Ruby Rusine — September 22, 2017 — September 22, 2017
Are you a social media savvy company?
While there may be indications demonstrating that your company is proficient in social media – you engage daily, and you seem well-versed using the platforms, but you might not have these core competencies that the truly social media savvy businesses have.
What makes social media savvy companies different from the mediocre ones?
Here are guide questions poised to help your business find proficiency and efficiency gaps as you work TOWARD becoming social media savvy.
#1 | How important is social media as a marketing tool for your organization? What level?
As marketing tool, many social media savvy companies consider it as an essential tool in their marketing and communication arsenal to reach different business goals – not just sales.
Other companies however see social media marketing as just marginally important.
Enthusiasm and expectations of what it can do may be high.
But that is where it ends.
However, the real low regard for social media as a marketing tool could be noticeable when you start looking under the hood. There you will see where it may be running low. It finds itself wanting management support on allocated budget, time and staff.
If that is the case for your company, then you can stop here and look for something else to read. Or, perhaps you may need to convince your stakeholders first about social media’s value to your company before doing any.
#2 | Are you making social media sharing easy?
The point about this particular social media competence question is that your content’s social sharing buttons should be readily available and visible to everyone. If I (or anyone) want to share your content, I should not be scrolling up and down your website to find the sharing buttons, right?
An incident related to this is what inspired me to write this (article). A business who caters to B2B companies asked me to read an article they published, which I di. I liked it, and I knew it’s useful to my audience.
…do you know what’s missing though? The sharing button wasn’t there.
I searched. Nada.
You will be surprised to see that there are still MANY businesses that do not have this feature on their business website.
How does making sharing easy look like?
There is no right and wrong answer to that question. Many savvy companies place it after the title, at the bottom of content or in both spots.
Do you use WordPress?
If so, use plug-ins! You can Google it or go to wordpress.org and search for it. Here are just some of the tools that are out there. There are free and premium plug-ins.
#3 | Have you picked the RIGHT tools to manage your social media programs efficiently?
There are a plethora of social media tools in the digital space.
However, many of it may NOT be right for your company.
What makes a tool the right one anyway?
A social media savvy company knows that choosing the right tools rely on the pre-determined goals that have been set by the stakeholders.
It is really important that you have decided first what you what you need a tool for, and before wasting yours and the product rep’s time attending demos.
What do you use tools for?
- social media engagement
- social media insights
- team workflow and management
- social search
- social discovery
- social media post scheduling
- campaign tracking
…and more!
The truth about these social media tools?
It is not a one-size-fits-all solution for all your marketing needs, even the paid ones.
Sometimes you might need a combination of it to get the job done.
Also, remember to choose tools that your business could use for a few years. You would not want to spend your money acquiring or accessing the tool/s; use your team’s time and energy learning it; and, get comfortable tracking aspects of data then only to outgrow it immediately.
#4 | Do you have CONTENTS ready for sharing?
Your sales pages, you said. Good.
BUT don’t stop there.
A social media savvy company knows that sales pages are not enough as contents to share.
Of the top ten reasons why people use social media, buying is only 10th as their reason for using social media. (Source)
Then, what should you do? Ditch your sales pages? Not!
You can still use it as your content for sharing, but share it in moderation.
Besides your sales contents, consider mixing it with OTHER content themes like the following:
- Entertaining
- Helpful how-to’s
- Informative
- Empowering
Social media thrives in media-rich content so don’t use just one content format. Mix it up by using:
- Texts
- Optimized social media graphics
- Video
There are many ways to create social media materials that will reflect the above categories; although, in some cases, you may need just to repurpose the ones you already own.
#5 | Is your social media post TIMING relevant?
Some experts would argue that content is way MORE essential than timing.
And that, as long as you have helpful and relevant content, you should be OK. However, a social media savvy company knows that timing is ALSO important.
There are many articles published by authoritative content marketers and publishers about the “science of timing your posts.”
IMHO, those may potentially be untrue when applied to YOUR business so don’t take it hook, line and sinker just because someone famous said so. Your business is unique, remember?
