Grow Your Social Networks the Right Way

A goal for most Social Media campaigns relates to the number of connections associated with Twitter (followers), Facebook (likes), YouTube (subscribers) and other branded accounts. While this is an important metric, it doesn’t necessarily mean much without other important KPIs to support it.  The problem with basing an entire campaign on the total number of connections is that it doesn’t necessarily measure the impact it has on your brand’s overall growth. A Social Media campaign’s failure can frequently be directly correlated to the lack of metrics to accurately assess the campaign’s success.  If you successfully grow your Facebook Fan Page to 10,000 fans, but no one has ever interacted with your page, you have two visits to your website from Facebook, and nobody has converted into a goal / sale, would you still call your Facebook campaign a success? If an e-mail marketer has a list of 10,000 e-mails in their database, but only 10 people from this list open an e-mail blast, the person running the campaign would not call this a success. Social Media should be held to a similar standard.

There are numerous websites out there where you can buy Facebook fans and Twitter followers. The way most of these websites work is that you pay them $x for y number of fans / followers and the person who follows / likes your account will receive a small percentage of spend.  These websites will grow your total number of connections, but will have absolutely no impact on overall brand growth. Sure, the number of fans and followers will see an increase, but after the excitement of this wears off in a couple of days, there will be no measurable brand impact to accompany the growth.

True success related to the growth of Social Media connections relies on the ability to build a user base of individuals who are your consumers (potential or current) and have a genuine interest in your brand.  Listed below are some tips that can help grow your brand’s Social Media presence “the right way” through building qualified connections. Keep in mind, there isn’t one strategy that will work for all brands, but by testing various different tactics and accurately applying the right metrics to your campaign, you can hone in on the right Social Media strategy for your brand.

• Offer Compelling Content: Tell your connections that you have something worthwhile to say. Convey your industry expertise in your tweets, Facebook posts, etc.  If a brand can offer compelling content that is of genuine interest to their Social Media user base, it will keep them coming back for more.

• Don’t Neglect Your Social Media Connections: If a person calls your company with a complaint, would you hang up on them instead of working to resolve the issue? Why would you then ignore a customer on Facebook, Twitter, etc.? If individuals notice that you are dealing with negative tweets and posts head-on and are communicating with others who are positively discussing your brand it will entice others to connect with your channels.

• Run a Target Facebook Campaign to Your Page: Facebook offers a highly targeted advertising platform for relatively cheap. That along with its 600 million total users combines for an advertising strategy that is sufficient in targeting a substantial number of qualified users to your fan page.

• Create a Unique Brand Experience: Take advantage of the ability to customize tabs on Facebook. Whether it’s creating a shopping experience, incorporating something interactive for your fans, etc., be sure to offer something unique that’s directly related to your brand.

• Alert Your Customers that You Have a Social Media Presence: Incorporate your Social Media handles on your website and send out a targeted e-mail blast related to your Social Media channels. Your current customers are the ones who are most likely to both connect and interact with your Social Media channels.

Once your brand has the right Social Media strategy, remember to focus on the metrics that will determine the impact of your brand’s growth such as interactions (retweets, likes, comments, etc.), Facebook page views, website traffic, etc.  A mix of the right strategy and measurements of success will ultimately take your brand to the next level with your Social Media campaign.