The Financial Value of Social Media
More than ever, people are discussing if there is truly financial value in performing social media marketing for their business. Some are currently embracing social media as a vital part of their marketing strategy and have been for years. Others are so scared of making the wrong decision that they have decided to do nothing at all.
The thing that the people who are scared to make the wrong decision need to remember is that businesses and organizations have been performing this type of social marketing for decades.
In the past, people would plan social gatherings at town halls, restaurants, lounges, hotel meeting rooms, and peoples’ homes and businesses. The gatherings ranged from two-person informal meetings to formal events.
People would correspond through letters, phone calls, and faxes all with the purpose of communicating with each other. Maybe they would write a letter to a business acquaintance, ally, or friend, and communicate their thoughts of the day. The recipient would then respond back using the same communication style.
They would plan an event, send invitations to whomever they wanted to attend, and request an R.S.V.P. The recipient would respond letting the sender know if they wished to attend the event and communicate their interest level. At the event, the attendees would communicate verbally with each other and plan future dates for additional communication.
These types of informal and formal communication are traditional ways of networking. They worked well in the past and they are still effective today.
Now, though, we have the opportunity of performing this type of social-networking on social media networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but to a much larger audience and with much less effort.
Social media is just traditional marketing, modernized
Imagine the amount of time it would take to write a letter to or have a phone conversation with all of the people in your business network on a daily basis. You would have to write or call all of them every day. Only a few of them would respond or pick up the phone, and you would have to leave voice mails. Trying to communicate this way would take you all year just to get across the one thought or idea you wanted to put in front of your network.
Social media marketing can put you in front of your network on a daily basis with a fraction of the effort of traditional networking, but you have to do the same thing as if you were invited to a networking event… SHOW UP!
If you don’t show up, you’ll miss out
If you are not showing up on the same social media networks as your current and future clients by creating good content that your audience wants to hear; you are not just going to miss some of the opportunities, you are going to miss all of them.
One of those could be your tipping point opportunity, as in the one monumental connection that catapults your business to the next level. That connection could end up being your largest client, or a business partner that ends up sending you all of their referrals.
Still, just like with traditional networking, just showing up to an event unprepared is unprofessional and creates wasted opportunities. You have to have a system in place to measure the amount of time and funding you are investing. Not measuring the success of your efforts is like going to a networking event, having a bunch of random conversations, and then never talking to the people again. You do a lot of work but won’t have any idea if it’s working or not.
So does social media marketing have a financial value?
Think about the lifetime financial value of one potential tipping point customer.
How much is that worth to you???
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Not ready to tackle the plethora of opportunities created by social media marketing by yourself? Don’t worry, that’s what we’re here for. For an in-depth explanation of the tactics and opportunities social media marketing might hold for your business, shoot Rob an email or get in touch with us.