When social media first penetrated the market many years ago, the simple purpose was for connecting with friends. Platforms like MySpace and Friendster set the standard for the industry and it was cemented that social media was for the youth and just for fun. Fast forward a decade and my, how things have changed!
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Social media is now the pinnacle of marketing strategies in business and the digital landscape is here to stay. To put things in perspective, here are a few numbers to demonstrate just how great of an influence social media can play in your daily operations:
- The world population holds 6 billion people and the internet entertains 3.5 billion users.
- There are 028 billion active social media users in the world.
- 68% of U.S. adults now report they are Facebook users, and three-quarters of those people access Facebook on a daily basis.
- 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds in America use YouTube.
- Instagram Stories has over 100 million daily active users.
- Facebook has 2.072 billion users, Twitter has 330 million, Instagram has 800 million, and LinkedIn has 500 million users.
These numbers are staggering and yet studies show that 58% of B2B brands are not sure of how to measure social media or the value it holds. Despite troubles analyzing the effectiveness of social media, one thing the numbers do demonstrate is just how important it is for reaching people.
Social media can prove ROI if you look at the right metrics. The idea is loyalty and profit, not so much new customer acquisition. Either way, social media has a true effect your bottom line. Here are some ways in which these platforms are impacting business and how you can get on board:
Social Media ROI
In order to understand what tactics might work best for your business, measuring your social return on investment (SROI) is important. Return on investment is generally calculated by the possible cause and effect in marketing scenarios. This allows a business to isolate tactics and assign incremental revenue generated.
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Social media marketing is a tad different. Today, there are only a few metrics in the social arena that can lead to “real” ROI calculations. This mostly includes paid advertising, such as:
- Pay per click (PPC)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Email marketing
- Banner ads
- Direct mail
And even still, these numbers are typically only useful when it comes to e-commerce and lead generation. Social media is the opposite of the cause and effect process. It is ambiguous and circumstantial.
In social media, customers can control the message, so it’s much more difficult to quantify. It’s a two-way conversation, rather than a unilateral set of data to analyze. But social media is not the first platform to consider the challenge of calculating value. Here are a few other examples of successful marketing that is hard to measure:
- Radio
- Television
- Out-of-home (OOH)
- Sponsorship
- Public relations
Some companies even pay people to tattoo a logo on their bodies. How does one even measure that? Yet it still influences a company’s bottom line.
Customer Service
When it comes to immediate customer service (CS), social media is the fastest vehicle. When CS is done well, it improves efficiency, generates data, and helps you benchmark against competitors. Revenue generation is not the highest selling point for social media. It’s about creating and fostering long-term relationships with your customers.
Customer success entails listening. Social media gives you valuable insight into what consumers want and when they expect it. Analyzing trends allows you to spot the predictable social behavior of your customers. This can lead to better decision making.
Predictive analytics starts with a deep comprehension of your audience and springing into action from there. Everything from product development to CSR strategies can be derived from insights collected via social platforms.
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When it comes to customer service, social media is best utilized as a manifestation of your corporate culture and community. Rather than direct marketing, social media gives the consumer the upper hand. It’s about creating repeat customers over acquiring new ones. This means, your social media strategies should focus on turning customers into fans, which leads to greater brand advocacy.
Automation
One of the greatest advantages of social media is that a business can automate their message. The more followers you obtain, the harder it will be to respond to every single query. Marketing automation allows you to create processes that ensure your message is reaching the right audience.
Forrester Research predicts that blended AI tools will “help improve sales outcomes and reduce customer-servicing costs.” There is a downside to automation, however, and that is lack of attention. Never use automation to fully replace a live operator on social media. Consumers will notice you’ve handed everything off to robots, and your bottom line will feel it.
As a brand adapts to their automated customer-service offering, they should watch the customer satisfaction metrics closely. There is such as thing as too much robot. Bots will help gain faster responses, but brands need to ensure that every answer provided is quality. Otherwise, your speed and efficiency will only end in dissatisfaction. Human intelligence is required for authentic engagement. So, while automation is necessary for response times, it should never be used as a crutch.
Rapid Response
Response times are crucial and social media can help you reply faster than any other strategy. Unless a brand responds to 90% of queries within 15 minutes on Facebook Messenger, a business won’t receive the coveted “fast response” label. Social media is about real time and if you drop the ball on getting back to people, the message will spread like wildfire.
Social media adds to a company’s bottom line because it allows you a direct avenue to speak with customers—AS the issue is occurring. Much like meeting face-to-face in a showroom, your customer can engage on a level that creates a deeper sense of trust and loyalty.
When you take the time to immediately address concerns and respond in a positive light, the ROI is almost immeasurable. In fact, 48% of consumers in a recent survey stated that they valued a quick response on social media above any other action a brand can take. That means that people are more likely to visit your social media over connecting with your customer service set up. Thus, it’s important to monitor these channels frequently.
As of now, the average brand response rate is just 12% and takes an average of 11 hours. That’s much longer than Facebook’s recommended 15 minutes. This can equate to not only poor customer service, but the serious loss of sales potential.
Sales
The initial investment in social media should always be compared to the revenues generated by e-commerce. Shopify recently reported 1.85% of visitors that come through Facebook ultimately buy something. Although that number may not seem high, the success of brands like this depends on a multitude of variables. It goes far beyond a simple conversion percentage.
Social media channels offer unique sales possibilities, especially when it comes to focused communication. Modern marketing is all about the right targeting. Personalization comes with knowing exactly who your customers are and what they really want. Social helps a company assess a client’s opinion on a product and drives development in the right direction.
Video Marketing
People have minimal time for anything these days, and when a video can say a thousand words a minute, it seems the obvious choice for marketing efforts. Video can include everything from smart animation to scripting, live streaming or on-the-spot filming. This type of content is extremely flexible.
According to a recent survey by Global Web Index, 28% of social media users have watched a live stream video. The recent emergence of platforms like Snapchat and programs like Instagram Stories have pushed live video into the stratosphere. Video marketing has become an essential part of not only creating brand identity but communicating with people in a way that they prefer.
It should also be noted that the number of users engaging with live streams on social media has increased nearly 10% in the past 2 years and continues to grow. Engaging with your customers on social media is almost as simple as preparing, pointing, and shooting. It should never be ignored that video marketing is a major part of brand strategy.
Social media can add to your bottom line in a variety of ways. It’s a little more intrinsic than calculating typical cause and effect ROI. The return on investment for social media involves reading between the lines. Understanding your audience is the prime goal.
Social media serves best as a brand-equity and customer service platform. The goal is simple. Make people happy and let them know you care. Social media allows rapid response and a slight space for automation. If you use the tools accordingly, your business should thrive with any social media campaign you run. Just remember, the key goal here is connection. Keep that in your visions and the rest of social marketing will fall into place.