There are many businesses who’ve read the title, and I can hear the knee-jerk reactions as if I’m there myself, “We’re already doing social media marketing!” Almost all of the responses I’m “hearing” are the exact sentence above; the only difference is in the mixture of tones. Some of the voices I hear are coming from a defensive tone, as if offended. “What? You think we’re stupid! Of course, it’s important!” Other voices are coming from a friendlier tone, but the message is essentially the same: “Thanks, but no thanks. We got this.”
It’s very easy to get side-tracked in business; there’s a lot going on. Sometimes we unconsciously undersell ourselves. Sometimes we oversell…probably after we undersold – alluding to an overcompensation the other way. More often, we underestimate. As it pertains to social media marketing, businesses tend to check it like a box. “Ok…go to Staples for pens and printing paper: check. Pickup stamps at the grocery store: check. Check emails before bed: check. Oh, yeah…do some social media marketing before washing the dishes: check.”
Do professional quarterbacks ever study film while in the back of a cab? Actually, they might on their iPad, but the good ones are locked in a concrete room somewhere without distractions, and they’re putting in HOURS. Also, professional quarterbacks are…well…professionals…on top of putting in hours of time. The point is, social media marketing should come with a “Don’t Try This at Home” disclaimer. This disclaimer is for everyone doing more than fishing for vain attention, or those doing more than looking to get some followers for their Dungeons and Dragons hobby page.
In business, social media marketing is do or die, and it should be done right if it’s to be done at all. The rest is a waste of time, which is among the Top 3 sins in any business (wasting time). Speaking of Top 3, here’s a list of three reasons your business should use social media marketing.
Social Media Marketing is Cost-Effective – aka: Bang-for-Your-Buck
We challenge anyone to find a more cost-effective method of attaining engagement, dialing-in an audience, and getting your name out there than social media. Do yourself a favor, don’t try to prove us wrong, social media is a very cost-effective approach. Does social media do everything you could possibly wish to achieve with your marketing? No. Nothing does everything. However, social media does do a lot, and it does it cheaply.
Social media marketing allows us to tap into an engaged captive audience. Facebook has done all the dirty work for us. Same thing goes for Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. The audience has been corralled for us – all we have to do now is throw our lassos around the quartered people running around the proverbial arena. Actually, this metaphor makes it seem more difficult than it really is. Unlike wild bulls in an enclosed arena, captive social media users aren’t trying to avoid your proverbial lasso, and they’re possibly looking to be caught; they just don’t know you exist! Your job is to stop posting on your page like a crazy person obsessed with drinking out of a fire hydrant. It’s time to surrender and start working smarter rather than harder.
Few know that Facebook changed the game with their ads, thus making a page’s total likes an impossible audience to reach in its entirety as a result of the way things are programmed. AT MOST, a page with 1,000 likes will reach 20 of these likers via a raw post, and that’s assuming those 20 even give a damn. In techy digital marketing lingo, this translates into a 2% organic reach (at the most). In other words, unless you “boost” a post (Facebook lingo), you’re relying on an extremely unfriendly built-in algorithm to reach your “audience” (if you want to call it that). The built-in or inferred assumption by a Facebook user relying on posts through their page – assuming they have all the facts (are aware of the algorithms) – is that their audience is coming to their page on their own. This is a bad assumption.
Here’s the good news: a boosted post is super cheap. For five dollars, on any given day, you can call your own shots, and ensure your post reaches a decent number of people (hundreds and hundreds more than that terrible statistic from regular posts). Not only can you ensure the number of people you want to reach (way more than 20) are reached, but you can make them a much higher quality audience than whoever liked your page. Correction: you can make sure your audience is of higher quality than that 2% who’ve liked your page.
How many people do you know – including yourself potentially (I was one of them at one point) – who thought they were making a good use of their time on their “awesome Facebook page” with their awesome Facebook posts? You’re in an echo chamber unless you invest in your social media marketing.
Social Media Marketing can Dial-in Your Target Audience
Too many are caught up in numbers. Numbers are important. However, we advocate chasing quality numbers. Would it be smart for a rock band to promote their headlining theater show outside the entrance of Walgreens? Sure, there’s a slim chance this will have an unexpected and surprising result because it’s not supposed to work. Everything’s amazing if it’s supposed to be hopeless and it turns out not to be in the end. However, when we’re putting our budgeted dollars on the line, the audience better be a quality audience. In other words, just because thousands may walk in and out of that Walgreens doesn’t mean standing out there is a good idea. We have to dial-in the audience to be sure our efforts aren’t in vain.
