Understanding the Social Media Marketing Process
Social Media Marketing allows companies to target individuals with influence in their niche and increase word of mouth referrals. In addition, they learn more about conversations surrounding their particular industry and business while engaging and expanding their audience across the web. For this reason, any company looking to grow should consider this marketing technique and turn to professionals for assistance when they struggle in this area. How can a professional social media marketing company help with achieving these goals?
The Social Media Process
The Social Media Process focuses on creating a campaign that meets the unique needs of the business in terms of their specific goals. It involves a four-step process to ensure no element is overlooked and the campaign is providing the desired return on investment. Following are the four steps and what they entail.
The process begins with the discovery phase. At this time, information is gathered about the business, its website and social presence, and the competition. This material is needed to provide a baseline as the process continues. A project brief will be created, research will be conducted on the target audience, a social audit carried out, and a competitive analysis performed to collect the desired data.
Next, the marketing firm develops a social media marketing strategy that pulls together all facets of marketing—one that includes a project plan outlining deliverables and business goals that can be measured. The plan covers both shareable content and social media profiles. Furthermore, it includes measurement planning and an engagement strategy. For those businesses feeling they need more, an advertising strategy may also be developed at this stage.
Once the strategy has been developed, it’s time to execute the campaign. This includes not only implementing the content developed in the last phase but also putting into place any advertising campaigns that have been created. Now is also the time a company needs to interact with consumers and influencers on various social networks.
To ensure the campaign is performing as desired and targets are being met, the fourth phase of the process calls for analysis and reporting. In addition to measuring the effectiveness of the campaign, key performance indicators must be evaluated. Goal tracking remains essential at this stage, and the project plan must be adjusted based on the results being obtained. This type of reporting needs to include both a monthly performance report and a quarterly review.
Engaging The Audience And Increasing Sales
With the help of the social media process, companies find they are able to improve their visibility across the various search engines. In addition, the brand is enhanced, product sales rise, and more traffic arrives at the site. Throughout the process, companies discover they are better able to serve their customers, both new and existing, thanks to the instantaneous customer service. Consumers may be engaged in meaningful conversations and asked to contribute content as well. These are only a few of the many ways implementing a social media marketing strategy can be of benefit to a business.
Social Media Integration
Social media offers numerous benefits when it comes to reaching the desired audience, and a number of techniques may be used during the process. Content is easily shared with a variety of websites, including Facebook and Twitter, and the company can easily create site accounts and logins thanks to Facebook Open Graph. Social media tools make it easy to create bookmarks also, and Facebook may be integrated on ecommerce websites. Once goals have been established, a solution is then found, such as integrating Twitter into a website’s back end to make it easy to inform consumers of new products now offered on the site.
Common Social Media Mistakes
Businesses make mistakes again and again when it comes to social media. The first mistake a business may make is ignoring these networks completely. This should never be done, as blogging and social networking are now the most popular activities on the internet. However, companies must never assume the use of social media is like a magic pill. The process takes time, thus companies shouldn’t expect to see results immediately.
Furthermore, one should never think that simply because they use the internet a great deal they know how to set up and maintain an effective campaign. This isn’t the case, as the process is very involved. Each company needs to develop a unique strategy that works for them as opposed to making use of a cookie-cutter approach offered by many marketing firms.
Begin working on a social media marketing campaign today to obtain these and numerous other benefits. If this is an area where the company struggles, don’t hesitate to bring in professional help. The importance of social media should never be discounted. With people joining existing social networks every day and more networks popping up on a regular basis, this is one area no company can afford to overlook if they wish to remain competitive.