Pretty much every brand is on social media, from stodgy enterprise software companies to bold, youthful apparel brands.
But not all of these companies necessarily see equal amounts of success.
As much as everyone talks about the power of social media for marketing and advertising, tons of companies just haven't had much luck getting it to work for them.
Usually, it's because something's wrong with their strategy, and they're not using the right tactics to reach their audience effectively.
Social media is just that: social. It's about actively connecting with people and building relationships between the audience and your brand.
You can't just passively post content and expect to magically attract a following — there's a lot of noise out there, and for people to find you, you have to actively engage with them.
Engagement is a two way street, after all.
They won't engage with you if you're not engaging with them.
In a recent post from Entrepreneur, digital branding expert and serial entrepreneur Jennifer Spencer explains why relationship building is the key to social media success, and why it's the most important metric to focus on.
Measure success from engagement.
There are lots of ways to measure your success on social media. Stats from analytics to learn different things about your social media accounts is a great way to build your business. However, Pirtle always measured his success based on the social engagement his brand was acquiring every day on social media.
How many people are interacting with you on a consistent basis? Learn who the key players are and who always seems to be there when you share. Anytime anyone likes, comments, retweets, etc., you should take notice, and respond to those people.
One great way to measure success within each campaign is to set a specific goal within your brand. Perhaps you want to set a goal of 50 signups on Facebook or Twitter. You also would like to see 25 comments and at least 15 shares. These are personal engagement goals you should make for each update your brand does.
KISSmetrics shares a very helpful article on how you can measure each step of your engagement, and they include metrics of engagement like awareness, engagement, drive traffic, finding advocates and fans, and your brand’s voice measurement.
It’s important to understand and establish a set of goals in which you can measure your engagement success on your social platform of choice. Not all social networks are the same. The people may be the same, but their behaviors on each platform are different. You want to understand the behaviors of each person on your social platform of choice. It will help you provide the best possible content for them in the future.
Related: 5 Ways to Make a Strong Impression With Every Audience
Build the relationship.
There is no social marketing tip any stronger than this — build the relationship. This is pretty much self explanatory, and while it seems pretty hard to do, most people are susceptible to your brand on social media, providing you’re not trying to hard sell them right out of the gate.
Relationship marketing creates brand loyalty and an avenue for other people like the one with whom you just built a relationship with. You spend the time, build the relationship, and establish the trust. In turn, this builds a bridge between someone who doesn’t know you and your brand with the person you just created this with. You see how important it is? The reach of relationships is powerful marketing within your social community, and you should be taking advantage of it every day.
You can find more great social media marketing advice over at Entrepreneur.
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