Business Social Media; The End Goal?

This week’s interaction with a client about social media posts got us thinking about social media marketing and its usefulness.

We can agree about the phenomenal benefits of social media marketing, particularly in relation to traditional marketing channels. One perk this relatively new medium off is the ability to concentrate on your niche, zeroing in on it and targeting it with more clarity. To do this, we need to acknowledge that social media marketing and management is much more than like and follows. If the likes and follows do not boost or actively affect your conversion rate positively, it’s all just for show.

When a social media post is made the purpose must be kept in mind, is it just for likes or is the end goal conversion (For the audience to patronize your business or engage your service)? Assuming most if not all the posts in a business social media page has the end goal of conversion (they should), they can been designed to do this by entertainment, engagement, information distribution ,etc. They will not just be any group of followers, but the followers who will be interested in your content, interact with it and ultimately at some point become your customers or refer someone. It is better to have a following of  100 and a conversion rate of 20% than a following of 200 with a 5% conversion rate. Ultimately, the purpose of your social media content must be reaching not just anyone, but your preferred and to do that, the content must be tailored to their eye and preference.

When relaying your content, you must go where you are likely to find the audience that will result in a higher conversion rate. Where are they? What are they doing at a certain time of day? What information would they find helpful? How can you package in a way that brings them to you and will position your business as an expert in the field? All these are pertinent questions that will affect the social media channels that to decide to use first or most? What time of day you post your content and how you advertise it.

Social media is powerful and even businesses can lend into the hype. The myth that any followers are good followers is not true. Specialization is important.