Internet Marketing

Looking for Social Media’s Impact on ROI

Second article in a three-part series on Social Media ROI

Social media has become a driving force in American society, and the greater human society as a whole. Almost everyone under the age of 30 is aware of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a variety of other social media outlets. As people increasingly turn away from face to face engagements and toward online networking, businesses are trying to adapt their practices to take advantage of the opportunities provided by social media and online networking sites.

Businesses always think in terms of money; how much money is going out and how much money is coming in? When economic times get tough businesses always look first at where their money is going out before worrying about where money is coming in from. Return on Investment, or ROI, is a very big term in business. With the evolution of social media, businesses are increasingly turning to this new media outlet for marketing. As such, many businesses are trying to determine the ROI of their social media practices.

Determining how social media initiatives impact a business’s ROI is difficult because the results will not jump out on a spreadsheet revealing their impact in plain sight. Instead, businesses looking for social media’s impact on ROI need to go beyond cash flow, costs, and stats on paper. A better approach to measure ROI from social media should include the following:

Providing a face for your business
Get input from customers
Join the discussion
Encourage involvement
Build business relationships

Most employees at any given company have passions related to their company, and passions that are unrelated to the business. Keying in on a passion an employee has that relates to your business, and then allowing that individual to run a social media program puts a human face on your company’s online profile. For example, if a moving companies’ provider has an employee who considers themselves an amateur photographer they should be encouraged to create an online presence where employees and customers can share photos from their travels.

Social media’s biggest impact might be in providing customers with a louder voice for the company to hear. Allowing marketing and sales departments to run social media programs will allow them a direct link to the customer base. This not only allows them to focus in on exact customer bases, but also receive feedback from those customers.

Word of mouth has taken on a greater impact in our social media age than it ever could have before. The internet allows information about your business to reach every corner of the world. Engaging in discussion and discourse with customers in a positive manner creates good word of mouth about your company that can reach much farther than just around the block or in the next town.

Lastly, the ROI of a company’s social media efforts can be seen by encouraging involvement and building business relationships. Companies from different industries can come together through social media connections to support projects that benefit the greater good, and even encourage their customers to get involved as well. Travel insurance companies, for instance, can encourage their customers to support community development projects in a region they routinely visit. It can be as simple as a donation, or as involved as volunteering time to the cause.

Social media’s impact on a company’s ROI is definitely there, but it won’t jump off the page of a spreadsheet. Rather, businesses need to dig deep for ways to make social media work for them.

Is Direct Mail A Thing Of The Past?

In years gone by, direct mailers were the premier form of business to business and business to consumer advertising. Direct mail consists of flyers, newsletters featuring advertisements, and coupons mailed directly to the consumer’s home. This required businesses to investigate all kinds of shipping services, gather quotes, and compare shipping companies. While this is still a valuable resource for targeted markets, people seem far more interested in exploring online technology and viral marketing and advertising options.

With the advancement of technology, the Internet has given small and large businesses alike a nearly equal playing field. Though not completely dead and forgotten, direct mailers as advertisement has taken a backseat to the more popular and effective advertisement forms the Internet has made available.

Businesses today all have the opportunity to use the web and social media to promote their services. High tech or ecommerce businesses, for example, would benefit more from using the Internet opposed to using direct mail due to its global potential of customers. Blog articles, appealing websites offering online discounts, Internet printable coupons, and savings offered on social media sites have allowed businesses to reach out to a broader base of consumers.

Due to the rapid advertising the Internet provides, businesses no longer have to wait for consumers to receive direct mailers and then wait for them to respond. The Internet has given businesses a prime opportunity to reach out to customers through social media sites and email advertisements the same day the company is having a special sale or savings offer.

Business owners additionally have a chance to email, share, or tweet to thousands of potential customers and essentially recruit new customers or encourage them to look at and contact your company.

Long term success for any business in today’s world generally means participating in some sort of Internet advertisement and campaigning. Inexpensive advertisement can be readily had through the Internet and creative and optimized websites. A company that is diligent about advertising on the Internet as well as knowing when to use direct mailers will have far more success than a company who relies on only one method for their primary form of marketing and advertising to the public.