Retargeter

Social Media Done Right: Be Yourself, but Don’t Forget About the Data

For brands attempting to cultivate a believable, relatable online presence, social media marketing is no longer optional.  If you aren’?t present on the platforms your audience uses, you run the risk of losing their attention (if you can get it in the first place).

There is often the false assumption that corporate social media is an easy, intuitive task.  Like the other aspects of your business, social media requires a plan and there are even companies like local seo audits that look at a businesses social media and review your performance and participation. There are many ways in which businesses go about managing their social media presence. For example, this agency are hired by companies to manage their social media marketing strategies. So, how is social media done right?

The Medium is the Message

If your marketers aren’?t comfortable using various social media platforms and well-versed in the unwritten rules that guide social media etiquette and best practices, hire someone who is.  I would suggest someone who has been using social media personally, someone with a high degree of fluency who tends to be an early adopter.  Whoever she is, make sure she ?gets it.?

Contently recently covered Kate Spade?s use of content and social media, and had the following to say:

?The social media manager in charge of @katespadeny maintains a personal voice without coming across as an actual individual ? a feat easier said than done in the corporate world.?

I couldn?t agree more.  This is an example of social media done right.  You want to be perceived as authentic, but if you are a corporate brand you don?t want an actual, identifiable individual presenting herself as the brand.  A feat easier described than accomplished, here you can see it executed to great effect.

Listen

If you pay attention to how and when your fans and followers engage with you, you can determine what’?s working and what isn?t.

Measure your engagement rigorously.  Don?t rely on vanity metrics like fan and follower counts.  Are people more likely to re-share photos or links on Facebook?  Which of your links are getting the most clicks?  Which of tweets get the most responses and retweets?  Facebook Insights for fan pages provides great engagement metrics which you can export cleanly to Excel.  Twitter, unfortunately, does not provide much help in this arena, but there are a number of third-party tools you can use to track your engagement.  Here are six tools recommended by online analytics firm KISSmetrics to measure your Twitter engagement.

One caveat ? several of these third-party services provide cutesy metrics that don?t help you measure your success online.  Don?t get distracted by pretty graphs, focus on actionable data.  The next step: take action!  Do what works and drop what doesn?t.  Don?t forget to try new things to see what?’s effective.

Defining and Measuring Success

For most marketers, the hardest part of social media is measuring the return on their activities.  In a recent survey by Ifbyphone, only 26% of marketers felt they could measure the ROI of their social media efforts.  I don?t need to tell you that?s not a very high percentage.  Part of the challenge is deciding what a successful social media strategy even looks like.

Success will look different for every marketer, as no two social strategies will be exactly alike.  This is a great post by Avanish Kaushik on how to think about measuring social media success.

Having a strong social media presence is not the end goal: selling your product or service is the end goal.  At the end of the day, social media channels are just communications tools, albeit powerful ones.  You don?t have a Facebook page just to have a Facebook page.  You have one to build relationships with clients, potential clients, and others in your industry.

Ultimately, success means getting people to take the desired action.  Make tracking attribution a priority. That said, do not discount the value of a strong community of evangelists, followers, customers and friends.  A community who sings your praises is an incredible form of social proof.

Some final words of advice:

Let your data drive your social decision-making, but whatever you do don?t sacrifice the believability of your company?s social persona.