Because Social Media isn’t Just Social, Plus 6 other Reasons to Leverage Social Media Tools
In recent years, technologically savvy organizations have relied on Social Media to identify and secure business. It’s a component of both our personal and professional lives, and certainly one that we can’t live without (in fact, it’s hard to believe that 19 years ago, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube did not even exist). Based on TSI’s work in developing and implementing sound customer, market, and business-driven IT Strategies within the most progressive, fast-growing companies, we submit the following 7 reasons why your organization should develop /enhance Social Media tools to get closer to your customers, drive revenue, and manage the customer experience both inside and outside your organization:
1. Social Media isn’t Just “Social.”
Businesses invest in social media tools because they presume that they have to or believe that social media presents them with a decided tactical advantage. The more followers or “likes” another company has, the more we, as leaders, feel that we need to aspire to a new standard of social media success. While Twitter and Facebook may be surefire ways to attract customer visibility, visibility is only half of the equation; in fact, much must be done before your organization’s use of Social Media becomes – well, “social.” Getting those customers to connect with your business, engage with your thought leadership, and adapt to market conditions and trends requires tremendous effort in understanding your customers’ level of engagement with you. A critical first step to creating a social relationship is to form a complete understanding of the Customer Experience (CX) that your customers have with your company, product, or service offering.
2. Your Competition is Using Social Media on Your Customers.
As if connecting and engaging with customers needed to be more daunting, your competition is engaging with social media and possibly better than you! Gone are the days when you could be a trailblazer by using Twitter or blogs to identify and drive business. Companies in touch with recent trends already have these tools built into daily communication and tactical approaches to secure business. You may not be as hooked as Jay Baer (note his podcast series “The Social Pros” https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/shows/social-pros-podcast ), but that should not be an excuse not to keep up with your competition’s use of social media to secure business. Understanding the dynamic, shifting nature of both your customers and your competitors will help lay the foundation for an effective social media strategy, which will hopefully result in our (essential) #3:
3. Social Media Drives Measurable Business, but How do you measure it?
You probably noticed that social media usage increased during the Covid 19 Pandemic, and this caused many successful companies to shift their marketing priorities from the established traditional methods to social media and relationship-building with consumers. Since this, Businesses have started increasingly investing more money into digital marketing efforts and have seen an increased return on their investments, with the amount invested expected to grow this year to over 1.3 billion, according to Statista (2023). However, determining the success and/or ROI can be tricky, with many factors and calculations that must be considered. Some factors that must be regarded to determine success include specific goals, growth, and sales from particular marketing efforts (see post https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/understanding-roi-in-digital-marketing for more details). Depending on your company’s specific objectives, you would then select the metrics that help measure the corresponding goal. For some, ROI may not be the most critical metric. Instead, awareness and brand building may be the main goal for a specified campaign.
4. Social Media Can Provide Metrics and Feedback, Help you Tailor your Service / Product, and Generate More Business by building relationships.
Tailoring your Social Media tools to perform what Ted Rubin calls “The return on Relationship” (see his post “About return on Relationship” https://www.ror.online/about-return-on-relationship ) can help you customize your offerings to make them more attractive to potential/existing customers. Enhancing the relationship increases the level of “engagement” with that customer, fostering their loyalty to you and your offerings. Ted explains, “Be it via valuable information or personal introductions, engagement, and interaction will remain key. By asking questions and proposing ideas, you can engage your followers in such a way as to give them the ability and reason to respond.”
5. Social Media is an Effective tool for Develop Branding.
Just as enhancing an experience with a customer can foster loyalty and drive new business, Social Media marketing can be an intelligent way to create a recognizable identity for your product or service. Creating activity around contacting current or prospective customers can facilitate defining and circulating product or service branding.
6. The importance of choosing the right social media channel
By now, you realize the importance of having and maintaining a social media presence, but it is important to note that not all channels are suitable for all businesses. Knowing and understanding your target audience and goals are the keys to choosing the proper social media channels. For example, while LinkedIn is an excellent option for targeting career-minded professionals, Instagram is much more suited for targeting Gen Z with features like filters, reels, and stories. Understanding your target market and selecting the proper channels can lead to more significant profits and greater brand awareness; both are keys to overall success.
7. Have you heard of Programmatic digital marketing?
Chances are your competitors have and are harnessing it to find and target potential customers. In short Programmatic digital marketing is using software to buy digital advertising. For example, a higher ed institution could harness the power of programmatic digital marketing to place ads on the televisions of the parents of potential students from particular feeder schools while they tune into their favorite shows. For a more in-depth explanation, look at Brook Osmundson’s Post “What is Programmatic Advertising? How Does it Work? (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-programmatic-advertising/462655/#close )
Based on the seven points above, social media is not just a job you give to interns anymore. In some ways, your company’s Social Media strategy should be just as important as your company’s overall corporate strategy. Both are means by which your organization chooses its overall intent in response to the opportunities and threats in the marketplace; both will guide how the company considers its internal strengths and weaknesses, and both will connect your internal and external stakeholders.
TSI is a leading performance improvement, process re-engineering, technology strategy, and change management consulting firm. We help our progressive, growth-oriented clients become more efficient, cost-effective, and customer-focused. In short, we help our clients grow BETTER.