Trina Albus gave an incredible presentation on where organic and paid social reach currently stands, and how to get the most out of your social efforts. During the one hour presentation Trina demonstrated how to set up, measure, and increase your social reach. Here are some key takeaways:
1. Have a strategy
If you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish, nothing you do on social, paid or organic is going to make a difference. You have to have a strategy behind your actions. Get started on your strategy by defining both your target demographic and your goals. Who are you trying to reach? What are your Key Performance Indicators? What will success look like, and how will you measure it?
2. Pick and choose your platforms
With a new social platform sprouting each day, it can be difficult to keep up. Research each platform. Where is your target audience most active? Which platform aligns best with your brand voice? Once you have the answers you can choose which platform will work best for you.
3. Measure and refine
The great thing about social campaigns is that you can set up and run a campaign in half a day. Run quick small tests, measure your effectiveness and refine your strategy. Use the data gained from these tests to fail fast, learn quickly, refine and re-run your campaign.
4. Leverage your organic reach
You already have an organic following, no matter how big or small they can be a great resource. Note what is working and what your community is engaging with most. Re-use the copy that worked to reach and engage your new community through paid social.
5. Pay to play
If you’re looking to make a noticeable impact with your paid strategy you must be willing to invest real money. Measuring impact is nearly impossible if you don’t have substantial money to invest. If you have to work with a small budget don’t spread that money across multiple platforms, pick one. This way, collecting enough insight and data to fine-tune your strategy becomes more feasible. Eventually you can use that information to increase ROI. Hopefully, the increased ROI translates to a larger social budget to work with for future campaigns.
6. Stay up to date
Things change rapidly. Stay up to date by following blogs and articles. Trina recommends Mashable and TechCrunch as well as the blogs of the social media platforms themselves.
Just like the advertising and media world as a whole, social is changing daily, to get the most impact you have to put in the effort. If you follow Trina’s helpful tips you will be well on your way to success!
Lilit Kalachyan is an Art Director and Brand Strategist at LKN Branded in New York City. You can find some of her writings on interesting events, places and people at www.figure10.com