Utilising social reach and engagement to maximise ROI.

Social media is more than just likes and followers. It’s a valuable tool for businesses to drive engagement for website traffic, lead generation and brand awareness.

As social media is now a major revenue driver, businesses across the globe are ramping up budgets to stay ahead of the game. But this isn’t always the case. Quite often people don’t understand the full capabilities of social media and don’t quite grasp precisely how it can generate a high ROI. With the pressure rising for companies to prove exactly how social media marketing generates a significant return, it’s essential for businesses to perfect their strategies. But how do you fine tune your social activity for a reliable ROI? By taking full advantage of social reach and engagement, of course.

Why does social media ROI matter?

Like anything in business, you need to know where you stand. You don’t want to waste time, money or resources on social efforts and not know if they are actually giving anything back in return. It’s important to know the direction of your social strategy and in particular, how each output will be constructive for your business. Measuring ROI can help you determine if your deliverables are profitable, which ultimately can help you make informed decisions for the future. Calculating ROI is key in determining whether or not a social investment is worth it and then you can move forward to tailor your social plan with what works and what doesn’t. Not only that, but it also gives an indication of how much value you are providing for your audience. So if you want your social ROI to be a success, you need to be strategic with what you're putting out.

How can you measure social ROI?

Measuring social ROI is no longer just an “option” because, as the saying goes, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. However, it sometimes isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. According to recent research conducted by LinkedIn, ‘58 percent of digital marketers have to prove social media ROI to get approval for future budget requests.’ Yet, only 37% were “very confident” in their ROI metrics’. Social media’s a tricky one when it comes to measuring ROI as it can often be dependent on a business's objectives. To develop a tangible method of calculating social ROI, you need to establish your marketing objectives, KPIs and metrics so you can then monitor the progression of any campaign and identify if it’s worth the investment. Notably, it can be a little more complex than that but in a nutshell, you can use actionable metrics to distinguish if you're getting a direct ROI, such as conversions and click throughs. So the real question is, are you confident with your social strategy and do you feel your outputs are performing well for a high ROI?

So how can you maximise ROI with reach and engagement?

First thing’s first, know your audience. A recent report created by We Are Social states that

‘More than 4.5 billion people now use the internet, while social media users have passed the 3.8 billion mark.’

That’s a lot of people to engage with and essentially, that’s what's important. Knowing your audience is key in achieving reach and engagement, as you need to create content that resonates with your consumer. If you aren’t aware as to who’s interacting with your content, then you most likely won’t have any context behind your metrics. Examine your audience's behaviour: pinpoint what trends they follow, the content they react to, who they're already following. This way, you’ll be able to align your social strategy with what your audience interacts with, meaning higher engagement rates from people who could be good leads for your business.

Once you’ve nailed that, the next step is consistency. It’s challenging to gauge what’s generating a return if you don’t post regularly enough. How active you are on social media tends to affect engagement and reach which can have a definite impact on ROI. Posting frequently to maintain a consistent schedule will not only help to get your content in front of your audience, but it will allow you to recognise what social outputs are providing a high ROI. You can then adjust your social plan accordingly and avoid wasting time and resources on content that isn’t driving a good return.

It’s all about building relationships with your audience in order to nurture leads. Engagement and reach can only help you so far along the way, the next phase is to chase up with the interactions you receive. Integrate your social media reach into your core marketing strategy, follow up with results and track who’s engaging with your content the most. Syncing social lead information with other platform outputs will increase ROI, as you will be more present during their buying journey.

Think about the bigger picture, you want to develop strong connections with your audience across the board and provide value to create a reputable brand image so your customers stay loyal.

This will increase engagement rates and attain both existing and new customers, leading to a higher ROI for the long term.

Interested in kick-starting your social media strategy to maximise ROI? Get in contact with a member of our friendly marketing team today by emailing info@summitcreative.co.uk, calling 01623 625222 or filling out our simple contact form here.