Nine Best Practices of Social Media Marketing
StumbleUponWhat was once considered a trend has developed into something far too potent to be ignored; social media has fundamentally altered the way in which we communicate as marketers. However, social media marketing can just as easily crumble resulting in confusion, turning customers off and plenty of negative publicity on your hands. So with that in mind, below are nine of the best practices in social media marketing that help companies and customers alike. By Kristin Hersant.
Kristin Hersant
There is no denying that social media is now recognised as a key ingredient to a successful marketing strategy. It plays a key role in persuading others to talk about your brand and by spending that little extra time planning your strategy you will soon be reaping the benefits. By doing this, you can vastly improve your company visibility, strengthen customer relations, identify new revenue opportunities, and create viral word-of-mouth about your brand or message.
1. Identify your objectives & measure your results.
This doesn’t necessarily have to be something money orientated – in fact, brands are still struggling with how to best quantify social media marketing in ROI terms. All of the following are reasonable social media marketing goals, and can be measured:
• Prospect list growth
• Improved relationships with existing customers
• Improved SEO
2. Be consistent.
The discipline of being persistent in your engagement within the communities that you are a part of is what keeps the cogs turning. This takes more work than you might think. Too many brands shell out messages to anyone and everyone in hope that whoever is interested will come to them – unfortunately it’s not this simple. By taking this approach you will only end up being regarded as a spammer. Decide on your tone and know what should and shouldn’t be emphasised online. Also, don’t forget to have a quality check for tone and messaging before anything is published in a social media channel.
3. Create a balance.
People expect online communications to be informal and short; this will help you to retain your customers and increase your brand's credibility. The more personable you can be the better, however it’s even more important to make sure your message is meaningful. Many consumers resent the fact that their social network has been hijacked by brands that are constantly trying to sell to them. This is because some brands view social media as a simple content distribution channel for existing marketing programmes. Blatant advertising messages and sales solicitations will only lead to people getting irritated by your brand and blocking you.
4. A little research will go a long way.
It's vital that you know your audience and you know what social media platforms that they use on a regular basis. Only set up accounts on relevant platforms, after all, why would you create a Twitter account if you know your audience doesn’t use it? Use your resources to see how people are talking about your company and your customers will likely be willing to share their social behaviours; so don’t forget to ask them.
5. Give your customers the information they want.
That’s the whole point of all marketing, isn’t it? It’s perfectly acceptable to include links back to your site in social media communications. Just remember it’s all about balance and the goal is to participate in conversations and not simply self promote.
6. Engage in a wider conversation.
Social media is popular because it enables people to find and share information that they value. By all means, link to your company’s assets, but also share blogs, news stories and other relevant information that would be of interest to your audience. There is also great potential for the spread of misinformation in social media, so back up your assertions as often as possible with links to your sources.
7. Don’t ignore.
You can’t expect your campaign to be successful unless you’re willing to spend some time on it, and the “social” part of social media is its greatest (and most often unexplored) potential. Not too long ago, most marketing was about talking to your potential customers. Most people these days rightly expect that you will talk and interact with them. By doing so, you can find out exactly what your customers require and what their concerns are. If a customer has something negative to say about your brand, listen to their point of view. After all, if you don’t, you’ll be perceived as, well, unsocial.
8. Participate and keep the conversation flowing.
There is no hard-and-fast rule about too much or too little social media communication, but you won’t get anywhere if information is only flowing one way. It depends on the setting, the industry, and others involved in the conversation, but be prepared to participate daily, even if that just means responding to comments or adding to a conversation.
9. No one likes a quitter.
If all else fails, try again. If you’re not getting the results you want, try new ways to engage your intended audience. The web makes it easy to recreate your message and try new social media marketing strategies.
About the author
Kristin Hersant currently serves as Vice President of Corporate Marketing for StrongMail, she is an interactive marketing veteran with more than 14 years of experience managing successful integrated marketing programs to raise awareness and generate demand. An active voice in the industry and regular contributor to marketing trade publications, Hersant has risen to become a respected leader in the field of email marketing and social media for B2B and B2C marketing.
About the company
StrongMail’s social media solutions were developed with a direct marketer’s perspective in mind. The company proposes to enable marketers to launch direct-response campaigns into social media and reach and identify key brand influencers across blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. Every social media product enables you to analyze and track campaign performance all the way through to the conversion so you can truly understand the business impact of your social media efforts.
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