Sales

Using and Capitalizing on Social Media Investments

Javi Fondevila

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat can be great for business and these platforms are always trying to attract new business talent. For years now, social media platforms have offered advertising solutions for companies and the nature of them has remained largely the same.

Spending your money on social media as a business is easy, and statistics have shown that some companies spend as much as 10-20 percent of their marketing budgets here. With such a large chunk of money, it is important to know how you can engage in effective social media marketing to deliver the best possible results, and you also need to sort out your marketing accounting using good invoicing software, too.

Turning Social Media Marketing into Results

Whilst many companies utilize social media, only a few of them do it properly. Even if you have the best strategy behind your social media marketing and follow best marketing accounting practices, it is still easy to fall behind. There are a few tips you can take inspiration from, though.

1. Use social media broadly

If you are only using social media for one or two things—for example, for marketing and to respond to customer complaints—then you are going to experience less success than a company that uses social media comprehensively.

Leveraging social media properly and taking advantage of the resources and capabilities associated with it involves far more than just using it for marketing. Your social media pages should be just as populated and useful as your website.

2. Don’t just use it for brand-related activities

Using social media for customer acquisition and brand-related activities is common. After all, this is the whole point of social media marketing. Unfortunately, however, not as many companies use social media to engage with and retain their customers.

Social media is incredibly powerful and companies that focus on retention just as much as acquisition will experience far more success. If your customers feel valued even after you have secured their business, they will stick around for the long-term.

3. Exercise good marketing accounting

It is easy to spend a lot of money on social media marketing and social media investments, but you should exercise some caution and target your campaigns properly. A good piece of accounting, invoicing, or management software will help you keep on top of your marketing accounting and other finances, letting you focus on what’s important.

Don’t let your marketing accounting get on top of you—this can cost you a lot of money!

4. Use social media to drive growth

Too many firms and companies don’t use social media platforms to drive their growth. Using social media as part of your market research, finding new customers, identifying potential new products and services, and improving your current products and services are all things you can do with social media.

If you are not focussing on growth with your social media marketing, then your social media investments aren’t going to return strong results. Social media can work wonders for growth and it is seriously worth considering how certain platforms can help you reach your long-term goals.

Which Platform Provides the Best ROI?

This is a common question, however, it is something that has an annoying answer—it depends!

What constitutes the best social media platform for one company, brand, product, or service may not necessarily be the best brand for you and your company. All social media platforms are different, and it really depends on what you are providing.

Physical brands, for example, will do quite well on platforms such as Instagram or Snapchat whereas professional services will be able to find a home easier on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Answering this question is only something you can do by sitting down and thinking about what your company is, what it offers, and what your digital marketing involves.

No matter what you decide to do, make sure that you are keeping on top of your marketing accounting. The worst thing you could do is spend more than you can afford on social media marketing and make a loss.

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