93% of buying decisions are made on Social Media
Social Media Management is a controversial part of the marketing mix. It is viewed as either of secondary importance, a risk to be exposed and be involved in trolling and difficult conversations, and it takes a lot of man-hours to just manage it.
Done right, social media will become:
- first impression - top of the funnel
- your public relations channel
- source of trust - either you like it or not, angry customers will still be able to place negative reviews on Google. A healthy, consistent social media presence will balance the impression a couple of negative reviews
- the drop that tips the buying decision
- preferred customer service channel by the public
- supporting SEO
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93% of buying decisions are influenced by social media. Social Media has a crucial role in customer journey, even if it cannot be identified as the lead generating main channel.
We are briefly looking at two cases of use and non use of social media Management and how it influenced the sales outcome. Further down we will look at costs and benefits of using social Media Management in-house versus using Purple Orca services.
Social Media Management - to be or not to be active on social platforms
You do not have to be on Facebook, but one needs to look at all the KPIs and see the whole picture. For example one company cannot afford full fledged SEO, and/or SEO is returning bargain seeking leads/bad paying clients. The 4 pillars of social media, and especially Facebook and Google sustain SEO.
Two cases of use/abandoned social media management in a nutshell:
Client A decides to abandon social Media publishing following analysis of most efficient advertising channels/marketing campaigns.
Client A decided two months ago to scale back Social Media. They are running AdWords and ads in local newspaper which historically, looking at the data, they have brought consistent leads, being the most ROI effective. No SEO, as budget restraints. The website has dropped from first page results, and there are considerably less sales. Ouch. Data is not always a good metric of customer journey.
Client B is investing heavily in digital equipment and technologies, but has not an established marketing strategy. They choose to try social Media Management
Client B is using social Media to build trust and communicate digital transformation of the business and its benefits to customers. No AdWords, no paid social, no SEO. Website has started to convert - without any updating.
Conclusion.
Client A is spending more than 3 times than client B. They are both in the same industry. Client B sales went up, whilst client A is still looking at data whilst sales are slumping.
