As more businesses turn to social media for a way to market their Brands, Products & Services, many page owners get hung up on pushing up the number of likes on their page. But does spending all this time and effort focused on just this have any effect on the businesses bottom line? and by the bottom line I mean specifically the overall profit generated to the business as a result of this activity?. Sure, it’s nice to have 100K likes and sure, this will probably result in more activity on yoru facebook page. It will also aid in the actual search result for your page, if the page is liked or shared enough and it should help improve the overall ranking on Google.
These things are great, all fine in principal and have a role to play. But for many businesses actually approving any spend on this sort of marketing activity depends on what bottom line this will generate, if any. For me, many of the well known Brands and indeed those smaller businesses using the platform as part of their marketing efforts are missing the key element.. ‘Engagement’. Many of the pages which I visit just don’t engage with me as a consumer. I may go onto the page, have a quick look and then I’m gone without even liking it. Typical of the bounce rate on your website if you will. There are also those Brands who have used Facebook very effectively and run a campaign which has ticked all the boxes, and been engaging, only to let activity dwindle away to nothing once the campaign has finished. It’s one thing to ‘Build it and they will come’ but what about sustainment after the campaign?
To get it right and offer more rich engagement with your target audience, not just on Facebook, but other social platforms, it can’t all be a one way street. Businesses need to adopt a two-way communication process, which allows both the business and the consumer to engage. Way to many businesses are using Social Media as a way to Sell, Sell, Sell.. with very little, if any, listening to their customers.
Engagement is key not just during the campaign but ongoing.
Using social media as a way to communicate your businesses message can prove very effective if you are open to listening to your customer. Have a think about your actual quality of likes and what they mean to the ROI of your business. For me, I would rather have the businesses which has 2500 Likes or Followers (whichever platform your using) of which I am regularly engaging with the users, building relationships, and converting leads into sales than the page with 20,000 Likes with no return to my bottom line. Which category is your business in?
To sum up, as mentioned earlier in the blog, don’t get hung up on pushing out content with a sell, sell, sell approach on it. Nor focusing on increasing your number of Likes. Bottom line is, if you have good, engaging content this will naturally happen, likes or followers will increase organically as well users wanting to share content from your page. The rule of thumb is that ‘Content is still king’ so think about your customer base. Good content on your website and in your social platforms will reward you with stronger search engine rankings and most importantly higher conversation rates adding towards your businesses bottom line.
We like to keep our clients up to date on the latest marketing tips and tricks so if you want to find out more, let’s grab a coffee and discuss. Have a fantastic Christmas & New Year.
Follow on Twitter @waynedenner
Remember to share it with your family & friends.
Business, Career & Life Podcast
