The 3 Most Important Factors of Any Social Media Campaign

by MGB2B

Social media is no longer something only younger generations participate in. Now more than ever, it’s important that your manufacturing company utilizes it to reach a wider audience. In doing so, you’ll get your products and services in front of people who might not have initially seen it. Building a social campaign can be a complicated process, but when done correctly, the payoff is sizable. The most important thing to remember is that campaigns are “living” pieces of your company. They need to be monitored throughout their lifetime to ensure they are running smoothly. And if not? Here are a few things to keep in mind…

Organic vs. Paid

You’ve surely heard the terms “organic” and “paid” when it comes to social traffic. Organic traffic is the traffic you get on your social account without having to pay. So, if someone finds your profile, likes a photo, shares a post, or leaves a comment, without any prompting, that’s organic traffic. Paid traffic, on the other hand, happens when you pay to have your posts boosted, ensuring they get in front of your desired audience. The likes, shares, comments, and follows that result directly from these paid campaigns are paid traffic.

So you’ve built your campaign, now what?

To ensure your campaign performs to the best of its ability, there are a few things to focus on:

1. Your Audience

   Who you are trying to reach with your message? There are a lot of great metrics tools out there that can help you determine the audience you are already reaching, which you can eventually build off of. Twitter, for example, has an entire section in their user interface that breaks down your audience. From your audience’s interests, to their buying style, wireless carrier, and demographics, you have an incredibly detailed picture. If your campaign not performing as well as you had hoped, analyze this picture. You have time to reconfigure and adjust your audience throughout the lifetime of your campaign, as long as your monitoring it.

2. Your Message

   This facet is closely tied to your audience, and varies from each one. Consider speaking to a 28 year old engineer differs versus a 50 year old executive.  The interests, abilities, and knowledge of these two people vary greatly. Your message should be tailored to each. Since social media has the ability to speak directly to your audience as individuals (and they’ve come to expect it), make sure you do just that.

3. Your Platform

   Social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn all have a purpose, and they’re not necessarily the same. Instagram is strictly for photos or easily-digestible videos. Facebook is a melee of articles, photos, thought-pieces, and more. Hopefully, before you’ve created a campaign, you’ve chosen which platform works best for you, your message, and your audience. It’s easy to default to Facebook but if you notice your campaign taking a hit, take a step back. Review the pros and cons of each social site (and believe me, they all have pros and cons.) If the platform you’ve chosen doesn’t check most or all of your boxes, halt your campaign. Move the budget over to a platform better-suited for your needs. It’ll make a big difference in your ROI.

As with anything, there are more than just three factors that could affect your social media campaign performance – these are just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to get in front of the right people, with the right message, at the right time, you have to do your homework.