves them — not the company.”
Hordell noted that consumers’ goals should be the first of three important things to keep in mind when planning your social strategy. Beyond that, you also need to factor in your company’s short- and long-term business objectives, as well as the needs of the specific platform.
“If a company can give consumers a great personalized experience … and focus efforts on driving consumer engagement and retention at the same time, they can build a successful and sustainable program,” Hordell said.