Social media marketing has come a long way. Social media marketing has become very convenient and effective as far as various social media platforms allowing us to reach very precise groups of people. Do you want to reach executives with children who live in Summit County? No problem. Do you want to make sure your advertisement finds electrical engineers who’re between the ages of 30 and 55 who work in Boulder, CO? Again, no problem. The platforms have evolved to make this possible.
As social media has evolved, social media marketing has grown to make sense. Not only is the technology advanced enough dial-in precise audiences, but – more importantly – the audience has become a massively engaged group of people who’re inherently captive to the platform you’re marketing with. Whether through Facebook or LinkedIn – you can determine exactly who you want to receive your message, your brand, and your product. Many companies aren’t fully aware of exactly who these people are – let alone that they’ve been chasing 2% of their page likes (at most) before washing the dishes. GoEdison will make all of this happen for you to ensure you’re steering that hard-earned marketing budget in the right direction – not to mention with the correct content.
Social Media Marketing has Measurable Results
Having results is a necessity, but having measurable results is the only way to be sure the results are objective and not a mistake of fortune. Going back to the quarterback metaphor, if the quarterback wasn’t aware that 20% of his screen passes were intercepted on the right side, he’d continue to risk unnecessary interceptions without the information through game footage and game stats (measurable results). Similarly, knowledge is power in the form of knowing our marketing efforts when tweaked in certain ways will generate precise results – good or bad. The feedback from our results will determine whether to stop doing something or do more of it, but only if it’s measurable.
The power of social media marketing results goes much further than whether to do
more, less, or stop in general. Social media marketing has measurable results to the point of knowing what devices people are using. We can find out which ad was viewed by a male or female, young or old, via precise devices (iPhone, iPad, Samsung, Motorola) using a specific operating system (OSX, Android, Windows) at a certain time of day, in whatever location, etc. The metrics go even further – not to mention calculations per dollar to break down the efficiency or your budgeted marketing dollars.
It’s impossible to emphasize the power in this information. The information can only be powerful if the foundation for the information is there – alluding to the ability to measure results effectively. Many approaches can’t be measured anywhere near the precise metrics attainable through social media marketing. Try getting metrics anywhere near social media marketing (if at all) through Dex Media, mailers, newspaper or magazine ads, or even radio or television – let alone for the price. It won’t happen. Period.
OK…Now What?
The decision is yours about whether or not to tackle social media marketing, but – if you do – be smart about it. Don’t advertise through your page via posting alone. Your content is more valuable than that! No one should be self-deprecating enough to believe their content isn’t worth more than 2% of their total likes. Many or most pages don’t even have 1,000 likes – and those 1,000 will get you 20 views at the most if you post through your page. Don’t do it. That’s worse than pathetic results that aren’t worth your time. Not even the Dungeons and Dragons hobbyist should waste time in this way – not if actual engagement is the goal.
Also, the ability to advertise on Facebook, while simple, is much simpler for those who have a working relationship with the Facebook advertising team. Further, it’s much easier for those with the hands-on experience putting the platform to use. Talk to anyone who’s a veteran with social media marketing (using Facebook merely as an example), and they’ll laugh if you ask them if it’s super easy. Chances are, the answer will be something along the lines of, “Yeah…it’s easy…once you know what you’re doing.” Well…that’s a loaded response…inferring a lot of pain was experienced before it was “easy.”
Don’t waste your content. Better yet, don’t waste your time and money. Let those who’ve been through the pain for you save you the pain and time of dialing-in your social media marketing, generating your content strategy, and doing the brain surgery of the metrics and what it all really means. You’re good at whatever your business model is built on; we can take the weight off your hands. We’ll make it more than weight – but an investment that’s measurable and will work for you – aka: get you results and grow your business.
Social media marketing isn’t a box you can check among your weekly errands, and it’s not something that can be handled while in the waiting room after checking your email. The results are powerful once social media marketing is harnessed the way it’s supposed to be harnessed.
GoEdison will take you to coffee on us to dig deeper. Tell us about your business. We listen. Don’t like coffee? No problem. Reach out to us, or sign-up so we can reach out to you!
Be Bold.