Steve HammIf you still treat social media marketing as a task you undertake after hours or on weekends, you run the risk of letting the competition overtake you. The interactions between consumers and individual brands have proven to be so successful that a company’s expertly planned daily representation on the various platforms has a large impact on buying decisions.
Fact checking the Numbers
Among the largest social media sites, YouTube drives the most highly engaged website traffic (with visitors overall spending on average nearly four minutes and visiting three pages on target sites), followed by in order Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter. Reddit and StumbleUpon drive the least engaged visitors. (VentureBeat)
58% of marketers indicate that their social media efforts have generated leads. (Believable.) Social media produces almost double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, or PPC. (Not as believable.) (Business 2 Community)
88% of business buyers say online content plays a major to moderate role in vendor selection, yet just 9% of respondents think of vendors as trusted sources of content; the most influential types of content across both the awareness and evaluation phases of the buying journey are third-party validated research reports and studies. (MediaPost)
Social media marketing statistics bear out that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are now more than just vehicles for promoting special events or sales. The Chief Marketing Officer Council World Wide (CMO Council) reveals that 82 percent of brands represented on Twitter release between one and six tweets per day. To increase your leads, content marketing has proven to be three times as effective as old-fashioned outbound marketing – even though it costs about 62 percent less. That said, 83 percent of consumers made mention of a bad social media marketing experience. Where is the disconnect?
Making the Platforms Work for You
The increased online engagement between brands and consumers shows that this marketing practice is no longer something you can squeeze in during lunch and after hours. Instead, it calls for the attention of a dedicated staff of professionals. Negative consumer interactions frequently occur due to three common mistakes.
- No or late engagement. The consumer has a complaint. You do not respond until a couple of days later. Your competitor, who has a dedicated staff, responds within an hour.
- Unprofessional engagement. You have tasked a junior staff member with handling the social media accounts. This professional lacks training in online reputation management. Tweets or posts offend consumers.
- Uninteresting content. Your posts should be more than “buy me” messages. If you fail to post something of value to a consumer, you will not see your content being shared much.
Engaging with Experts
MaaS Pros experts understand that social media marketing has undergone tremendous growth and changes. When you want to step up your qualified lead generation via social media, contact us for more information on our services and strategies.
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