James Spillane
There is a big difference between investing in something that can spread word of your business and service and investing in something that will make you money.
Ultimately spreading word of your brand may well lead to an increase in sales. But when social media budget is concerned businesses must keep a tight eye on potential return on investment.
Using social media to generate new business is certainly effective (when I say social media I do of course mean facebook and twitter). But there is no point what so ever is spending any money building your social media presence. The only thing social media should be used for is directing highly targeted potential customers to your product window and data capture.
In the beginning facebook wouldn’t allow adverts directed straight to locked landing pages. A move that was surely aimed at keeping brand traffic on facebook. Obviously, brands quickly became aware that the ROI per click was not cost effective so something had to give. Facebook relaxed the rules, as they should.
The only thing that a marketer or advertiser should concentrate on is getting their product in front of potential customers, either by direct product traffic or data capture for repeat marketing.
Simply building your facebook fans or twitter followers is supremely pointless and any company who try and market this way will have a bad experience. You don’t own facebook likes and twitter followers and there is guarantee as to when they will be taken away from you. Especially as facebook runs algorithms that prevent stories from featuring on customers timelines.
If you spend £1,000 getting 1,000 fans it does not mean that 1,000 people will see your post. In fact the true figure is around 16%. So you are paying £1,000 for 160 people to view a line of text and possible an image. And this is only for a few seconds before the next barrage of pointless rubbish that is hashed out takes over. Then after several more posts that are ignored, FB deems your business as boring and stops showing it all together.
Much more sensible to spend £1,000 getting 1,000 highly targeted email addresses using a product specific ad and landing page. You know your leads are interested in what you sell and that data is yours to keep and remarket to until they opt-out or unsubscribe.
Data capture is key to social media marketing. Both services provide an excellent way to target your precise customers. That is where the ROI in social media advertising lies. Either get them registered or get their details so you can remarket your product. Use an effective landing page and explains your product or service, and be clear about your methods. Then use customer interest to repeat market to sell them stuff. That is a method that works.
Social media, like Google adwords provides access to a highly targeted audience that you want and need to be in front of. But ensure you are targeted and clear in your offering. Don’t bother building followers or fans – these are pointless and won’t help you sell anything. Those will come as a by-product of data capture, sales and service.
For businesses social media should be a free resource for your customers to promote your product. Never spend any money promoting your product away from a means of selling it. Otherwise it’s like putting up a massive sign outside your shop saying, “I’ve got this great product inside that you really really want. Why don’t you pop round the corner to the café and discuss it over a coffee rather than coming in and buying it”.
If you think I’m wrong, I’d love to hear why…
This article was written for Business 2 Community by James Spillane.
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You are thinking about social media the same way you think about print (or even Web) advertising. They are not the same thing.
Social implies interaction. If you post something and then wait for something to happen, you are wasting both time and money. First, you should be listening. What do your customers say? What do they like or dislike about your products and services? What intrigues them? What can you do better?
If none of these things matter to your business, then don’t waste *their* time and your money.
That is exactly my point – listening and utilising it as a form of feedback is free. This should not be paid for and you actually don’t need social media for this. Social media is just an extension of your audience and your most valuable audience is your database. more accurate results could be achieved through a customer feedback survey. As comments in these are normally anonymous the results are likely to be more accurate.