The initial motive of social media engagement was for interaction between acquaintances. But it was adopted by businesses that wanted to take advantage of a popular new communication trend to reach out to clients/customers. The power of social media is the ability to connect and share information with anyone – and with many people at the same time.

Social media is an internet-facilitated technology. It enhances sharing of ideas, thoughts and information through the building of virtual networks and communities. By design, social media is internet enabled and it gives users quick electronic communication of content. Content includes personal information, instant messaging, documents, videos and photos. Users engage with social media via computers, tablets or smartphones with web-based software or web applications.

Tools for Tracking Engagement for Business on Social Media

There are a number of social media dashboards and tools that can be used to manage multiple accounts. With these tools you also get the ability to share the same update across multiple platforms simultaneously.

These platforms can help in managing campaigns with simple, comprehensive interfaces that even social media novices can easily use. Below is a brief description of some of the social media management application tools for engagements analytics:

Hootsuite: One of the most popular tools is Hootsuite. It is venerated because it fulfils all that successful social media management is about: speed and efficiency. It automates and schedules posts, while also giving you analysis and social media monitoring tools.

Buffer: Similar to Hootsuite is Buffer. It is compatible with a broad range of social networks and allows for easy cross-posting. What is especially useful about it is that can be used to post on schedule and to space out updates automatically too.

CoSchedule: When a new message is scheduled on CoSchedule, the administrator can select the social media profiles where he or she would like them to be published. The application manual offers an extensive guide on how to do this.

Sprout Social: This tool is geared toward businesses that want to have more advanced analytics and insights for their social media efforts. Sprout Social provides a “single-stream inbox” for seeing content across multiple channels in one place. Similarly, one can use this tool to post to all social media profiles at once too.

Some extra processes that can be run for customer engagement include:

Social Media Optimization (SMO): This is the use of various social media network settings to manage and grow an organization or business’ message and online presence.

Social Networking: Social networking is the use of internet-based social media applications to make connections with friends, family, classmates, high net worth individuals, colleagues, customers and clients.

Bulk Short Message Service (SMS) or Mobile Marketing: Sending bulk online SMS or utilizing multiple distribution channels to promote products and services with technology devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones are helpful ways to reach out to prospective customers/clients.

Campaigning for Targeted Business Objectives on Social Media

Gaining Clients/Customers: If a business is in start-up or is struggling, the objective will be attaining growth. Therefore, the target metric is to gain more followers. Measuring the number of retweets and shares on content posted on the business’s social media timelines will help create awareness of the business and determine action.

Sustaining Clients/Customers: You can turn customers into business advocates by engaging them through mentions with ‘#hashtag’ or ‘@copy’. Also, liking or reacting to their comments with appropriate ‘emoji’ and responding to necessary comments as and when due will help. These strategies will bring vibrant activities to your business’s social media page and show how your customers and clients are interacting with the content posted.

Maintaining Clients/Customers: If the aim of a business is to drive leads and sales, conversion metrics by way of tracking numbers of pay-per-click is invaluable. Tracking the number of views and duration of time spent interacting with content is also crucial. Email sign-up on websites will be a good measure. Website clicks will be helpful as well. All these will demonstrate the effectiveness of social engagement.

Retaining Clients/Customers: If improving client/customer retention is the objective of a business, testimonials by people (with their consent) who have used the products should be posted as content on the business’s social media timeline. Furthermore, sending birthday or wedding anniversary messages to your loyal customers/clients and driving other sentiments like visibly harping on the business’ Unique Selling Points (USP) will go a long way.

Winning Clients/Customers: If a business’s target is to rebrand or launch new products and services into the market in order to reposition itself and have an edge over the competition, posting campaigns or challenges that will go viral will go a long way. Influencers, superstars, and celebrities can equally be nudged to post these on their social media statuses at little or no cost if the campaigns are hilarious and popular. Also, endorsement by professionals and professional bodies regulating the business sector will do the magic for more engagement.

The above-mentioned metrics could be measured and converted. However, vanity metrics like ‘likes’ are also easy to track, but it is hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus should be on targets such as leads generated, web referrals and conversion rates. 

Be SMART In Order to Be Engaging on Social Media

For a campaign to succeed, clear goals and objectives should be set as part of strategy. This is how marketing on social media could prove invaluable. Therefore, there is a need to be SMART. This is an acronym for:

• Specific: Have specific objectives set out before mounting a marketing campaign.
• Measurable: Make sure there are available metrics to determine success.
• Attainable: Your objectives must be realizable and achievable.
• Relevant: Make sure the marketing campaign will address common needs and solve problems.
• Time-bound: A marketing campaign should be introduced at an appropriate time and must have a sustained span.

The SMART goal framework will guide actions and ensure they lead to real business results.

Temidayo Babatunde is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Information and Strategy Management (CIISM) and can be reached via [email protected]