Creating a Profitable ROI with Social Media Marketing in 2010

The most common question I hear as a Social Media Marketing Consultant is this:

How do I get the highest ROI from my social media marketing campaign?

Businesses want to know what the return on investment is for using social media, but it's a complex question to answer for many reasons. Like any other marketing plan it depends greatly on the investment you put in.

The most important thing to remember is that you actually have to make an investment to expect any kind of return. Another interesting point is that looking only at the bottom line does not give you a full scope of what your return has been. The main difference is that social media is not only a tool for marketing; it is also a great customer service tool and provides open interaction with your consumers.

Another common question is what are other businesses doing? It's a good question to ask especially if you are looking at direct competition, but ultimately looking at how other businesses use social media can only reveal a fraction of what you need to know. Social media is based on the relationships you build with people and the consumers you are interacting with. That is going to be different for every business.

So how do you get the best ROI from social media marketing?

There is no magic formula that will get you results because this marketing plan should be customized for every business or professional individually. You actually do need to invest time and money in order to expect the best return. The biggest problem with most business is that spend tons of money setting up a social media marketing plan and then never consistently engage consumers with it. Social Media is not something you can set up and forget. For example a Facebook page for your business with no updates or calls to action for your consumers is doing nothing for you. You have to actually engage your consumers in order to get a return on your investment and that requires consistent plans to develop content and engage interaction.

The number one reason businesses fail with social media is that they try to go it alone and end up feeling like they waste all of their time with social media getting no return at all. This can often be one of the biggest mistakes-simply because most businesses do not have the skills to successfully implement this type of marketing plan. You end up wasting time and resources because you don't know how to use social media efficiently or effectively. What this means is that you can not think of social media as a one time project-this is something that takes time and effort to work effectively. Consider using a professional social media consultant to help develop or manage your plan.

Generally in business you need to realize that your return is only as good as your investment-this means if you plan and use your resources wisely then you will end up with a better return. The strict picture of ROI is the bottom line-but that is not the approach you need to have when considering social media. There are more advantages to your business in developing a strong social media presence than just the bottom line return. By engaging your consumers you can gain valuable insight into what they want and with excellent customer service you will increase your consumers' loyalty and referral business as well. Yes, businesses need to think of the bottom line-but they also need to recognize that to get to the bottom line investments must be made, processes need to developed, and relationships need to be built. Without these things, a profitable bottom line cannot be achieved.

Social media is one of the only ways to directly target your demographics, you can advertise directly to your consumers based on exact demographics giving you higher conversion rates on your ads. With all these things being said I encourage you to consider using social media because it can be one of the most profitable forms of marketing for your business if you do it the right way.

For those who want to learn more about how to create a profitable ROI using our practical guide to social media marketing download our free e-book here:

A Practical Guide To Social Media Marketing: The Essential Steps to creating a profitable ROI

If you had any lingering doubts that social networking is here to stay, doubt no longer.

Here are some interesting facts about social media:

Social Media is currently the #1 activity on the Web

The American Dialect Society announced that "tweet: is the top word for 2009, and "Google" is the top word of the past decade.

By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers....96% of them have joined a social network

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations & only 14% trust advertisements

80% of Twitter usage is outside of Twitter...people update anywhere, anytime...imagine what that means for bad customer experiences? Twitter also grew by over 500% this year.

Facebook has over 350,000,000 active users world wide and they share over 1.5 million items daily-do you know what they are saying about you and your brand?

Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user

Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277% this year

Sources: Socialnomics, Techcrunch, Facebook, Twitter

Starting a Social Media Campaign: Basic Ideas for Social Media Marketing Strategy

Here are a few social media ideas designed for those companies who are just beginning to engage with social media marketing. This initial strategy will help show some benefits of social media marketing services while limiting the risk involved.

1. Internal Communication - One of the often overlooked social media advantages is that they can often be used privately for internal communication. You can create a password protected workspace for collaborating, a corporate blog, a private intranet or you could start with some online training.
2. Web Conferencing- Another great option would be to utilize professional web conferencing. This is a wonderful way to engage in social media. The next time you have a planned conference that would normally require travel utilize a free trail from a web conference company online to try it out. This is a great social media tool and as a bonus, it is a great way to save money on travel expenses!
3. Content Sharing- One of the concepts becoming a huge force in the future of social media marketing is the idea of content curation. First, you simply find content that already exists and then share it in some sort of useful format, such as a blog. The greatest advantage with this activity is that at first it requires no content creation. It also helps brands to ease into social media simply by finding what is already out there and bringing it together in a useful way. This is a great way to share relevant information with your audience without the pressure of coming up with new content (just be sure to observe copyrights and always post sources).
4. Industry Tracking- Though it is common to hear that you should be listening online, what is often disregarded is how you should be focusing on keywords for the industry that you are in. See what words people are using to talk about your industry online and you can learn how you might be able to make your business or brand more shareable with your social media marketing efforts. Twitter is a great tool to use for searching keyword content for your industry—simply enter your industry as the search term and see what posts come up—you can easily scan the posts to see what words people are commonly using within posts that are relevant to your industry. This will help you better target your market with your social media strategy.
5. YouTube Channel - Many businesses or brands have videos that were produced for some reason, maybe for sales training or as advertising. Posting these videos onto YouTube is an easy way to share content that you already have. It is cost effective and gets you started with the process of uploading, tagging and sharing your content online. If you are worried about possible comments on your channel simply disable the commenting option-instead offer a link on the page for private feedback if you wish.
   
   As an internet marketing specialist and social media marketing consultant I have developed this initial social media strategy to assist those companies just beginning to use social media and internet marketing. If you are interested in social media but are not sure where to start with the technology involved a virtual assistant may be a great option to get you started with using social media marketing.