Social Media Marketing: Getting in the Game, Part 1

Reality Checks
Social media is the poster child for a moving target. Sites that were once all the buzz have waned. Eventually something will outdo Facebook. Your social media engagement must be dynamic. Check out Wikipedia as a source for the latest sites.

Social media is also extremely labor intensive. Blogs and social networking pages must be constantly refreshed to gain traffic and followers. You'll need dedicated staff and/or outsourced help.

Realize that social media can raise brand awareness, support sales’ processes and generate outright sales. However, it’s not a magic elixir. If a consumer didn’t want your product or service before, just because you set up a Facebook page doesn't mean they're going to automatically change their mind. Social media is very good at opening lines of communication with customers and prospects, but you need to observe boundaries as well. Be very aware of overdoing communication and abusing good customer relationships.

Lastly, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Quantifying the return on investment of social media — e.g., Twitter ads, Facebook impressions, etc. — is definitely possible and will become more critical as ad platforms on these sites gain further acceptance.

In part two of this multipart series, I’ll discuss key budget considerations in regards to social media, and how to apply advertising analytics to gauge whether spending on Facebook or Twitter is realizing ROI for you.

Joy Brazelle is director of product marketing and professional services for ClearSaleing, an advertising analytics and attribution management company. Joy can be reached at joy.brazelle@clearsaleing.com.