Karin Tracy is a social media marketing expert and consultant at her firm Little B Design. She recently took a few minutes to chat with me about the basics of social media marketing. Check out: What is Social Media Marketing? Part 1.
Bryan: It seems like every day there is a new network being launched. And they are becoming much more specific. How can a business owner know where to direct their efforts?
Karin: It is critical to know where your audience is online—don’t waste time hanging out in an empty room. Additionally, you must be cognizant of your time and effort; spreading yourself too thin over multiple networks is not effective.
One of our first deliverables in a social media marketing plan is a competitive analysis. It is imperative that you know which channels your competitors are using and to what extent/result. This information gives you a starting point.
Secondly, you must think about what types of conversations you would like to have with your audience. Are videos effective to describe your process/service/products? Would a blog be a wiser choice? Are you in a very visual industry and do you have wonderful photographic assets?
Finally, we will help you choose two to three social media channels to start with. You must commit to providing content, monitoring the channels, and engaging/responding to your users on a daily basis. Ignore your audience, or wander too often from one channel to the next, and your followers will leave. Nurture and care for the correct channels and you’ll see confidence in your brand soar.
Bryan: What do you think about automated social media tools? Do they harm the relationship? Or are they an effective way to syndicate content?
Karin: Be wary of automating more than 10-15% of your content. Audiences are savvy and they will pick up on your schedule. It can be helpful to schedule evergreen content—certainly set up tweets or updates prior to scheduled events, holidays, or even staff vacation. Companies with an international base may want to schedule updates for other time zones as well. But think of automation like this—it’s beyond irritating to get a robocall. You may listen for a few seconds (especially if it’s a service you use—a doctors office reminder, for example), but imagine if every phone call was a robocall. You’d tune out, call and complain, or throw your phone out the window.
Bryan: How do you measure the ROI (return on investment) of social media? Is there an effective way to track sales?
Karin: The first step in creating a social media plan is to define the desired ROI—in many cases it is not tied directly to sales figures. Examples of social media-driven ROI include: increased page views on your web site, growth in followers on chosen social media channels, a rise in conversation about your brand, a rise in number of comments on your company blog, a reduction in calls to customer support, lower costs for product launches, etc. Each of these examples can be tracked using a variety of analytics tools.
If your company uses a CRM (customer relationship management) tool, you can track users and sales from social media. You can create goals and funnels within Google Analytics tied to entry from a social media channel.
Bryan: What do you offer to a small business owner? Why should a business hire your company instead of going it alone?
Karin: We offer creative thinking and social media strategy—obviously a company can set up a few channels and start posting, but without strategy, goals, and metrics this can easily be wasted effort.
Our projects follow a 4-step process:
- Analysis of existing online presence (if any)
- Competitive analysis
- Strategic planning/implementation outline
- Ongoing social media/content creation
Some clients opt to take step 4 in-house after training from my staff.
We recently worked with Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, to grow his Twitter and Facebook streams, promote his recent e-book release, and encourage discussion about the treatment of NCAA athletes. His popularity as an author, combined with a targeted effort to grow his fan base and encourage viral spread of his updates, resulted in a 583 percent growth in his Twitter feed alone over a three-month period.
Bryan: How can you help an online business make more money?
Karin: I like to think that first we help an online business save money. By utilizing free or low cost tools, our clients typically see an immediate reduction in their marketing budget—printing, postage, and traditional advertising are all expensive endeavors. Social media marketing is also friendlier to the earth and many of our clients are very excited to take part in a greener means of marketing.
My company tends to be heavily involved in the strategy and campaign creation part of a social media marketing project; as the project gains traction, we train and transfer knowledge to internal staff. While we certainly can act as day-to-day owners of the campaign and be responsible for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube posts, it is often more cost-effective for the client to use internal resources to fulfill that function.
Social media marketing isn’t always about making more money—the goal may be to drive more users to the web site, to monitor brand reputation, to respond to questions/crises more effectively, etc. Where social media can help an online business make more money is by helping to create a community of interested users. As Dave Kerpen from Likeable Media says, “Nobody likes to be sold to, but everyone likes to buy.” Cultivating an engaged following—warmer leads—means an easier sell and increased ROI.
Bryan: What blogs are you reading?
Karin: As my interests (professional and personal) are quite diverse, I read a wide range of blogs! Focusing on social media, I find the following blogs illuminating and cutting-edge.
- www.jeffbullas.com
- mashable.com
- www.likeable.com/blog
- www.briansolis.com
- thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com
- social-media.alltop.com – Alltop is a catalog of curated links on hundreds of topics. I can also recommend the dogs Alltop channel!
Karin loves to talk social media and can be reached via several channels (of course!)
- Twitter: @littlebdesign
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/littlebdesign
- Web site: www.littlebdesign.com
Want to learn more about social media marketing? Check out: What is Social Media Marketing? Part 1
