Important Considerations For Improving Social Media Engagement & ROI for Small & Midsized Companies
Most probably, you understand the growing importance of social media in driving customers and prospects to your website, as well as in announcing a special event or product promotion. And while there are many different forms of social media (Twitter vs. Instagram vs. Facebook etc.) most users don’t know how to use them effectively to help improve marketing communications ROI. Just “having” social media accounts is not enough these days; you must understand the best practices for using each and nurture your accounts on an on-going basis.
For example, if your social media accounts haven’t been updated in the last thirty days, your customers and prospects may question your reliability, scope, quality and professionalism. Your social media is a direct reflection of your brand and what follows are a few simple guidelines for improving it.
Relevant Social Media Content Improves ROI
Content that is relevant to your customers and prospects is critical to the development of meaningful trust in your brand, in the short term as well as over time. In today’s world, trust is all important and a clear cut and basic method for improving customer purchase. Conversely, posting just anything can be more harmful than just not posting at all. What seems clever today, may be detrimental tomorrow. Your content, both imagery and text, must be well thought out to meet the needs of your customers and prospects, and therefore improve ROI. And it must be creatively presented in order to be received by an often skeptical audience.
With the recent news about fake messages and accounts, Facebook and Instagram are attempting to improve their algorithms in order to eliminate accounts that are posting irrelevant content or using popular hashtags just to gain visibility. These tactics will now get accounts ghost blacklisted. This means that your account is visible to only those who directly search for it, but your content will not be shown in anyone’s timeline.
How To Deploy Hashtags For Maximum Engagement
Hashtags and social media are as important to one another as oil is to your engine. To perform better than just getting “likes” here and there, you should research relevant hashtags. General hashtags can be used as long as they’re relevant and they’re not abused.
For example when I create a post on an Instagram (this same post will be shared on Facebook too) I always start it off with #GoodMorning #GoodNight depending on time. There are in excess of 91,500,000 posts on Instagram using the same hashtag.In turn, the audience looking, searching, and filtering the above hashtags has to be considerably larger. Hashtags are the equivalent to Meta Keywords in your website – they must be relevant to your post, and you must not abuse them.
Posting Consistency Also Improves ROI
Solid growth doesn’t come in fits and starts, and the regularity in which you post is key. Work with your team and based on your knowledge of your audience, set minimum numbers of posts and perhaps also ideal times.
And in today’s increasingly untrusting environment, “writing longer posts, spending more time crafting them, and publishing less frequently can go a long way toward building confidence in your brand. Posts went from 808 words in 2014 to 1,142 words in 2017” – Orbit Media. And, of organizations using social media today, only 3 percent are posting daily, 22 percent are posting weekly, and the majority are posting only several times or less in the past six months. Therefore, your posting consistency becomes even more meaningful to your customers and prospects, so that profitable growth is more attainable.
Remember, It’s All About Branding
Traditional media, digital media and social media, in particular, should all work together to improve brand and marketing ROI. When your audience shares your post, you’re extending your brand to reach new audiences and your existing audience is demonstrating their loyalty to your brand.
And don’t forget about your website. It’s the focal point of your brand and, while it can go much longer without updates, search engines do specifically look for updated content and professionally developed new content can significantly increase your brand’s ranking.
Marketing Communications Consultants Can Help
In a recent CMO Digital Benchmark Study, 97 percent of marketing leaders said social media spending made only an “average” or “below average” contribution to their company’s performance. So, if you have concerns about what you’re doing, you’re not alone.
Social media is growing rapidly, and as with any new process there is a great need for professional help. Without understanding best practices and/or not having the time, energy or skill to improve your social media efforts, it’s like putting your head in the sand. As Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
