Social media: every business needs to be using it, that’s a well-known fact. Yet, marketers still face the challenge of knowing what platforms they should be on and where to focus their social media efforts.
It’s safe to say that every business should be on Facebook. This is important for several reasons:
For many, these numbers may come as no surprise. As some of us know personally (and painfully well), Zuckerberg’s behemoth dominates social media ad spend and fights with Google for the top spot in global digital ad spend. It’s clear that Facebook should probably be part of your digital strategy, but with an increase in popularity comes an increase in cost-per-click and the need for a bigger budget, in order to be seen in such a highly saturated market.
While Facebook has the ability to cast a wide net, your unique content might be better suited on a platform with a higher concentration of specific age groups or demographics – as illustrated in this chart below by Pew Research Center.
And while YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter are social media’s biggest players, don’t forget to pay attention to alternative platforms that might serve an even more targeted, or niche, audience. New social media platforms emerge every day, some quicker to catch on than others. So, how do you tell what’s worth investing in? Where are the untapped markets? How do you forge ahead without drowning in the white noise?
The 2017 State of Social Marketing Report released by Simply Measured is a compilation of responses and data from close to 3,000 social marketing professionals across all sized businesses and in positions ranging from analyst to Chief Marketing Officer. According to the study, across individual brands and agencies alike, the biggest challenge marketing faces in 2018 is measuring social ROI. Even if you are standing out, it can be difficult to understand how much or what kind of difference you’re making.
With 58.7% of marketers unsure of the ROI of their social media efforts and 24.4% unaware of how to use social data to inform strategy decisions, there’s no question that we have a problem. On top of the confusion, Simply Measured estimates that by 2020, social media will account for 18.5% of the digital budget. We’re well on our way to upping digital and automation spending costs (we already have), but there’s something backward about knowing exactly where to improve…yet being unsure how.
If social marketing budgeting costs could increase, wouldn’t you like to know how you can maximize ROI?
The difficulty lies in the nature of social media itself. It is a unique, always changing platform. Carefully crafted messages have to fall in the right short-form length to even attract attention; in many ways, short-form posting is much harder than long-form. It’s like auditioning for the X-Factor: You have one chance and you have a limited time to do it or you’re out.
Because of this “one-shot” time-frame and the constant updates of social media platforms, a social media team might be small (almost 1/3 of the companies Simply Measured gathered data from have a social media team of only one person), but they have to be extremely in-tune with their audience.
Social media teams have three distinct needs:
It’s no surprise that social media has integrated into marketing departments of all sizes, but many have a long way to go to reach full potential and are still learning how to best measure ROI, if they know how to at all. Social media demands interaction at rates we’ve never seen before, requiring a high level of monitoring, adjusting and maximizing. The most important thing to keep in mind is that social media can no longer function in a silo. It needs to be part of an integrated and aligned approach to Systems (or as we define: people, processes, and technology). Don’t be afraid to break down barriers that have previously held firm—social media is a place for taking risks, for better or worse.
If you’re ready for more insights to transform how your customers perceive and interact with your brand – and you want tactical tips to accelerate growth – take a look at our Transformational Marketing ebook for a deeper dive into the Story, Strategy, Systems Methodology.