• by Nanxi Liu , February 25, 2015

Social media management is still a pain point for many companies –- as it often plays out as a series of trial and errors in order to determine what works and what doesn’t. Companies invest endless resources (time and money) to create content, build and engage an audience, sometimes spending more money by hiring a social media manager to oversee workflow.

 74% of online adults are using social networking sites and reaching them on these sites is more important than ever -- especially in a constantly connected world. As real-time conversations become the norm, the ability to reach customers quickly and effectively is key.

It’s time to crack the newsfeed barrier

One in six business owners believe that primary revenue is linked directly to social media marketing, so why was social organic reach trending towards zero in 2014? Though social media marketing is clearly important to businesses, Facebook and Twitter are favoring advertisers in newsfeeds and choking out other brands. For small and medium-sized businesses, cracking this barrier will be necessary to achieve success this year. Breaking through the newsfeed will require creative thinking.

For lessons in social timeliness and taking advantage when the opportunity strikes, businesses should look to Oreo. In 2013, Oreo used the Super Bowl’s power outage to its benefit by tweeting “Power Out? No Problem” with a dimly-lit image of an Oreo and the caption, “You can still dunk in the dark.” Oreos shows that thinking quick and posting on social can be great marketing tools.

Creating a smart social strategy

Often businesses make the mistake of thinking they must be active on every social media network available, but in actuality they should choose their social platforms wisely. For example, Instagram is crucial for restaurants to showcase their food and atmosphere, but not a necessity for a local car wash, which would benefit more from posting specials on Facebook.

Once the right social networking sites are determined, businesses can focus on creating compelling, interactive and sharable content. Businesses can easily incentivize customers to post on social media by offering promotions, such as special deals and price reductions.

Take a lesson from companies like Bonobos, which incentivized its Instagram followers to photograph themselves wearing the brand’s clothing by offering the possibility of being featured in Bonobo’s New York City store. Even though the customer is doing the posting here, the business’ social media presence is growing stronger.

Measuring your social success

In order to gauge success, businesses will need to have a common goal and use a measurement system to monitor their efforts. While some businesses may be able to measure success in the number of Facebook likes they receive, others may need more detailed measurements (i.e. calculating Twitter mentions and assigning positive and negative indicators). If the goal is to build up a social network, likes and followers may be sufficient, however; if the goal is to increase overall engagement, more in-depth criteria will need to be met.

Without an effective measuring system, it’s impossible to understand if social efforts are making an impact on business. The key is to personalize this to the business’ goals – what is right for one company may not be for another. What works on one platform may fail on another.

Appealing to the real-time/multiscreen generation

Additionally, businesses must remember that the appeal of social media for consumers is its real-time capabilities – both online and in-store. The emergence of a multiscreen world provides companies with an unprecedented opportunity to reach customers. The rise in smartphone and tablet use allows businesses to communicate with customers in real-time on their personal devices. There are fun and attention-grabbing ways to interact, like using live Twitter and Instagram walls on displays at your business or venue to get customers posting. It doesn’t matter what your company does; live tweets chats are a great way to reach an audience.

This also applies to customer service interactions – if customers post on social media looking for a problem to be solved, it’s necessary to respond as quickly as possible. Customers expect responses to their queries in a few hours or less, meaning that monitoring company mentions is imperative. A negative tweet about your business can go viral instantaneously. There’s no excuse for ignoring shout outs, whether good or bad, from customers on social media.

Social media has transformed from a nice “extra” to an essential part of survival. Regardless of size, social media is vital to increase awareness and generate sales. For businesses today, the goal is to understand what social network works for them, instead of trying to be present on every one. Plus, businesses should utilize real-time capabilities of the mobile age, which can better position them to experience growth and higher rates of customer retention.