If you’ve been resisting social media, it’s time to lay down your objections and start tweeting.
A new study by the Internet Advertising Bureau has found that social media marketing gives a 3:1 return on investment.
Here are the findings, as reported by Brand Republic:
- 83% of consumers are willing to try a brand after being exposed to its social media presence.
- The likelihood of someone recommending a brand goes up 21% after engaging with them in social media.
- Followers actually expect to see your brand in their stream after following you.
- People react best to content about the products they love.
Based on these numbers, there’s no need to be shy about posting to your brand’s social media channel. Your followers enjoy seeing your updates.
I’d just like to add one word of caution: Keep it social.
As encouraging as these new statistics may be, you don’t want to create an advertising stream that does nothing but push your products.
The point is to be social
I’ve seen this first hand with some of my clients.
It’s not bad marketing, per se, to have your ads show up for people who have visited your site. But if they visit your site just once out of curiosity and are then bombarded by ads, they could perceive you as spam…
Unless you’re also building relationship with them.
Talking at them doesn’t work. Talking with them does.
In social media, you must be relational. Then when you pop up in ads or social media posts, you’re seen as a friend, not a stalker.
Relationship is a worthy goal for social content
I recently read an article on MarketingSherpa by Jonathan Greene, Social Media Analyst at MECLABS. He makes a similar point about content marketing, that not trying to sell your products can yield better results. Here’s what he says:
“Just for fun, I reviewed a bunch of top content marketing initiatives – everything from Red Bull to Procter & Gamble’s Petside and Being Girl initiatives. In all, I read more than 100 content marketing articles at random.
“More than 89% of the articles never mentioned a single product related to the company producing the content. They were virtually all product agnostic to the core. General Mills’Tablespoon platform might offer great recipes which could conceivably contain its products. They might even show a picture of a product in the “ingredients” photo, but they stop short of shoving the General Mills brand down your throat. You’re left alone to eventually connect the dots on your own. If General Mills cares enough to give me all of these recipes, they probably care enough to make superior products as well.” (Bold is mine.)
I like the way he says this. In social content marketing, you can’t get pushy. You have to trust your followers to connect the dots.
As in any relationship, trust is a two-way street
When people engage with you in social channels, they’re looking for relationship. For them, that means conversation and interaction but not a sales agenda.
There’s just one problem: Marketing, by default, does actually have an agenda. You want to gain followers and create brand loyalty. If you can sell some products, all the better.
Your job, then, is to get the word out about your brand—without sacrificing relationship.
Social media doesn’t have to talk only about your products or promote your own content. You’re a brand, yes, but there are real people behind the brand. So be real with your followers.
Social media improves ROI because it builds human connections. And people prefer to buy from people they know.
So get social.
- Share what’s going on inside your business.
- Tell people about your fantastic products—indirectly.
- Tell stories.
- Share jokes and memes.
- Give useful content that you’ve created.
- Curate content from other brands too.
Talk like there’s a real person behind the brand.
And remember, real people aren’t one-dimensional. They talk about more than just work. They care about one another’s well-being.
Treat your followers like friends. Engage them in ways that deepen the relationship and builds loyalty. Over time, you could easily triple your return on the investment…
There’s a study now that proves it. Triple your roi with social media marketing
