Are you looking for ways to keep your brand’s social media running without having to be personally involved?
Social media is the most important traffic driver that can’t be ignored. Most websites receive at least 35 percent of their traffic from social media. eCommerce website receive even over 80 percent of their traffic from social media platforms. The exposure generated by social media raises brand awareness, increases brand trust and allows customers to form relation ship to your company that aren’t possible through any other methods.
The goals of successful social media marketing can be divided into three separate categories:
a. Brand impression: The thing that makes your brand “pop out.”
b. Brand reputation: Knowing how far your brand extends in the public’s eye.
c. Trust development: Creating positive feedback, a productive connection with your audience.
But many managers and business owners are overwhelmed from managing social media. We get sick of the platforms, the processes, the hassle, and the worry about negative ROI. Thankfully, there are ways to rise above the challenges, and get some serious benefit.
If you’re tired of social media, or just disappointed at your lack of results, here are some things you can try.
Hire a Social Media Manager
As with any necessary business process, managing a social media presence doesn’t need to be performed by the company itself.
According to a Forbesarticle, for a medium-sized company, managing a single social platform could take roughly 32 hours a month.
Instead, consider outside sources to assist with the daily tasks related to social media. Nearly 97% of all Fortune 500 companies use at least one social media network, such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, in order to establish a good communication line with stakeholders and advocates.
According to Hubstaff this fact is alarming, considering the fact that, for example, the majority of Facebook page owners do not reply to customer comments on their pages. And who would blame them? Their business certainly won’t run itself.
Social media consulting firms and managers can take over responsibility for the design and development of your social media account, content creation, monitoring, growing and analyzing, social media strategy and community management.
It’s important to track how many followers, likes, and interactions your brand draws. Compare the Amount of Impression and the amount of post engagement can provide insides. From there you can set specific goals, such as increasing followers by 20 percent each month or drawing 100 likes per day by putting your content to right audience.
What kind of numbers should you track? There’s no need to make things too complicated. Start simple, and grow from there. Most businesses measure their reach, impressions, engagement, and participation.
In my experience, the most crucial metrics to measure are convertion oriented metrics — sign ups, purchases, revenue, sales leads, etc.
Social media agencies can help to align your business’s goals with your social media efforts, creating a far more profitable campaign.
By quantifying social media goals, you’ll have an effective method of measuring performance and keep your social media account running without needing to be personally involved. Instead, you’ll simply be reviewing another business report on a spreadsheet, far from the trenches of social media.
Automate Posts with Third-Party Tools
Social media has become so widespread these days that automation tools have popped up all over the Internet, allowing brands to schedule and automate social media posts from within the tools without ever needing to touch the actual social media platform.
Here are a some social media automation tools you can use.
1) Social Oomph
2) Hootsuite
3) Buffer
4) Socialpilot
5) eClincher
7) Sendible
8) Agora Pulse
9) CoSchedule
10) Crowdfire
11) Meet Edgar
Having the right scheduling tools on deck can help you save time and push out more content to your audience. The more of your social strategy you put on autopilot, the more time you have to connect with your followers in real time.
Perhaps the hardest part of social media marketing is staying relevant. Even large brands find it difficult to connect with their fan base effectively at all times. One brand that is doing it extremely well right now is Wendy’s -- by having a dedicated social media manager, the company is able to be very fluid, responsive and engaging. Simply using a tool to schedule posts will not get you results.
You need a proper Hashtag Strategy and engaging content to let your content go viral.
Encourage Social Media Shares
You don’t need to be active on social media yourself in order to get social media shares. Instead, you can remain active on your website’s blog and provide buttons for readers to share your posts on their social media accounts.
The Huffington Post became the highest-trafficked blog online by encouraging their community to share articles across social media platforms.
This sharing strategy was successfully implemented by Apple. Somehow everybody started to talk about their product. By sharing the information Apple managed "presale" their products to the world, simply by talking about their new iPhone.
Utilize Email Marketing
Not all social interactions happen on social media. A recent study from Marketing Charts recently found email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing tactic.
Customers want you to email them.
Email is consumers’ preferred method of communication from brands, and since 89 percent of adults check their email daily, email marketing is an effective way to reach everyone.
Successful Websites install tools for Customers to opt-in to receive company emails and are given the option to opt out whenever they like. This means customers receiving your emails are more likely to have greater brand affinity.
Instead of focusing all your social marketing efforts on social media platforms, create customer contact lists and target your marketing efforts through email.
The company Constant Contact offers a great all-in-one solution for email marketing. If you’re new to email marketing, it’s a great place to start.
By directly emailing customers, they’ll receive direct notifications, whereas social media posts only reach the audience that’s online when it’s posted. This means more customers are more likely to read your messages, making them much more effective.
I like to think of email marketing as amplification. It is effective for forming a deeper, one-on-one connection with your audience. It’s an excellent enhancement to social media, but should not serve as a replacement.
Conclusion
Social media is a vital part of online marketing campaigns. Although they’re important, social media platforms can quickly become a drain on your time and it’s easy to experience social media burnout.
If you’re sick of social media, there are still options available to reap the benefits without needing to ever visit any social media platforms.
By outsourcing social media to third-party contractors and utilizing automation tools, you can maximize your social media ROI. And never underestimate the social power of email marketing, which can generate a viral social buzz without the need for social media.
If you feel tired and burned out with social media, you’re not alone. To escape the drain, add these easy fixes to your social media efforts. You’ll see more results, higher engagement, and more revenue.
Whats your strategy to utilize social media without been overwhelmed and without increasing the risk of total burnout?
Stan Consulting can help you grow your business, manage your social media and drive more traffic to your website. Schedule a free evaluation today.