Social media is one of the best ways to communicate nowadays. It is cheap and reliable. You can have it anywhere on this planet. As long as you are able to access a decent internet connection, you can use the likes of WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and all their relatives. There are so many things that you can do on social media and one of them is marketing. Aside from posting photographs of that amazing holiday you were having in the Maldives, you can also promote your business through social media platforms. Unfortunately this is easier said than done.
One of the rules of marketing and general communication is that you should know your audience. With social media doing this can be extremely difficult. There are things that the members of your target audience will do that are different. It is compulsory for all businesses to know who they are selling to. If you do not know your audience then your business is bound to fail. It is not easy to track these social media users outside the platforms. However technology is coming up that will make it possible for you to connect the online interactions on the social media platforms with your database.
Why bother connecting?
There are so many benefits that you will gain from using connecting social media interactions to your database. For starters, here we are assuming that you have a database for your business. Every business must have a database nowadays. The merits of having data are innumerable but the one that stands out prominently is that you will be able to make informed decisions. A database is a basic necessity for all businesses. It is not just any database that will do though. It must be a healthy, high performance database that will allow you to manage large volumes of data.
When you connect this database with the social media interactions, you stand to gain the capability to track your followers and ‘friends’ on social media. You can also contact them again when you need to. Keeping track of those who connect with you on the social media platforms helps in a whole lot of ways including:
- Learning your audience
How many times have you had a chat with someone on Facebook then when you meet up you are shocked? “I thought you were taller or younger!” Unless the person tells you about themselves you cannot get much of information concerning them. Facebook analytics and other third-party analytic tools will only avail to you demographic data and very little behavioral information. This is where the connection comes in to make your life easier.
When connected to Facebook and Twitter, you can have information concerning your subscribers, donors and members flowing into your database. On top of this, it is possible to interact with them in a more specific way. The information that you provide to them will be more streamlined and will be able to evoke more emotion than when you provide them with general information. Collecting information about your followers on Twitter and subscribers on Facebook will be so much easier.
- Identify those loyal to you
There are some people who are loyal to you. They are the ones who religiously follow the links you post on social media. They are the ones who devotedly share your content without your having to tell them to do so. Identifying these people can be a bit of a hassle requiring a good amount of effort to be put into it. It is however necessary to do it. Connecting your database to capture social media interactions will make things so much easier for you.
One of the best ways to make things even simpler for you is to hire a database administrator (DBA). DBA expert services make it possible for people to keep their databases performing at their best. A DBA will ensure that your database is safe from external threats as well as internal malfunctions. Who wants their business’ activities to be paralyzed because the database refused to work?
- Give marketing campaigns some focus
One of the rules of social media marketing is that you should focus your posts. Whatever you are posting on your social media platforms should be directed towards specific people and not general. People want you to be specialized in something which gives them the sense that you are an expert in your job. The most effective marketing campaigns are those that have a direction and are targeted. They will bring the right offer to the right person and at the right time.
Tracking social media interactions will make it possible for businesses to stay on top of their marketing campaigns. Most businesses currently have their social media interactions locked up in some storage that is separate from the database. This is a step in the right direction- at least they have them somewhere. The next step is to integrate them to the database. When you connect the database to whatever storage that is holding the social media interactions, you have the potential of creating more focused campaigns.
- Learn timing
As aforementioned the best marketing campaign is that which presents a commodity to a person who needs it at the right time. Who is shopping at midnight? Very few people will be online in the name of shopping. There are times when you can find people online and these are the best times to speak to your potential clients and your current clients. Every social media marketing expert knows that having a posting schedule is important. When you have connected your social media interactions to your database, you will be in a position to create this schedule with more ease.
Conclusion
There are so many advantages that come with connecting your database to the social media interactions of your accounts. These merits generally revolve around understanding the online habits of your target market. This connection can also help in knowing the general habits of your potential clients- their likes and dislikes. At the end of the day, you will have a more streamlined marketing campaign.
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