Attorney Wayne Parsons recently reminded me of a report authored by Forrester Research titled Justifying Social Marketing Spending. It’s from back in 2009, but it’s a short read and worth revisiting.
Some highlights:
“Marketers need to be able to understand their social marketing efforts as part of their broader marketing campaigns and use social tools not only to sell directly to consumers but to help consumers sell to each other by energizing advocates and influentials.” (emphasis mine)
Turn your client base and referral sources into volunteer salespeople for your firm. How do you do that? It starts with communication and ends with communication. Better communication. CRM.
“Only 8% of social marketers are satisfied with the ROI of their social marketing campaigns. This is no surprise, given that social marketers consistently fail to align their goals with the right execution or the right measurement metrics.”
Everyone thinks their competition is getting rich off of some parlor trick they picked up at a conference, or some new web site optimization formula they cracked, etc. Fact is, very few are happy with their social media marketing efforts. Why? Because little thought is given to strategy, goals, objectives, plans, or how to execute. There is no aiming before firing.
“Building brand preference is hard to do without the help of vocal influentials, those category experts who serve as a trusted resource for their friends and families. Social marketers should provide influentials with the tools to help their friends make the jump from mere consideration to preference by giving them the tools to close the gap and keeping them actively involved in the brand. Tools such as blogs and podcasts can help keep active, influential users engaged by providing them with deep information they can then use to make their sales pitch to others. Marketers should then empower engaged influentials to spread the word by supporting product parties or supplying them with coupons to pass on to friends.”
What are you doing to turn your clients into evangelists for your firm?
“To evaluate these efforts, social marketers should look to long-term metrics like lifetime customer value in order to understand how their efforts are affecting the bottom line.” (emphasis mine)
This is a big problem I see. Expectations that are way out of whack. Many firms expect immediate and obvious returns in the form of lead generation. Social media marketing is not lead gen.
“Invest in turning your most active customers into energized advocates. Marketers should reach out to active customers through tools such as blogs and podcasts. Marketers should then help these customers energize their social graph by educating them on new product updates, helping them spread the word through special events such as sponsored parties, and cultivating loyalty through building advocate communities where active customers can reinforce each other’s brand allegiance.” (emphasis mine)
Consider offering guest blog accounts to non-profit groups, safety advocates, experts, or clients with a cause or passion. By doing this you are providing your clients and referral sources with a place where they can advocate for their causes, for free. It’s a “gift” from your firm. And they will reciprocate.
“Be patient in creating long-term brand value. Commitment to social marketing can result in long-term victories by cultivating brand advocates, enhancing brand loyalty, and crowdsourcing innovations. Marketers should temper their short-term expectations and instead invest in evaluating the long-term benefits of reinforcing brand advocacy and loyalty.”
Keep in mind that social media is, at its core, social. And making friends doesn’t happen overnight.
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