The Great Social Media Waste
:: By Allison Howen, Associate Editor ::
Coca-Cola has 61.5 million-plus fans on Facebook, but despite winning
the social media popularity contest, the brand found that the online chatter
it receives produces no measurable impact on short-term sales. What
makes your company any different?
Many companies are increasing the amount of time and resources
they spend engaging with fans and followers via their
social channels. The problem, however, is that their efforts typically
fall short in meeting performance expectations, as fan
numbers and post-engagement metrics don’t necessarily correlate
to website traffic and sales.
In fact, a recent Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly report reveals
that email and search still drive far more conversions and
referrals than social media. It would be irresponsible, however,
to simply let all of your social planning and efforts go to waste.
After all, there are still a few things that social networks are still
good for, including:
1. Marketplace Insights
Many of the social tools that brands are already using can actually
reveal a lot about the wants and needs of the audiences that
they are targeting. Listening platforms like Visible Intelligence,
for example, analyze hundreds of thousands of online conversations
in order to deliver unique insights to the brands leveraging
their services. These insights can be used for a variety of
business purposes, including competitive analysis, market research,
crisis identification and marketing measurement.
“Our solution is about business impact,” said Visible Technologies
CEO Rich Pasewark. “It’s wonderful to know where
things are trending on Twitter, but it’s more important to know
what those trends signify for a brand and what decisions can be
made about spending, marketing or communications to support
business goals.”
For instance, if a pet store merchant discovers that most pet-related
social conversations revolve around the topics “puppies”,
“training” and “dog parks”, the merchant can leverage this information
to shape his or her advertising and content strategies.
One example could be a merchant who decides to run a special
on training classes and invest more resources into a marketing
campaign to promote this initiative. Likewise, the merchant
could focus more blog content on puppies, which will not only
resonate better with the audience, but also help SEO initiatives.
2. Brand Awareness
It’s a good idea to closely monitor the time you put into social,
but that doesn’t mean you should neglect having a presence on
these sites altogether. According to Andy Price, founder of
1000tshirts.co, social posts can still increase your brand’s visibility,
despite their lack of impact on immediate conversions.
“Companies are spending
time in social media because it’s a
way to generate awareness with your clients,”
said Price. “It's probably not the best way to
convert potential clients to actual paying customers;
nevertheless, there are always a number
of followers that are interested in what you
have to say.”
Think about it this way, it is ideal for merchants
to place their brick-and-mortar stores in
high-traffic locations. You can’t expect the majority
of cars that drive by to stop into the store,
but most of the cars will at least see the store as
they pass by, and therefore know a little bit about
it — such as its name, industry and location. Thus,
having a presence in a high-trafficked digital area
(like Facebook) increases brand awareness, too.
3. Customer Service
The greatest aspect of social media is that it provides brands with
a direct connection to their audiences. That said, many brands
don’t take advantage of this benefit. In fact, Socialbakers reports
that companies on Facebook are ignoring 70 percent of their
fans. According to Charles Meadows, assistant professor of public
relations at St. Andrews University, the fact that social media
provides a symmetric (two-way) channel for brands to communicate
with their audiences on, is what sets it apart from marketing
channels like email and search.
“One of the top reasons companies engage in social media is
that it provides a unique opportunity to establish dialogic communication
between company representatives and various
publics,” said Meadows. “Unlike other forms of marketing, social
media provides a great platform for connecting with consumers,
maintaining positive relationships and strengthening
brand loyalty.”
Minimizing the Waste
Looking at the big picture, the only way to minimize the waste
of social media is to redefine the role it plays in your business.
While it is still okay to nurture your leads through this channel,
it will likely better suit your company not to make social your
sole marketing focus. After all, optimizing channels that are
proven to provide a better ROI is surely a better use of your enterprise’s
valuable resources.


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