@Spirocks

social media marketing

Get Better Analytics

Look at this picture and think of the center of the wheel being your business on its website, the spokes are your social media marketing accounts and campaigns, and the tire is all your potential customers who come across your social feeds online.

Each social spoke is bringing customers into the center, your business. When they arrive, they land on the various pages you are linking back to via your social media marketing efforts and discover what you are all about. It is a critical arrival, one that can be undone with a quick click of a mouse. That is what a bounce is. Like a retail shop where they would say: ‘Just Looking’ and leave; these potential customers can leave even more effortlessly.

That is why it is critical to design your site well, to revise underperforming pages, and continue to keep it fresh. You most likely have google analytics on your site right now. But are you delving into what is going on? You should be. What pages get the most entrants? How are the pages you are linking back to doing at keeping people’s interest long enough to look through more pages? Do you track conversions or goals?

Here is a cool video I found about setting up custom google analytics reports. Try them out, they can give a much clearer picture of what needs attention and what is doing well. At GuestFeed we give our clients clear and concise reports about the activity on their social networks. Some of it is from Google, and this is how we do it:

Reminder Marketing via Social

You own a business, whether a restaurant, retail, or service. The community it is based in is comprised of people who either know what you do, or those who are yet to find out. Much time and expense is spent on getting the people who are unaware to be cognizant of what your business excels at, and for good reason.

Remember though: There is much to be gained by reaching out to those that already know you, this is what I call Reminder Marketing. Social media it seems to me, was born for it. Your Facebook friends decided to connect with you, your twitter followers decided to follow, your linkedin contact did the same. Social media almost invariably is a collection of connections between your business and people that know it exists and probably what it does. So naturally the primary consumption of the content you share in all these places is by people who know about you. One of the goals is to have that content shared, liked, re-posted so that new people hear about you. But invariably the biggest return you will get is via the already proven connections.

If your business is known for your martinis made with fresh muddled fruits and herbs, or you list and sell the most million dollar homes in your market, or your store has the town’s nicest collection of organic products, you should use your social connections to gently remind people by sharing what is new. Remind them you are there, and show them what you have.

Do this by sharing your excitement over new products, the recipe for a new martini, or an upcoming listing… you don’t have to market with gimmicks like a sale price or limited time availability.

Examples:

A tool that I use is the Spoke Social Dashboard which features Interval Scheduling Technology, you can see more about it here: Spoke Social Interval Scheduling

If updates like this appeal to you please consider subscribing HERE. Or following me on twitter @Spirocks

The Year Ahead: Five Goals for Social Media Marketing

It is natural to look at all the parts of your business operations at this time of year and make plans for where you want to go. So where should your Social Media efforts point in 2011? Most likely a ton of places, but there are some ideas and themes that you should make part of the discussion. If you do you will be among the leaders in your industry, and most importantly you will know you are making decisions about where your business is going and not waiting to see what happens to you before you do.

So Here are five bullet points to consider:

  • Understand your key themes. Work with your staff to define key messages that communicate the guest experience to attract the right audience. Define your organizations goals for the new year, and assign marketing and PR goals for your social media efforts that align with the organizations targets. Work to create the messages that communicate the experience tied to those goals to your guests and their networks. Those messages are the foot soldiers of your Key Themes. Example of Theme Development Here.
  • Involve your non marketing staff in the social media campaign. Encourage involvement within your staff, the power of social media is relinquishing total control, and even better total responsibility for the marketing efforts. We often run contests amongst the staff of businesses that GuestFeed works for, to encourage and reward those that make the social media promotion of the business part of their daily routine.
  • Make the Management of your Social Campaign Professional. Whether you decide to hire a company to help or to have an inside employee manage it, remember, it’s still PR and marketing and it requires professionalism. Look at your goals for the year, the consistency/experience/technical knowledge needed to accomplish them, and for many of you hiring a professional to get you started on the right track, or to continually manage the campaign is worth the investment.
  • Make metrics the judge of the campaign. Use the various analytics tools available to follow the effectiveness of various messages, the traffic to the key pages of your website that you are promoting, the commenting on your social profiles, and the sharing of your photo/video and other marketing posts. The information you gleam from these sources will help you fine tune your efforts to your particular audience on the fly.
  • Nurture your social following. It’s what the guests talk about that matters! Being consistently present to provide answers, offer thanks, and suggest services you offer is important. Just as important is being human and saying happy birthday, commenting and participating is being part of the community you want to support your business; it is part of the deal now. Many businesses recognize that means it is a good idea to investigate a professional that can help with management, PR plans, and tactics to ensure your message stays intact.

    • I hope this helps you as you take the next step in your marketing efforts for the coming year. thank you for reading and your comments are welcome here, got questions or answers for me? I would love to hear. You can find me on twitter @spirocks too.

    More thoughts on the year ahead: 2011: What Social Will Do For Youpoint