In a mini-case study, I tested the “science of post timing” when a client wanted to give Instagram a spin. What we are clear about:
- key performance indicator for Instagram
- the frequency of post
- useful and relevant contents
- target audiences
- free analytics from Instagram
The result we were expecting is that we were hoping to get this type of post efficiency “grade” from Instagram.
For a couple of months, we have been monitoring results.
No luck.
Until I gathered information from Instagram Insights and analyzed it against information that we know we have. I looked at demographics and cross-checked it against what we have.
Armed with the information that I analyzed and deduced from data, I came up with a couple of potential time slots. And then, I had it tested further.
With the new time that we picked, we have been getting more post efficiency notifications similar to the above. In fact, out of the six all-time best posts that we have gathered, 5 of it were posted around the new slot we picked. Additionally, we have engagement rate for a post that went as high as 120% which we never had before until changes were made pursuant with data we gathered.
So is timing relevant? You tell me.
#6 | Do you have staff available to manage social media?
Social media includes a lot of details to take care of.
It’s not just creating the page and post copies. Those are just the beginning.
There are OTHER details that social media savvy companies pay attention to regularly, like:
- Engagement
- Content scheduling
- Follower-growth
- Influencer outreach
- Content development
- Content curation
- Data Gathering
- Data analysis
- Social media tactics development
- Ads – beta testing and management
All of it would need a dedicated team to manage it, to become familiar with the trends and cycles and to be able to formulate reliable social media solutions and recommendations.
#7 | Are the knowledge, expertise, and experience of your marketing team on par with your social requirements and expectations?
The social media profiles are not what it used to be – in form and algorithm.
For nearly a decade of doing social media marketing for companies, Twitter and Facebook and other social media platforms have gone through remarkable and notable changes to our chagrin.
I often jokingly tell people that social media is in beta forever. It is because change is what seems to be the standard norm for all platforms, don’t you think?
Therefore, make sure that your staff is up-to-date with the trends and changes involving the social media profiles you are on. Bring in an experienced media social media trainer for your team or have them attend training elsewhere. It is an investment worth taking a look into.
Gathering and analyzing data and keeping track of results against key performance indicator require a different skill set so does content creation – video, social media graphics, and other forms of content. You may have time for it but do you have the talent?
That said, handing off management of your entire social media program to an intern alone and let them have a go at it; or your high school son or daughter because they have nothing better to do may not be a brilliant idea, don’t you think?
#8 | Do you have budget set aside that is proportional to your social media programs and results you want to see?
You heard it said that “Social media marketing is free advertising” is not true.
The social media savvy companies know that social media is pay to play, and that to reach MORE of your perfect audience you need to advertise often.
And THAT requires money. MORE money.
So what do you need a budget for?
- Social media ad
- Salary / consulting fee for in-house, or augmented staff
- Various tools
- Social media education and training
PLUS …all the other details you wish to do and see results for that need TIME – yours or your company’s social media coach if you are retaining one.
#9 | Have you identified social media metrics to measure your social media success?
Per Peter Drucker,
What gets measured, gets managed.
Isn’t that true?
The metrics you track should be driven by the goals you have established. Data provides credibility to your social media efforts, and a company savvy in social media knows that well.
The key is to define early on the key performance indicators that will make MOST, if not all, stakeholders happy.
Planning what to measure can be simple or complicated depending on how many people are involved in the decision-making process.
If there are several departments involved, better get a consensus on the metrics that matter to them, then set realistic expectations.
#10 | Do you know that a large part of your social media activities are difficult to quantify because there is OFTEN no financial transaction involved that results in economic gains?
You are there to make a sale, eventually. However, not all your efforts will translate into sales.
People will not come running to become part of your group.
There are some activities in social media marketing where you can DIRECTLY measure ROI of your campaigns in sales and customer acquisition.
Bonus point to consider: Are you ready to fail?
The path to social media success is not strewn with petals of success. Not all your beta-tests will be a slam dunk.
The data fluctuate and keep you on your toes every end of the month. Companies savvy in social media marketing have failed many times. They just keep going.
In conclusion:
Becoming a social media savvy company is a process. You may not be there yet but keep going. Need help?
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