We have discovered that there are three basic challenges that organizations have when trying to figure out what to do with Social Marketing:
- How do I create and sustain engagement
- How do I increase message impressions
- How do I build out my database
The challenge most organizations seem to have is that they put Social into a box, where it tends not to interface with other marketing area’s.
For example we ran a program with an organization that sells software to students and educators. We started posting content and programs on just their Facebook page and got a very limited response. The next time we decided to send out the social content via email, and the email asked people to share with their friends on Facebook.
The results:
- increased engagement,
- increased impressions by over 100%
- Not only did they grow their database, but they saw an increase in product sales.
So the lesson that was learned is that integrating your social and email helps to create a much better result.
But, lets be clear on something – just trying to socialize a typical email campaign is not as affective as emailing a social campaign. What we mean by this is: if the main thrust of the program isn’t thought of as a social program first, you will not achieve the full power of what a social program can do.
A real example of the difference is as follows:
Provide a gated offer where people need to share information about the brand on social networks in order to qualify for it. By doing this with a properly constructed program you will get:
- The information about the person who qualifies for the promotion
- Your brand messaging to a larger audience
- New opportunities from the people who found you through their friends
We ran a program like this for a major oil brand. They gated an offer with a requirement to share the promotion online. As a result, they received 3,000 registrations, 1,500 new leads, and over 100 new sales.
Social is a powerful mechanism for improving your business. You just need to have clearly defined objectives to leverage the true power of the medium.