How Does Social Media Fit with Your Marketing Goals?

6/2/2010 at 2:59 pm by Julie Szabo

For some organizations, social media is a fun marketing add-on that keeps the intern busy. But, random dabbling on social networks and blogger outreach won’t garner the results you demand from more traditional marketing activities. The bar should be set just as high for social media marketing.

Having clear goals and tracking campaign outcomes is a critical part of any marketing initiative. So, before you publish your Facebook page or write your first tweet, define your organization’s social media marketing goals. You put existing marketing activities–lead generation, webinars, media relations, tradeshows and direct mail–through the ROI calculator. Do the same for social media marketing activities.

So, what should your social media marketing goals be?
A stronger web presence is often the primary goal. That calls for concrete outcomes like:

More visitors to your website
More incoming links (referring sites in Google Analytics) to your website
More RSS subscribers
More views of your content on video and photo sharing sites, like YouTube and Flickr
More references to your company, products and services on blogs and social networking sites
Better SEO (search engine optimization) and an improved search engine ranking
More sign-ups for e-newsletters or other means to continue permission-based marketing

If these are the results you’re after, then you may find social media marketing more effective than a trade show or direct mail campaign.

Running social media marketing campaigns is time consuming, just like a lead gen campaign or a traditional PR blitz. You’ll need to dedicate time every day to monitoring the Web, participating in ongoing discussions, posting to your blog and devising new campaign ideas. So, if you want to add social media into your marketing program, make sure to evaluate all your marketing activities to determine where you get the best return on your efforts.

If social media marketing is on your agenda, then take the time to specify your marketing goals. If increased website activity is what you’re after then adding social media to your marketing mix is probably a good choice. Next, define specific, measurable outcomes. And finally, measure social media results against traditional marketing outcomes so that you can choose the most effective marketing activities for your business.

photo credit: webtreats

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About the Author

Julie is a co-founder of Capulet Communications, a marketing agency based in Vancouver, BC. Since 2003, Capulet has been helping companies, from start-ups to national retailers, understand and engage with today's and tomorrow's Web. A co-founder of Northern Voice, Canada's social media conference, she regularly speaks about social media, marketing, and emerging technology. She is a co-author, with Darren Barefoot, of "Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook" published by No Starch Press.