Methods of Well-Executed Social Media Marketing.
There are 4 stages in a successful social cycle:
• Listening
• Influencing
• Networking
• Selling
The social success cycle has 4 stages, beginning with listening.
All 4 of these stages are key to reaching social media success. But all of it
hinges on Stage 1:
Social Listening.
Listening gives you the insights you need to perform the other 3 stages well.
It helps you develop a strategy that will give you influence, a strong network,
and lots of leads and sales.
The key, of course, is to get your information in front of your prospects and
customers where they hang out online.
For most businesses, that includes one
or more of these top social networking sites.
Social Listening
As with any marketing strategy, you need to start with your target audience.
That’s why social media marketing starts with listening.
This is key to creating a successful social strategy.
Some comments, like these, are positive. You’ll want to celebrate them—and
respond with a great big thank-you.
Other comments aren’t so positive (and some are downright negative).
They
need immediate attention so followers know you’re present and accessible.
It’s a lot like customer support.
And in the same way, it can help or hurt your
public perception.
Every day, your social phone is ringing.
If you don’t answer, it leaves a bad impression.
On the social web, it’s a bit like
leaving your customer service lines unattended.
But when you do answer the call, listening and responding appropriately, you
can connect with your fans and followers, find and fix issues you may not be
aware of, and build incredible good will.
The key, of course, is to make listening your #1 priority and use your insights
to inform the other 3 stages of the social success cycle.
Goals of Social Listening
What are you listening for?
When tuning in to social conversations, your goals
are to:
• Track public perception of your brand.
• Identify the topics you need to be talking about.
• Keep a pulse on the industry, where it’s going, how it’s being perceived.
• Perform customer research.
• Conduct competitive research
In particular, pay attention to these 5 things:
• Your brand – Watch for mentions of your company name, your products,
or any other identifying information.
Example: Apple might watch for mentions of the Apple watch or anything
related to iOS.
• Topics relevant to your industry – You want to stay on top of the pulse
of your industry. So listen to the topics people are bringing up, their
questions, and their hot buttons.
Example: Apple might follow conversations around wearable tech or
smartphone cameras.
• Your competitors – What’s being said about them? Is it positive or
negative? And what are your competitors saying about you?
Example: Apple’s competitors might be Android or Jeff Bezos. They’d be
wise to watch for mentions of them.
• Influencers – Listen for the topics thought leaders and influencers are
talking about, and look at the content they’re producing. They’re all clues
for where the industry is moving.
Example: Apple should probably keep an eye on GigaONE and John
Gruber.
• Public facing people in your company – Watch for mentions of your
leaders and influencers.
What’s being said? Is it positive or negative?
Example: Mentions of Tim Cook and Arthur Levinson can reveal public
perception of the Apple brand.
Putting Your Listening to Work
Listening is only half of the equation. You also need to respond to the things
you see and hear.
A strategic “feedback loop” is the best way to do this.
What is a feedback loop?
It’s a process you create for your teams to use
when addressing issues that arise during social listening. It clearly maps out
the people or departments that issues should be routed to and who has
responsibility for resolving them.
Social Influencing
At this stage, your aim is to lead and direct your followers’ opinions, attitudes,
and behaviors. And since you’ve been listening, it’s relatively easy. You already
know the trending topics and conversations taking place, so adding your
authority voice is the natural next step.
What are the signs that your influence is growing?
• You get more engagement – people retweeting or sharing your posts, and
people responding to your posts.
• Your traffic numbers increase – people click on your links.
• You develop a greater mindshare – people share their questions, thoughts,
and opinions with you, and they eagerly seek interaction with you.
• You become a recognized authority and a brand people watch.
Keep in mind, this stage of the success cycle is influenced by the social
listening you did in Stage 1.
But the reality is that you’ll continue listening at
every stage. In fact, once the cycle is going, you’ll perform every stage every
day.
Goals for Social Influencing
During this phase of the social success cycle, you’re trying to:
• Increase engagement with your brand and your content.
• Start conversations around the topics related to your business.
• Boost traffic to your site.
• Build awareness of your products and offers.
• Grow your retargeting list.
Social Networking
It’s at this stage of the social cycle that you connect with other influencers and
authorities and begin to move the needle.
Social networking is important for all businesses, whether you’re just getting
started, scaling, or expanding into new markets.
It may help to think of social networking as a live event—except your
interactions are online rather than face-to-face.
After all, networking is
networking, no matter where (or how) it happens. And it can lead to deep and
lasting relationships, both with your followers and potential partners.
The Process of Social Networking
Each time you publish an article on your blog, produce a new piece of
content, or have a new offer, you’ll create social media posts designed for the
channels you’re posting to (think “native” content) that get the word out.
