The Future of Social Media for Businesses
Social Marketing
The Value of a Social Strategy
Brands continue to increase investments in social media content and headcount. It's no longer sufficient to simply maintain your social media presence: It's standard to actively engage consumers on multiple social platforms and build an identity on these channels. According to research from the Salesforce "State of Marketing" report, 75% of marketing leaders see a direct return on investment from social.
Successful brands have even created teams of social experts to carry out their social marketing programs, from creating content to engaging with an ever-present audience by answering questions and replying to feedback.
Why? Social media accounts for a third of all time spent online worldwide, and in the United States, people check social media seven times more than they do on email. That kind of customer reachability is well worth the investment.
Resources
Want more detail on the true value of social engagement? Check these out.
Report
e-book
Blog
Social Customer Care
Better Customer Service through Social
Because of changing customer expectations, social media marketing must coordinate with other channels in order to succeed.
Top brands do this by listening to what people say on social channels, passing along customer service-related content to their support team for resolution. What would once have meant a twenty-minute phone call for the customer is now effortless, pleasant, and expedited. It's also a positive experience likely to be shared on social media. However, 18% of all marketers say there is no coordination between their social media marketing and other channels. The level of sophistication in coordinating these channels has plenty of room for improvement.
Consider this: Sixty-four percent of all marketing leaders say that service collaborates with marketing to manage and respond to social inquiries and issues.
Of high-performing teams, 84% collaborate with service via social, while just 37% of underperformers say the same.
Resources
Explore a collaboration with your service team over social. Read on.
e-book
e-book
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Social Listening
Consumer and Market Insights from Social Conversations
The results of tuning into social media conversations can transform businesses. For example: A healthcare brand listens to conversations about lifestyle, nutrition, and exercise in order to better understand preventative care. A fashion clothing retailer listens to brand mentions to create visually compelling content — and schedule it on channels like Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. An auto insurance brand listens to feedback about its new models and passes that on to product design teams.
While the data mined from social conversations is valuable, there is a lot of it. That's why you and your team should consider establishing measures for success before implementing a social listening strategy. Once you've defined KPIs and firm goals, you'll be better equipped to determine and report ROI when the time comes.
Resources
Put your ear to the ground and learn what consumers are thinking. Here's more on social listening:
e-book
e-book
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Social Selling
Social Media as a Powerful Sales Tool
How does this quickly growing practice work? Taking sales to social media requires multiple internal departments to collaborate and work closely in identifying potential customers. When a prospect displays buying signals on social and adjacent channels, social and sales teams must coordinate to nurture them down the sales funnel toward purchase. A tweet about needing a new minivan or an Instagram post about a broken vacuum cleaner could be the beginning of a path to purchase, if sales teams respond appropriately. Social selling requires a joint strategy, clear communication between teams, and integration of social and CRM tools.
Brands that invest time and resources to adopting a social selling strategy view it as a valuable source of leads — and an important way to nurture and engage prospects with whom the sales team has already begun a relationship.
Resources
Curious about taking your sales process to social? Check out related content:
Blog
Report
Blog
Create Alignment
Organization-wide View of Brand Health — Including Social
Now marketers, salespeople, and service reps can elevate their social media presence with social media command centers: a shared view of social media activity accessible from any device. Command centers allow teams to build centralized dashboards of every digital touchpoint — mentions, inquiries, audience size, trending topics, and much more. These displays are shared across the company and accessible at any time, so everyone gains the same insights into key metrics and performance in an easy-to-understand visualization.
In some cases, organizations are evolving even beyond this impressive setup. For example, Salesforce Marketing Command Center is a major evolution of this technology, going beyond social media measures and data to include:
- Email performance
- Customer journey progress
- Customer service cases
- Sales data
- Web canvas screens
The use of a command center like this removes the silos typically found with digital teams — bringing a cross-channel analytics focus to an organization. By sharing a real-time view of performance data, brands can align quickly to improve the customer experience — keeping up with the expectations and desires of consumers as they develop.
Learn more about Salesforce Marketing Command Center.
Resources
Explore the possibilities of a brand united over social. Read more:
Blog
Turning Customers into Fans: Inside the New LIDS Command Center
e-book
Questions? We’ll put you on the right path.
