Managing Social Media Accounts for Small Business: A Beginner’s Guide to Maximizing Social Media ROI

Every business seems to be using social media as a marketing and advertising tool now; however, not everyone is utilizing social media successfully.  To a certain extent, social media success can be measured with increased visibility on sites like Facebook and Twitter. The problem is that increased exposure on these sites doesn’t necessarily translate to immediate, increased sales.  In the interim between increased exposure and expanded profits, small businesses can measure their social media ROI by analyzing their online influence.

Quantify Your Success So Far

Business owners can use online resources like the Klout Score or TweetReach to quantify the efficacy of the time and effort invested in social media networking. Additionally, by having a “benchmark” of sorts, businesses can better compare their efforts to those of their competitors and target demographics.  Carefully analyzing these findings will also position you to make the most of the limited time you’re able to devote to social media.

Adjust Future Material Based on Findings

Pay attention to the content you post when using social media for business.  Are people retweeting (or even reading) what you have to say?  A good way to build a network of reputable followers is to reciprocate the “follows” of other businesses in your field.  Also note the diversity of the people you are reaching:   if you’re only engaging one type of audience, you may need to rethink your content to better match your target demographic. Your customers should be communicating with you online, if they’re not speaking, they probably aren’t recommending you to other people either.

Create a Plan and Stick With it

Maybe you are not at a level where you’re ready to manage social media content for your business by yourself; maybe you are just trying it for the first time. Identifying where to start can be challenging. If you are not as familiar with social media, start by studying/ following businesses similar to yours and see what they are saying. Seeing what works (and doesn’t work) for them can give you a good template to work with, just make sure that your messages are in line with your company’s mission.

Once you do have a plan and something to say, be consistent with your updates. Quality still rules here: so if you don’t have something valuable to impart- don’t. The more frequent, worth-while information your company broadcasts, the more valuable your online brand becomes.   Marketing professionals suggest a minimum of one or two tweets per day, without exceeding fifteen tweets. You should also regularly read and respond to other people’s content. Remember every interaction counts; reaching out to a customer (or a peer) online can establish a lasting, profitable relationship.

Don’t forget about customer relationship management. Be aware of what your customers are saying about you online, good or bad. Thank customers for compliments, and try to fix and control complaints. Continue to study what other businesses are doing as well; it’s an ever-changing media. McCauley Marketing Services strives to stay on top of what’s new in the world of marketing, and will continue to keep you updated through our website and blog. Also, for monthly marketing and public relations updates, subscribe to our newsletter.