“Yeah, all I need is a website with a few pages talking about all the cool stuff I do”. Me, me, and some more me. Building an audience on relevant social networks will only expose you to future clients. I’m not talking about clients in your current pipeline. Think 3 – 5 years from today, let me elaborate.
Social Media is a word used by many, in several ways, and it has become quite saturated. The combination of social (of social platforms) and media (of creating digital assets) makes sense for marketers like myself. But how about small to medium business owners. Does “social media” have the same meaning to a SMB owner as it does to a marketer? I don’t think so and here is why.
ROI on Social Media is Hard to Measure
If you ask Gary Vaynerchuck “what is the ROI of Social Media?”, he’ll be sure to reply with another question in the tune of “What is the ROI of your mother?”.
While it is hard to determine the ROI of your mother, we all know that we retrieve great benefits from her as we move along through life.
When talking about Social Media ROI, we tend to think about financial revenue. I believe you can measure ROI on Social Media, but it takes time to understand how Social Media impacts your business, and it almost always does not start with revenue. Here’s an example:
Nilla Wafers, a company in the Food Sector, decided to do something about their sales being flat. So they decided to try out social media and coincidentally their sales increased 9% compared to their trailing 12 months results.
“More important, Nilla Wafers says sales are up 9 percent so far this year compared with the same period in 2012. And the advertising costs for that increase are a small fraction of a conventional media campaign. (He declined to get specific.) The reason is efficiency. Instead of huge outlays for campaigns that would be seen by vast audiences, on television for instance, Nilla Wafers spent small sums on people who had demonstrated an affinity for the brand.”
Efficiency is the name of the game on social media platforms. Every piece of activity can be measured, so your efforts are quantified and qualified. If a new campaign you started generated positive results with your audience, you should continue to invest heavily on what is working. Here is what I mean:
“VaynerMedia created a campaign called “Momisms,” a series of Facebook ads aimed at mothers, the key Nilla audience. Many ads had the brand’s yellow background, and in red lettering offered cute homiletic quips like, “The best families are like fudge, mostly sweet with lots of nuts!” Vayner would try five different ads at the same time, aiming at a small group of Facebook users. Once it learned which ads were most “liked” and “shared,” Vayner spent more to push those ads to bigger audiences.”
Efficiency, an Indicator of ROI on Social
Efficiency #1 – Facebook Ad Spend is more efficient compared to other mediums.
Have you realized that you can target your audience on Facebook with a quasi-laser accuracy? And if you happen to miss the mark with targeting, you are still safe. Why? You didn’t spend $10,000 on a tv ad or $3,000 on a radio spot. You spent $50 testing out 5 different ads that reached thousands of people.
Efficiency #2 – Facebook Ads allows you to learn which ad performs better, leaving financial room to invest in boosting the winning ad.
Let’s assume you discovered that 1 out of your 5 ads on Facebook engaged a larger portion of your target audience. Facebook’s Ads Dashboard shows you the numbers and you now feel confident to spend more money on boosting that ad.
Efficiency #3 – Facebook organized your audience in one place, now go talk to them and make their lives better.
1.5 billion people log on to Facebook every month and I’m sure that there are at least 100k people looking for what you have to offer (I’m being super conservative). Now we can agree that Facebook organizes my target audience all in one place which becomes a new marketing channel for my company.
By using Facebook Pages, you can cultivate a cold market into a warm market by constantly reminding them that you are around and you are one of the best at what you do.
Here’s What You Do To Figure Out Social Media
I want to help you understand and maximize your presence on Social Media, specially Facebook. There is so much value to add and extract, it’s insane.
Instagram and Snapchat are other platforms you should be engaging in constantly as well. And they work similar to Facebook with the exception of a few differences.
If you don’t know how to use these platforms mentioned above, thats ok. The problem is if you don’t seek out help to learn how to use them. That is something only your mom can fix.