Breaking the Wall – Taking Social Engagement to New Levels

The challenge in making social networks like Twitter and Facebook useful in your marketing strategy is finding the audience you need for them to remain effective. One might wonder why it is necessary to spend time tweeting links and information to a handful of followers, when your main website attracts a lot of traffic through organic or paid search. While it’s hard to argue with hard numbers, you should also consider this: how much revenue is generated from search traffic compared to social media referrals?

Let’s say you were able to track fifty people coming in from search, all of whom stayed on your site for a few minutes to browse before jumping in without clicking a conversion. Now think about the ten or more people who follow your Twitter or Facebook page. If only four of them came to your site via a tweet or social post and then contacted you or bought something, you can argue that social media is more effective. Four conversions among a small number of followers could be a lot better than zero leads in a larger crowd elsewhere, and while you sure have no plans to ditch traditional SEO and PPC efforts in favor of courting this social minority, this case study will certainly encourage you to take your social marketing to another level.

Making the breakthrough: separating the wheat from the chaff

The established business or organization with an existing opt-in mailing list or blog following can have it easy when it comes to encouraging the masses to switch to Twitter or Facebook. The more options you provide for information, the stronger your online presence will grow. New businesses, however, can run into obstacles. What do you have to offer someone in terms of relevant news on Twitter and why should someone become your fan on Facebook? Why would someone need to add you to their already growing auto-shopping list?

Incentive: Think of something you can offer strictly to those who get updates through social media. You can offer free samples or deep discounts to visitors who join, and regularly provide unique information not available on the site or in newsletters.

Interaction: With Facebook in particular, fans have the opportunity to share photos and conversations on the wall about your products, services and events. A tourism department in the southern US, for example, holds monthly photo contests for its supporters and encourages participation.

Personalization: Because social networks encourage real-time interaction, social network users may be more inclined to follow a profile if they believe they will receive support in a timely manner. All you need to do is provide it. Engage people via social media and you may attract genuine followers instead of SPAM accounts – as people reply via Twitter, their friends will see the replies and Facebook users will see notifications in their feeds. your friends’ feeds. Higher engagement makes for good viral promotion.