Why should your marketing include social media, and do social media networks matter?
Here are the shockingly good details about the increasingly influential platform:
- Responding to a complaint in social media pushes advocacy by 20 percent, and not responding leads to a 43 percent drop in advocacy.
- 54 percent of B2B marketers generated leads from social media.
- 78 percent of companies now have a dedicated social media team.
Social media has become such an important part of every consumer’s life that it is unwise to neglect the platform. Aside from engaging your consumers with relevant and helpful content on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you can explore the lucrative potential of paid advertising as an integral part of your social media marketing strategy.
Indeed, you can use the platform to advertise at no cost. But paid options almost always generate greater results because:
- You have access to advanced targeting options, and
- Your business gains improved conversion tracking.
To harness the opportunities of paid advertising on social, you need to use the right network.
While Facebook does have the biggest audience, thus far, with 1.19 billion registered users, it might not be where your target consumers frequently go. But still your business’s presence on the world’s biggest social media network should pay off handsomely. Also, it’s more cost-effective than other networks and it has more advanced targeting options.
Your choices, other than Facebook, include Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Twitter offers advanced targeting options such as interest targeting (self-reported interests, skills, activities, etc., and it’s usually connected to keyword targeting); behavioural targeting (reach people based on their purchasing behaviour or device usage), and custom targeting (i.e., Tailored Audiences). The downside to targeting on Twitter is that it has yet to expand its categories for advertising.
LinkedIn is an excellent platform for B2Bs because it is a business professional’s network. So it is likely to yield higher conversion rates and you can target niche groups through “lookalike” targeting, which extends your custom audiences to new and similar users. Behavioural and interest targeting also work with LinkedIn.
Unfortunately, it might cost more to run a campaign on LinkedIn than any other network. Compared to Facebook’s dollar a day ad spending, you might pay four to five dollars a click on LinkedIn.
Google+ doesn’t get the kind of engagement that other networks get. With currently 540 million users, it does pale in comparison to the established ones. It has also yet to support advanced targeting options. But it is the network for tech-driven audiences, so if that’s your market, it’s worth giving Google+ a go.
Lastly, using paid advertising for social media marketing, Northampton businesses might want to know, will pay off with even greater results with the help of a professional agency. Brilliant digital marketing agencies can create powerful advertising campaigns on the right social media networks that successfully win over your target consumers.
Get your business seen on social media. Give us a call on 01604 491 678 or drop by for a coffee.
Written by Cathryn Halfpenny
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