As a small business, I can’t afford to waste money on chasing a social media payoff. What we’re spending seems wildly disproportionate to what we’re getting. How can I manage social media and the vendors I work with?
Thoughts of the Day: Figure out the metrics you want to measure that will indicate if social media payoff is possible or not. Determine your ideal audience. Test to see if you can attract their attention and convert them to action. If you’re just starting out, do trials with different vendors to gain experiential dataunder different conditions. Create a plan and follow it, then revise it to improve results.
Have someone in your company track and report results. When building metrics, think about the following:
- How many people are becoming aware of your company?
- What opportunities are added to the pipeline?
- Are prospects engaged and discuss ways to work together?
- How many deals get done?
- What percentage of revenue and profit is social’s contribution?
Add up all costs incurred to know how much it takes for social media payoff. Include staff time, vendor costs, any software and advertising, and training costs. Add in a factor for overhead contribution.
Compare stats resulting from social media efforts to what you spent.
Divide spending on social media by each individual stat for awareness, pipeline additions, prospect engagement, and # and value of deals getting done.
Design a profile of your ideal customer. You may need multiple profiles offering multiple buying scenarios to see what works. Think about real people who are or could be doing business with your company.
Make each profile specific enough so that you know exactly who you’re trying to target. Include demographics i.e. age, sex, geography, socio-economic and education background, likes and dislikes, places they go for information, things that get their attention, problems they’re trying to solve, goals they’re trying to achieve, ways they talk about their experiences, how they go about buying. Use existing customers as your models.
If you use an outside firm to build your customer profiles, make sure they know your social media payoff numbers. You may find it’s faster and cheaper to have staff build customer profiles since they’re already familiar with them. Ceate a one-page description of each buyer profile. Once you have a profile, it’s time to get the attention of others who match that profile.
Run tests and compare results to determine what works best with various social media outlets.
Compare advertising to gaining visibility through posts. Think about how various social media channels work – some are for quick views, others are places to learn and make deeper contacts.
Take a look at what your competitors may be doing. Gather ideas on what to promote, who to promote it too, and what to stay away from. If you’re planning to spend money on advertising, look for venues that most closely align with your target client to maximize your spending.
Write out the exact steps you plan to follow, to grow your company’s social media presence, then stick to it. Decide how much you can afford to spend. Identify free and for-cost activities you want to try. Set a goal for the payoff you hope to achieve. Use your metrics to report on successes and failures. Repeat what works. Change what doesn’t.