You’ll share valuable content from peers and, yes, even your competitors.
If it relates to your brand’s primary topic and helps your followers, it’s worth
sharing.
You’ll also engage with people one-on-one, both asking and
answering questions.
That’s it!
Your Goals for Social Networking
During this stage of the social success cycle, your aim is to:
• Share content that fills gaps left from your own content. This content may
relate topically or target people at different skill levels.
• Create good will with brands that are similar to yours.
• Over time, transform that good will into profitable partnerships.
Social Selling
The fourth and final stage of the social success cycle is social selling.
This is where social media marketing gets interesting.
Finally, after listening
to your prospects, building authority in your space, and establishing a strong
network, you can start putting your offers in front of people—and converting
them.
What does good social selling look like.
The short answer is funnels. But you’ll use multiple channels for getting people
into those funnels, from blogging to retargeting to pay-per-click advertising.
So, for instance, you’ll lead with blog content that’s perfectly targeted to
your audience, and in that content, you’ll embed an opt-in offer. Then you’ll
promote the content in social media (leveraging Stages 2 and 3 of this cycle).
Your social promotion will direct traffic to your content, where they’ll see your
offer. If they respond, you’ll immediately make an upsell offer—a low-priced
product designed to convert your new lead quickly into a customer. We call
that entry-level product a tripwire.
Goals for Social Selling
• Your goals at this stage are to:
• Generate leads to grow your email list.
• Acquire new customers and upsell/cross-sell existing customers.
• Increase buyer frequency, turning one-time customers into raving fans.
Relevant Roles in Social Media Marketing
Once you understand the basics of social media marketing, you need to identify the people who will be responsible for managing your success.
There’s no right answer.
It will depend on your organization and goals. But in most cases, you’ll find your best solution in one of three departments.
Marketing Marketing and social media integrate so closely, it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. And most marketers are already involved in social media since it gives them the 3 things they need to do their job well:
• Customer insights.
• Understanding of the trends and conversations influencing their prospects.
• A powerful channel for disrupting the status quo.
Because they’re already actively participating in social media, marketing professionals could be a good fit for managing/directing your social media efforts.
Sales
Like marketing, successful sales depends on being relevant and current. Salespeople often use social media to engage with prospects, identify talking points, and figure out what matters most to people evaluating their products.
That being the case, someone on your sales team may be a good fit for managing/directing your social media program.
Public Relations
Public relations is another good option for taking responsibility of your social media. PR is all about creating a positive brand perception, and it’s already customer centric, which makes it social by default.
Community Manager
One last source to consider is your community manager, if you have one.
Social media is about being present and truly engaging with your fans and
followers. That’s pretty much the definition of a community manager.
Social Media Bouncing
Much of the success of social media marketing is the frequency of “touches.”
If you’re on more than one social channel, and people see you on multiple
channels, you create a j-curve of exposure.
That’s what we call social media bouncing:
A social media follower on one
channel is exposed to your brand on another channel.
Take Taco Bell, for example.
First, you see them on a billboard.
Then you follow them on Twitter.
Your Social Media Success Metrics
We’ve talked about specific metrics for tracking the 4 stages of your social
cycle, but there are a few more metrics that can show you whether you’re
nailing your social media strategy overall. Here are 3 you need to watch.
Applause Rate
Every social share and mention is a form of applause. Because let’s face it, no
one shares something they don’t perceive as valuable.
Measure the sum total of all social shares (Facebook, Likes, Tweets, LinkedIn
shares, etc.) and comments on a piece of content.
Traffic by Channel
It’s important to know where your traffic is coming from. So use a tool like
BuzzSumo that can measure your social traffic by channel.
Conversions from Social Media
Once you know the traffic that’s coming from social channels, the next step is
to calculate your conversions from social media.
You want to know the percentage of visits from social media that take the
action you’re driving on a web page.
For that, the formula is:
[traffic from social media] divided by [total traffic] .
Ultimately, this is the number you want to impact. The higher your conversion
rate, the more successful your social media marketing is.
Bottom Line
Like it or not, we live in a social world. Your customers are on the social
web, sharing experiences and opinions related to you, your brand, and your
industry.
Are you listening?
The approach we’ve shared in this chapter will help you create a strategic
social media plan that helps you keep up with the conversations taking place
online, as well as getting you in front of your customers—and helping you
lead, engage with, and sell to them.
But there’s another (more direct) way for you to have conversations with your
prospects and customers: email. And it’s a vital piece of your digital marketing
strategy.
Email is hands-down the most effective way to move prospects through the
Customer Journey. It’s also your ticket to loyal customers and repeat sales. So
don’t miss it.
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