Social media management software
The right social media management software can turn your social media pages into profit centres… if you know how to avoid the mistakes most marketers make. This article identifies what to avoid and what to include in your social media strategy.
Vanity metrics
Vanity metrics are the metrics that make you feel good but have no measurable impact on sales. Vanity metrics include likes, follows and reposts. Vanity metrics are a bit like someone walking up to your shop, looking in the window, then walking on. What you want is someone to walk in the store, make a purchase and come back for more.
Some may say that Vanity metrics are of little commercial value. We think otherwise. Think of it this way, what will it take to get that person who is looking in your window to walk in and make a purchase? This should be the focus of your social media marketing, and it's something XL.Today™ can help you achieve.
Bridging the gap between Vanity metrics and sales
The first thing you need to understand is that only a small percentage of people who 'like', 'follow' or repost your social media posts will make a purchase. This is not a phenomenon unique to social media. It's been a factor in all forms of marketing since marketing began. Your goal is to develop an understanding, transparency and predictability around what you can realistically achieve for your business.
To do this, you need a way of measuring success. Ultimately increased sales are the most critical metric. XL.Today™ provides you with the ability to measure sales against each individual social media post and compare with other posts and other social media channels. XL.Today™ has an easy to understand graphical dashboard that provides you with campaign overviews, as well as the ability to drill down by channel and side-by-side comparisons. This capability helps you at a glance see which posts are generating sales.
Managing expectations
The rule of thumb is that the higher the value of the purchase, the lower the chance that a post will lead to an impulse purchase. You also need to take into consideration the understanding of your product or service. If what you're promoting is new or unfamiliar to your target audience, you will need to create more posts to educate them on the value and benefits of your offer. Until your target audience is comfortable with your offer, you should expect relatively low conversion rates. You should consider all of these factors in your social media strategy.
The focus of your social media strategy
You would be astounded how many marketers and companies have not considered what the focus of their social marketing should be. You must know what you want to achieve with your social marketing before you make your first post.
Do you want just to promote new products, increase awareness of existing products and services, promote sales, offers and other calls to actions? You can achieve all of this with your social media strategy; however, these are all tactical goals, not strategic goals.
Strategic goals are your next moves. Tactical goals are what you need to do to achieve your goals. Let's say that your goal is to increase the volume of new customers for your online store. Is your strategy to produce more sales-based posts to drive more people to your online store? If it is, then you may have short term sales increases, however, in the long term, you might find this approach undermines your brand equity.
What is brand equity, and why do I need more?
Brand equity is the commercial value that consumers place on a brand name of a product or service, rather than from the product or service itself. Think of the value of generic running shoes compared to the cost of a similar shoe with a Nike logo. The importance of brand equity increases the less consumers have direct contact with your business and your people. In the case of a purely online business, brand equity is paramount and social media is a great way to increase brand equity.
Brand equity allows your target audience to understand your brand personality and feel connected to your brand. Once connected, your customers will have greater trust and place greater value on any offer you make.
Learn more about the benefits of Social media management software
This article touches on some of the benefits of Social media management software like XL.Today™. If you would like to know more, search our insight library and sign up to receive a regular email with even more information.
