Measurement And Planning In Social Media Marketing The social media has revolutionized the power of marketing. Where once marketers were limited in their ability to target certain demographic groups and in also limited in what they could do when trying to reach a large and regionally diverse audience today the power of social media marketing has made things both easier and more challenging.
Marketing today using the social media is easier due to the fact that the buy in to establish a baseline brand presence on the Internet is extremely low. Anyone with access to a computer and even a standard dial up connection can, within only hours build a home for their brand on any one of the many social networks. Even populating the social media site with brand elements and visuals is relatively simple.
The challenge of making proper use of social media marketing to reach target audiences is in providing unique and high quality content and refining the marketing program so that the key messages about both the company and the individual brand are clear and more importantly add value to the Internet experience of the user.
Why is content still king when it comes to social media marketing? The answer is simple, the power and reach of social media marketing relies to a large extent on sharing. Content that is rich in images, video and thoughtful, value added copy writing is shared by more people in the social media environment, more of the time.
A simple example is when you produce an informative infographic connected to either your field of expertise (if you are services) or the brand itself (FMCG for instance). The infographic is posted to one of your social media sites and so the onward sharing the marketing message begins as one visitor to the site shares with his or her connections and so on. That one single share has the potential to reach literally thousands of people.
However the sharing relies on the fact that you have produced something (content) that is of value to your target audience. Your choice of where to host this content is also important, to give an example which is not based n reality, but makes the point; you wouldn’t place content regarding financial advisory services on a sire that has an audience that primarily consists of 16 year old females from rural areas. You would choose another piece of social media real estate for that sort of content.
This neatly brings us to measurement and demographics. Firstly ensure that the social media site you select is appropriate to your target audience. There is a mass of relevant data on each social media site on the Internet. Research this data prior to establishing your site. Rather be safe than sorry. Your time managing your business is valuable, don’t waste ti aiming for the wrong target demographic.
Most of the social media sites have the ability to supply metrics and measurement data. Do not ignore this data when you are rolling out your marketing program via the social media, it will help you refine your brand activities.