4 Tips to Get the Most Out of Social Media This Holiday Season
3. Cultivate brand ambassadors. In addition to encouraging your everyday customers to spread the good news about your brand, it's also important to target high-value influencers to help spread the word. Through this network effect, brand ambassadors will amplify your message to their core followers, who will in turn amplify the message to their followers and so on. To make this work, treat your brand ambassadors to some sort of premium access, which might include a high-touch VIP invitation to an exclusive event, special promotions, or providing them with early access to products or content, including first-looks. The more exclusivity you give to your brand ambassadors, the more likely they are to promote your efforts among their network.
4. Track results. If you're going to pursue social media, you need to track your results like any other marketing channel. There are a wide range of tools available to understand how social media is impacting your results — even to the individual customer level. You can analyze how viral your marketing messages are or even how many times your messages have been shared through a particular social media channel. By using social analytics tools, marketers can assess clickthroughs, web links that are liked or commented on, and even brand sentiment shared through social channels. Additionally, marketers should also understand what percentage of sales traffic is being driven by social media, then compare that information to that of their competitors.
This holiday shopping season is poised to break records. We expect to see mobile devices account more than 20 percent of total sales, and shoppers will most likely spend more than ever before. But let's not forget the importance of social media. With the right plan in place, social media has the potential to provide greater customer insight and make a real difference in your holiday season. We'll be tracking the performance of both social and mobile this holiday season with our Holiday Benchmark, so stay tuned for an update.
