Maximize the value of social media
There are unlimited ways to use social media to promote your business. Unfortunately, you don't have unlimited time or an unlimited marketing budget to dedicate to this effort. “Social media is not a marketing-only activity. To truly see the ROI of social media, it needs to be used as a sales activity as well,” said Carole Mahoney, author of the upcoming book “Ingagements.” She offered these tips on how to maximize the time and money you invest in social media.
1. Social media equals sales
Social media should be one of the sales activities you use to grow your business. It should help to start and augment, not replace, your face-to-face sales interactions. Social media is a great way to prospect, research your pipeline, prep for an event and reconnect after an event. Mahoney recommends spending a minimum of one hour a day on these activities if you are an employee and two hours each day if you are an entrepreneur. The payroll cost for this activity is calculated as follows: Take the number of hours spent each month using social media (for example, 20 hours) and multiply it by the employee's hourly rate ($25). In this example, your employee spent $500 of time using social media to promote your business.
2. Match tools with goals
Social media has changed the way people buy, so it is important to get in front of potential customers when they are looking for your products or services. You will attract the most attention (and hopefully get the best return on your time and money) when you interact on the same platforms as your customers. This means you need to know what your goals are and which tools are best used to accomplish these goals. For example, if your goal is to increase business at your new sports bar, you will probably get better results if you post on Facebook on the weekends rather than using LinkedIn on Monday morning. If your employee spent $500 worth of time promoting your sports bar on Facebook and Twitter and your revenue has increased by $20,000 in the past month, you can probably assume that social media is helping your business grow.
3. Turn talk into sales
How do you measure the return on social media if you are in a business with longer lead times? The number of people in your pipeline should give you an indication whether your social media strategy is working. Mahoney recommends the following strategy to increase the number of conversations with sales potential:
- Invest $300 for an annual LinkedIn Premium Service, especially if you sell to other businesses. This gives you the ability to see everyone who has viewed your profile and start conversations, do advanced searches and save them for prospecting, and a certain number of 'InMails' and 'Introductions' to contact possible prospects.
- Spend 30 minutes each morning looking at who has viewed your profile in the past few days. Review their profile to see whom they recommend and learn what they find valuable. Determine if they have interacted with you online or in person. See what groups they are active in and what news they follow.
- Virtually cross the room to say hello. Send a short LinkedIn InMail message (part of the Premium Service) stating, “I saw that you viewed my profile. What brought you by today?” Then let the conversation begin. This daily process should increase the number of people in your pipeline, heat up the sales cycle and help find opportunities.
- This strategy not working? Get a sales assessment ($500 to $1,000) to help you objectively understand what your specific sales challenges are and figure out why your closed sales and referrals are not increasing.
Use social media to help start and build relationships with people you don't already do business with or reconnect with those you have done business with in the past. Stay connected and reinforce your value to the people who already know you. If done right, the benefits will far exceed the cost.
Consultant Alison Hinson, owner of Alison Hinson MBA LLC, can be reached at ahinson@midmaine.com
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