Extracting More Value from Social Media with Social Media Management Technology

If one were to try to identify the most impactful and influential technology trends of the 21st century, the introduction of social media would certainly make the list. Social media makes it possible for people of all walks of life to connect with one another quickly and easily, and across all corners of the world. But social media is about more than just making new friends or getting reacquainted with old ones; many users are finding that social media is also an effective channel for customer service. In fact, 90% of young adults ages 18 to 29 use social media (compared to just 35% of those over age 65), and a third of millennials say social media is one of their preferred channels for communicating with businesses.

As such, companies are quickly discovering that ignoring social media is no longer an option. Instead, a large portion of business success depends upon an organisation's ability to properly manage all of their various social feeds. In essence, if a customer could potentially use it, then the company should have a system in place to help manage it. But effective social media management requires much more than simply having someone on the payroll to respond to posts and send out weekly tweets. Social media can be very complex, which means that you'll need a complex and powerful toolset if you want to manage it properly. You'll need a social media management system.

As the name suggests, social media management is a process by which an organisation is able to successfully engage social media users across various communication channels. More specifically, social media management often refers to the various tools and programs used to accomplish this task. A social media management platform will often include the ability to automate and schedule posts, track analytics, create advertisements, and even optimise your site for increased social effectiveness. Of course, before you commit the concept, you probably would like to know how any of this stands to benefit your business.

It's estimated that there are currently 2.34 billion social media users in the world. In the US, 78% of the population has social network profiles. Facebook is the single most popular social media site, with 1.59 billion active users, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are dozens of other social media sites across the globe. Even if only a fraction of those users decide to contact your business via their prefered site, then that could amount to a significant number of potential customers. Businesses that choose to focus the entirety of their social media presence on only one or two social media platforms stand to lose a sizable number of potential clients. At the same time, each social media platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, meaning that no single platform is likely to offer a rounded solution for businesses. The challenge, then, is to create a process that integrates all of your social media efforts into a single, synergetic strategy. This is only made possible with social media management tools for agencies.

Just as every social media platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, it is likewise true that the various social media management platforms themselves have different capabilities. In order to find the platform that is best-suited to your company's unique needs, you'll first need to build an accurate picture of your company itself. Who is your target audience? What are your specific sales and conversion goals? How is your online reputation, and could it stand to be improved? How large is your business, and how much growth are you planning for in the next five years?

Small and enterprise social media management solutions may have certain similarities, but the resources behind those solutions, as well as the particulars relating to audience and execution will likely be vastly different. Likewise, an organisation that wants to focus more heavily on social media reputation management will need a platform with more of a focus on brand awareness than those prefered by organisations that just want to increase their site traffic. That said, there are certain features that the best social media management platforms share.

Social media management can mean many different things, but there are four areas where every business should be measuring their social outcomes:

• Site Traffic: the total number of visitors that come to your site
  Your social media page should be a springboard to bring visitors to your website, ecommerce page, blog, etc. Measuring the total number of site visitors brought in by your social pages will give you an idea of how effective your social strategy is.


• Site-Visitor Loyalty: how likely are visitors return to your site
  If your social media page is bringing a lot of visitors to your site, but these visitors are quickly leaving without taking the next step towards conversion, or aren't returning to your site at a later time, then there is likely something wrong that needs to be addressed.


• Conversion: the number of site visitors that take the desired action
  Going hand-in-hand with visitor loyalty, conversion demonstrates how effective a social media page is at preparing and identifying prospective customers.


• Brand Awareness: how familiar a target audience is with the images or other qualities used to represent your business

Your social media pages should be promoting your brand in ways beyond increasing sales. The amount of active followers you have on your social sites, and how likely social users are to like, retweet, repost, etc. the content you provide can be an indication of how recognisable your brand is.

To be able to accurately measure and manage these four areas, you'll need to make a social media management platforms-comparison. Online reviews of various social media management providers can give you an idea of how effective each option is, and free trial options can help you see exactly how useful an option may be to your specific circumstances. But before you can make a final decision, you'll first need to narrow down the number of prospects. Here are three features that the best social media management platforms share:

• Advanced Targeting
  Who are your customers? This is a question that social media management can help you answer. Through collected demographic data and targeted advertising, you'll be able to not only get a better idea of who your customers are, but also create a highly effective funnel for bringing interested, committed clients to your site, converting your social media traffic into increased profits.


• Effective Tracking
  Data is at the heart of any social media strategy, so your social media management solution needs to be capable of tracking all of the important data your social sites generate. This means capturing valuable customer data which can be used to better identify key demographics. It also means tracking things such as user engagement and click-through rates, in order to create an accurate picture of how effective your social sites are. Given that 53% of social media marketers don't measure their success, effective data tracking can give you a definite edge over your competition.


• Accurate Forecasting
  It's one thing to have an accurate picture of your current situation, but it can be even more lucrative to have an accurate picture of tomorrow's situation. Social media management can use captured data, in conjunction with smart analytics, to create high-probability forecasts for timely campaigns that anticipate upcoming customer trends.

As you may have noticed, each of these areas and features rely heavily on the presence of accurate data. As such, the best social media management platforms are those that are completely data driven.

Salesforce specialises in customer relationship management (CRM), and their data-driven approach has cemented them as the leader in their industry. This same approach has created a superior social media management platform, in the form of Social Studio.

As with all Salesforce solutions, Social Studio is cloud based and data focused, collecting, analysing, and extrapolating useful conclusions from massive amounts of captured data. This data is then displayed using various interactive dashboards, giving users as broad or as specific a picture of the current information as they could want. Salesforce tools are also easy to integrate into any existing company processes, and feature built-in training options, reliable multi-channel support, and a flexible structure that can be adapted and scaled to the needs of any business. And, because social media management services pricing is definitely something that should be considered before committing to a specific option, Salesforce offers pay-as-you-go pricing models, meaning that you'll only be charged for the services you use.

There are few new technologies that have had as significant an impact on society in the past decade as social media; let it have a significant impact on your business, too. In fact, 62% of marketers say that social media has become more important to their marketing campaigns within the last six months alone. With the right social media management solution, you'll be able to not only increase your shares, likes, retweets, etc., but you'll also be able to turn those virtual symbols of praise into real revenue to grow your business. Compare social media management platforms today, and find the one that can take your relationship with your social followers to the next level.