Social networks continue to change the way consumers discover, engage with and share their experiences, with brands. It has never been more critical to have a deep understanding of social networks, and to ensure that your brand’s participation in them is making a favorable contribution to conversations that are taking place online – with or without you.

Social media requires the same preparation and attention to execution as paid media and great creative messaging. Successfully including social media in a brand’s marketing campaigns requires these four criteria:

1- Campaign Objectives
2- Resources
3- Tracking
4- Integration

By starting with the objective and working backwards marketers will arrive at the appropriate resource requirements – everything from dedicated staff, support from various departments (sales, customer service, PR), marketing partners, tracking tools and senior oversight.

Our customers are currently using social media to drive a myriad of measurable goals including sales, CRM, customer service, brand perceptions and research. They are tracking a host of success metrics including sales, followers/likes, post-click transactions, sales per engaged follower and even revenue per follower.

To properly track and avoid duplication with other marketing efforts, Social Media must be integrated within the campaign plan, the tracking and analytics. The unique disciplines and tools required to manage a social media campaign often create silos within companies or agencies. These pitfalls must be avoided along with:

• Launching and abandoning a social media conversation,
• Not having a content plan in place to keep social platforms fresh and updated
• Expecting social presence to grow organically (even plants need a little fertilizer)

With the popularity of social media growing daily, it is critical that marketers understand this dynamic communication environment. Embracing these best practices will improve consumers’ experience, and increase engagement, with your brand.