Crafting Your Social Media Marketing Strategy: Navigating Pitfalls & Maximizing ROI

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Building a Case for Social Media Marketing
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In the memorable scene from the iconic 1996 film Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character famously demands, “SHOW ME THE MONEY!” Similarly, in the realm of social media marketing, we fervently proclaim, “SHOW ME THE NUMBERS!”—and the statistics speak volumes:

• There are approximately 3.03 billion active social media users (source: Hootsuite).
• 91% of retail brands utilize two or more social media platforms (source: AdWeek).
• The average internet user maintains eight social media accounts (source: GlobalWebIndex).
• 81% of small and mid-sized businesses actively engage in social media (source: LinkedIn).
• 71% of customers who have positive social media interactions with a brand are likely to recommend it to others (source: Ambassador).
• 89% of businesses attest that social media marketing has expanded their exposure, while 78% report increased web traffic (source: AdWeek).

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Crafting Your Social Strategy
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While the goal is clear—reap the benefits of social media while mitigating risks—the path to success may seem daunting, especially if past experiences have left you feeling disillusioned. Yet, social media marketing isn’t guesswork; it’s a strategic endeavor. Here are five steps to guide you:

Step #1: Define Your Objectives

Merely stating a desire to “boost sales” is akin to aspiring to “better health”—worthy but abstract. Define clear, achievable goals within the social media marketing framework. Objectives may include enhancing brand or product awareness, driving web traffic, improving lead quality, bolstering reputation, fostering customer engagement, or enhancing loyalty.

And so, it’s important (and frankly, necessary) to take a step back from the overall aspiration of “increasing sales,” and identifying realistic and achievable goals that fit within a social media marketing framework. These objectives could include one, some, or possibly all of the following:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Increasing product awareness
• Increasing web traffic
• Improving lead quality
• Improving reputation
• Increasing customer engagement
• Increasing customer loyalty

Why is it so important to identify your social media marketing objectives before choosing your platforms? It’s simply because some platforms are better than others at achieving certain outcomes. For example, if you’re in the B2B space and want to establish thought leadership in your marketplace, then publishing articles on LinkedIn is likely going to be part of your strategic plan. If you’re a B2C retailer or e-tailer who sells custom jewelry and you want to increase brand awareness, then publishing photos and short videos on Instagram probably makes strategic sense.

Step #2: Identify Your Target Audience

Many businesses assume their target audience’s presence on specific platforms without thorough investigation. Understand where your audience congregates on social media, leveraging demographic insights to inform your engagement strategy.

For example, many businesses in the IT space have zero footprint on Reddit, even though according to KissMetrics.com it’s the fifth most active social media platform, and a main source of information, reviews and recommendations for IT products and services. Similarly, many B2C retailers and e-tailers have no footprint on Pinterest, even though it’s possible (and probable) that many of their prospective customers check those platforms multiple times a day.

To get an idea of where your target audience congregates on the social media landscape — and therefore where your business should engage them — here are some demographics for five major platforms compiled by StrikeSocial:

Facebook

• 2.01 billion monthly active users
• 69% of women
• 61% of men
• 76% of adults with annual incomes above $75,000
• 88% of 18 to 29 year-olds
• 79% of 30 to 49 year-olds
• 51% of 50 to 69 year-olds
• 36% of 70+ year-olds

Twitter

• 328 million active monthly users
• 21% of women
• 21% of men
• 30% of adults with annual incomes above $75,000
• 36% of 18 to 29 year-olds
• 22% of 30 to 49 year-olds
• 18% of 50 to 69 year-olds
• 6% of 70+ year-olds

LinkedIn

• 252 million active monthly users
• 23% of women
• 28% of men
• 45% of adults with annual incomes above $75,000
• 34% of 18 to 29 year-olds
• 31% of 30 to 49 year-olds
• 21% of 50 to 69 year-olds
• 11% of 70+ year-olds

Instagram

• 800 million monthly active users
• 32% of women
• 23% of men
• 30% of adults with annual incomes above $75,000
• 59% of 18 to 29 year-olds
• 31% of 30 to 49 year-olds
• 13% of 50 to 69 year-olds
• 5% of 70+ year-olds

Pinterest

• 200 million monthly active users
• 36% of women
• 15% of men
• 34% of adults with annual incomes above $75,000
• 36% of 18 to 29 year-olds
• 32% of 30 to 49 year-olds
• 24% of 50 to 69 year-olds
• 9% of 70+ year-olds

Step #3: Analyze Your Competition

Study competitors’ social media strategies to discern trends and expectations within your industry. Identifying gaps or areas of success can inform your approach and help set benchmarks.

Not only does this competitive analysis tell you where you (likely) need to be in the social media world, but it also helps you understand what the marketplace expects. For example, if you’re a law firm and your biggest competitors have a strong and impressive YouTube presence, then you can safely assume that your target audience is going to expect you to have one as well. To put things differently: some of your prospective clients will hold it against you if you aren’t on YouTube, simply because your competitors are. They’ll see it as a red flag that could keep them from reaching out and sparking a relationship.

Step #4: Develop Your Custom Plan

Craft a comprehensive social media marketing plan, aligning objectives with resources, timelines, and budgets. Ensure feasibility by accounting for personnel and technological requirements, such as content creation and distribution.

Essentially, your plan needs to identify the who, what, where, when and how much for each creative asset. Otherwise, it won’t take long — it could be a matter of weeks — before your social media marketing plan becomes obsolete and useless.

Step #5: Execute, Track, and Optimize

Once your plan is all set — and it’s often profitable to get expert consulting help with this — the proverbial rubber hits the road, because it’s time to execute, track and optimize:

• Execute: put your plan in motion, and carry out the activities per your schedule and agenda. The time and effort that you invested in making your plan robust and realistic will pay off here.
• Track: regularly monitor metrics and analyze to see what’s working, what isn’t, and why/why not.
• Optimize: based on the insights you glean from tracking plus other information you gather as your plan unfolds, make changes that generate better results and ROI (e.g. allocating more resources to creating articles vs. videos).

Implement your plan, monitoring performance metrics to assess effectiveness. Continuously adapt and optimize strategies based on insights garnered from tracking, aiming for sustained improvements in ROI.

Moving Forward

We trust this guide equips you with a deeper understanding of social media marketing and its potential for sustained ROI. We welcome your feedback and experiences and stand ready to offer further assistance—whether advising your in-house team or collaborating as your dedicated digital marketing partner.

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