Three Goals of a Social Media Campaign

Previously I spoke about the ‘must haves’ of a social media marketing campaign. In summary, these included:
(1) An effective web design
(2) Complete social media profiles
(3) Training

Objectives are great, they really are, Objectives give you that warm fuzzy feeling inside but many companies need the goals of a social media marketing campaign. I lumped many of these goals into what I feel are the three most important expected results of a social media campaign (this does not include SEO and search engine ranking)

1. Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is a goal of almost all social media marketing campaigns. Companies need to tread carefully because social media marketing can be both positive and negative. Social media marketing opens the doors for clients to interact and leave their personal comments about experiences with the company – both good and bad. Ideally, a company will want to create a positive interactive presence that leads to an increase in website traffic. The website should effectively display the brand and product or service offered. At this point, the remaining three marketing P’s come into play: product, placement, and price. (I lump social media marketing into the overall promotion of the product)
Product – this is what you are trying to sell – the main revenue the company generates (products, services, memberships, affiliations, etc).
Placement – How does your product compare to others in the industry? What sets you apart from the rest?
Price – Is your product priced effectively? How do you compare to competition?
Regardless of how experienced your social media marketer is, if viewers do not want your product then you will not get much benefit from the new marketing scheme. A social media marketer can get your name out there but if your product increases negative interaction or does not sell its self the viewer will move on. This is a hard truth for people attempting to become ‘rich’ with social media campaigns. I often run into many great ideas but it is still a needle in a haystack in terms of success stories from JUST free social media marketing. An organization needs a good product/service, plenty of hard work, efficient management and money or investors.

2. Information
A good marketing campaign will need to inform current and new customers about the company, products and/or services. This should be created by an easy to navigate website. The website design is customized to the individual company and should be properly synced with all major search engines and social media sites.
This is also a great way to inform your customers about your industry. I almost ALWAYS recommend a blog about information related to your industry with postings as often as possible. It’s the start of niche marketing (which is a HUGE topic), helps for SEO in your area of expertise, and creates credibility in the uncertain economic times. (For example, I am busy with my business but I try to set aside a few hours a weekend to write this somewhat weekly blog).

3. Connect/Collect
Connecting with your customers and new prospects and collecting their information may be the most important and overlooked aspects of social media campaigns that is often only seen by larger companies. Connecting is often obvious for social media and can be instigated by either the company or the viewer and the hope is that it is positive..
Collecting data is often the part that is overlooked. Do you know how many people visit your current website? What page brought them to your site? What page they left your site at? What pages are not being viewed often? These are all aspects of website analysis that should not be overlooked by any company.
Obviously, Collecting emails, contact info, comments, and more are just some of the most cost efficient ways to reach out to new and previous customers (more on this HUGE topic later).

Social media marketers love the warm and fuzzy feeling that objectives and goals create. Obviously companies like to see financial results so next week I will focus on: How can social media be ‘Quantified”? I will breifly discuss the subject and then dive into my personal views on the subject.  Don’t Change That Dial, Folks!

As A Sidenote: I would like to say I am truely sorry to our friends in Omaha Nebraska who keep a very clean house they let us use while they are away. As I was writing this blog my toddlers found a RED marker and colored the cream colored walls in the beautiful finished basement. If it is any consolation, they also imagined the marker was ‘lipstick’ so it will forever be remembered in the 2009 Christmas photos. I will now head to the nearest Walmart in search of a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser…