Integrating Social Media With Your Traditional Marketing Mix
As a product manager, you are given the job to execute and deliver on your company's marketing strategy and goals.
Based on your budget, you are provided with an arsenal of tactics.
Traditional outbound marketing tactics have included radio, TV, print and even PR.
However, now these tactics may not always be as effective from an ROI standpoint without including Social Media elements.
When implemented correctly, Social Media can increase your brand awareness, increase market share and sales.
This is accomplished by interacting and listening to your customers and even by building online communities with an inbound approach.
So how does one implement Social Media? Where do you start? We will begin with the organic approach.
Using an inbound marketing approach is the key to successful Social Media implementation.
Your company must offer original and compelling content with a call-to-action that is shareable.
You have to provide a reason for people to care about your company or product: offer something interesting for your customers to learn about.
In the past, companies told consumers what to buy.
Some companies were even known to lie to their consumers.
Today, we live in a world where consumers talk to each other to find out information about a product or service.
Just look at Amazon, eBay or Yelp reviews.
There are even sites out there where you can rate your professor or boss.
The internet has been democratized and when a company or product has a negative incident, it can go viral very quickly.
Therefore, Social Media must be embraced as a marketing tactic.
Assuming your company already has a brand and a main web site.
The first thing you should do is to "be found" through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Find the keywords or phrases that customers would search and try to be high on the search engine "results page" while offering relevant and compelling content.
After all, you want customers to click on all of your social media sites and explore further - not bounce to another unrelated website.
In addition to the concept of being found, Social Media involves using blogs, LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr, Google AdWords, Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Squidoo, Whrrl and many other networks/sites to increase your online visibility and participation.
Unbelievably, these additional outlets will help you with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Moreover, you must participate consistently by listening and conversing with your customers.
How do you measure the results of your Social Media efforts? The answer is in many ways.
The best tool for measuring your inbound traffic is Google Analytics, which will track the overall volume to your various outlets, the referral source (search, referral or direct traffic) and trends.
Some other great tools include ones from HubSpot that measure the quality of your blog and Twitter page.
There are cases of where Social Media was the only marketing tactic until a PR Campaign was executed that boosted traffic 7 times over the mean.
The benefits of using Social Media include:
Based on your budget, you are provided with an arsenal of tactics.
Traditional outbound marketing tactics have included radio, TV, print and even PR.
However, now these tactics may not always be as effective from an ROI standpoint without including Social Media elements.
When implemented correctly, Social Media can increase your brand awareness, increase market share and sales.
This is accomplished by interacting and listening to your customers and even by building online communities with an inbound approach.
So how does one implement Social Media? Where do you start? We will begin with the organic approach.
Using an inbound marketing approach is the key to successful Social Media implementation.
Your company must offer original and compelling content with a call-to-action that is shareable.
You have to provide a reason for people to care about your company or product: offer something interesting for your customers to learn about.
In the past, companies told consumers what to buy.
Some companies were even known to lie to their consumers.
Today, we live in a world where consumers talk to each other to find out information about a product or service.
Just look at Amazon, eBay or Yelp reviews.
There are even sites out there where you can rate your professor or boss.
The internet has been democratized and when a company or product has a negative incident, it can go viral very quickly.
Therefore, Social Media must be embraced as a marketing tactic.
Assuming your company already has a brand and a main web site.
The first thing you should do is to "be found" through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Find the keywords or phrases that customers would search and try to be high on the search engine "results page" while offering relevant and compelling content.
After all, you want customers to click on all of your social media sites and explore further - not bounce to another unrelated website.
In addition to the concept of being found, Social Media involves using blogs, LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr, Google AdWords, Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Squidoo, Whrrl and many other networks/sites to increase your online visibility and participation.
Unbelievably, these additional outlets will help you with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Moreover, you must participate consistently by listening and conversing with your customers.
How do you measure the results of your Social Media efforts? The answer is in many ways.
The best tool for measuring your inbound traffic is Google Analytics, which will track the overall volume to your various outlets, the referral source (search, referral or direct traffic) and trends.
Some other great tools include ones from HubSpot that measure the quality of your blog and Twitter page.
There are cases of where Social Media was the only marketing tactic until a PR Campaign was executed that boosted traffic 7 times over the mean.
The benefits of using Social Media include:
- Increasing traffic
- Finding more qualified leads
- Increasing sales
- Lowering your cost per sale
- Building long term relationships with your consumers by listening
