Social media provides the perfect opportunity for companies to engage with their customers – a big plus for companies who are quickly learning that their brand is being determined by the conversations that are being had about their company. So how do you effectively incorporate social media into your marketing mix to ensure the biggest bang for your buck?

Three Tips to Ensure Social Media Success:

• Be an active participant: If you’ve decided to use social media then you need to roll up your sleeves and get in the ring! Assign someone to be an active and consistent participant in the communication.
• Be yourself: Lose the marketing fluff – a real voice will build trust and allow you to connect with your followers and fans and make them feel that they are part of an exclusive group with special insight into your company.
• Be aware: The most active users of social media are the people who will carry your brand message for you. These influencers often retweet or post your messages to their followers and friends, so it’s a good idea to be aware of who they are.

How to Integrate Social Media and Measure Its Worth

First things first… Start by connecting your Facebook fans and Twitter followers to the customers in your marketing database using the email address – accessible via the application programming interfaces (APIs). Now you are ready to build social media into your marketing mix. A great way to start is to direct message your followers and/or place exclusive offers on your Facebook page. To keep fans and followers coming back for more make sure that when you do send an email or direct mail message that they are the first to receive it. Also be sure to advertise your social media presence on your website and by using the “forward-to” social features in email. Finally, you can measure the success of your social media efforts by turning to the APIs from Facebook and Twitter which contain valuable information such as who has posted your message, who has retweeted, who has clicked on your link, and more. This information can then be brought into your marketing database and measured.

While only time will tell the true marketing value of social media, one thing is for sure – this is definitely an area you don’t want to ignore. We can help you bring social media into the mix and maximize its value while enhancing the value of all your other marketing communications. Contact us today!