Don’t Forget the “Media” in Social Media
In the conversation management trenches, we spend our time being exquisitely social: pampering customers and prospects and enticing them to converse with us on the platform of their choice. This truly social behavior is highly rewarding for the brands that do it well; yet inevitably, brands, especially larger ones, will want more. That’s where the “media” part of social media comes in, and here are 5 reasons why brands won’t want to forget that.
Media is an Accelerant
Growing a sizeable social footprint organically takes time, and few large brands have the patience to get there. Even a modest spend on Facebook can greatly accelerate the process and attract both latent fans and prospects to your “community.”
Media Spend Can Be Linked to ROI
| During his interview with Drew, Facebook’s Graham Mudd made it abundantly clear that marketers can and should look well beyond Likes as a measure of success, particularly when justifying a media spend. Explained Mudd, “If a marketer has more traditional goals like customer acquisition or driving online or offline sales, then they shouldn’t be paying attention to Likes as much as how much their marketing efforts drove sales.” As such, Facebook is working with brands and agencies to develop attribution measures to demonstrate ROI. |
Media is Easy to Test
| Brands that want to measure the efficacy of advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn can set up campaigns on a cost-per-action basis in minutes and with miniscule budgets. The trick, of course, is to make sure you’re testing the right things. For example, there is no point in testing cost-per-Like if you’re trying to drive site traffic (unless you’ve already been able to correlate the two). |
Not Just a B2C Opportunity
| Though Facebook is often classified as a B2C social channel, savvy B2B marketers are starting to tap into THE social network. Facebook’s Mudd claimed that by carefully targeting by age and job title, “HubSpot saw a 71% sales increase from Facebook over the course of three months and 39% increase in traffic.” |
Targeting is Getting More Sophisticated
Assuming you have a database with customer emails and/or phone numbers, testing Facebook’s sophisticated Custom and Lookalike Audience targeting tools should already be on your short list. (If you don’t know what these are or how they can help your business, ask your agency or give Renegade a shout). Not to be outdone, LinkedIn will soon offer Sponsored Updates, providing brands with the ability to target not just by title and business type but also by interest, affinity group and skill set.
Final Note: Putting the “media” back into social media should not be construed as a failure of your organic efforts to build community. On the contrary, it’s a recognition that social media is an increasingly important yet complex part of your overall go-to-market strategy. As always, please give us a call if you have any questions.