The Future of Social Media Marketing - What You Need To Do Right Now

Are you spending significant man hours or money on social media marketing because that’s what you've been told to do? If you’re developing cramps in your fingers because you just posted to all of your social platforms, I applaud your tenacity; if you’re not…I mean no offense by this, but…get on it!

However, the key question: Do you have the right people posting to your social media outlets or are you missing the boat?

In attending a multi-generational leadership conference earlier this year, there was an intriguing statement that stated while Gen X’ers understand technology fully, Millennials (or Gen Y’ers) don’t realize it’s there – it’s like air. So, why not place more responsibility with those generations?

Onward and upward onto your social media future…

Why Nothing Beats Social Media Marketing

While Facebook recently posted reports of minor downtrends in their usage, the majority was directed towards teen audiences – we’ll talk about where the teens are going in another post. Even though teens are slowing down with one venue, you still have a incredibly large number of ideal clients out there ready and willing to be connected to you.

Not only does social media give you the biggest microphone and speaker system in the entire world, but you can amplify your content in various ways based on the platform – giving you the opportunity to customize your message to the type of social media user it’s intended. Oh, and aside from the time that you spend on it, it’s free…and measurable!

Alright…enough about the awesomeness of social media marketing.

Your Future Content is Driven by Deepening Relationships

We are so far gone from the days of posting an update just to…well…post an update. Today’s social media audience is demanding interaction and engagement. The majority are in search of involvement with the companies they trust and follow. Embrace the transition and adapt your strategies to emulate a virtual hub for public relations.

Steps to Future Social Media Success

All-Hands Social Media Team – Social media is a 24/7 business which makes it extraordinarily difficult for one person to take this on (it’s even tough for two or three if you have more interactive audiences). However, if you train, trust and empower your “hands-on” team – the front line players of your staff – while clearly outlining expectations, culture and voice you merely have to supervise the content and interactions. After all, each one of your staff members have an incredible amount of extremely pertinent (and useful) information to help your clients through trouble spots, and they are fully aware of how to turn a setback into a comeback (and proactively identify those setbacks).

Establish Roles for Your Social Media Team – Not everyone can do everything, but through training you have the opportunity to identify key individuals who will be responsible for certain aspects of your social media marketing. Some roles/responsibilities that you may want to consider:

• Individual Platform Relationship Builders
• Global Relationship Builders (All Platforms)
• New Update Posting
• Initial Engagement Responses With Clients
• Escalation Hierarchy

What I would avoid with this, though, is taking authority away from people outside of these roles – everyone within your business should have some form of access to deepening client relationships – take relationships developed offline and bring them online (and vice-versa).

One Social Media Guru to Rule Them All – Relinquishing control over something as large as a social media presence is tough for any CEO, COO, or CMO. However, you can have some assurance that everything is running smoothly as you identify which one of your “hand-on” team members will act as the social media guru (someone who spends 15 – 45 minutes per day to assess platform performance) and who can generate basic level reports to establish trends and areas of improvement/training.

Alignment and Streamlined Efforts – Your social media guru will connect with your CMO, COO or CEO to talk about the ongoing interaction experienced through the social media venues. It’s with this feedback that solution-based content is created through the pain areas of your clients. After a while, you’ll (typically) notice a trend in the obstacles/issues to which you can also proactively detour through FAQ content. From these alignment meetings, the social media guru will bring back any relevant feedback to the Social Media Team.

The Future Results of Your Social Media Marketing

As someone leading an organization as a CEO, COO or CMO you have an understanding that your employees are online each and every day through these social media marketing platforms. Embrace the culture and provide the opportunity to spend 15 – 30 minutes every day on social media platforms. During this time, though, require that they check out the business’ page(s) and proactively help with any engagement/interaction. Your social media guru will manage the overall accuracy and efficacy of the social media platforms (at much less than what it costs for an Officer to perform the same task).

Overall, this approach saves you time, money and headaches, but it also draws your employees further into your business’ culture and innately allows them to be a net promoter…we all need more of those! And, all the while, you’re solidifying your social media marketing future and maximizing ROI!

If you'd like to take a further look into your social media marketing, connect with Blue Chip Branding for a free 30 minute assessment.