by Richard Feldmanwww.liqui-site.com
Tweet
What's the point of social media if you can't monetize the effort?
More and more, each day, I hear from business owners, executives, and online marketing professionals “If social media doesn’t influence the sales process and the effort can't be monetized immediately, then what’s the point?” I understand their frustration and how overwhelming both social media strategy and questionable ROI can be. Looking for ideas on how to test social media as a revenue generator? Here are a few real-world examples:
Burt's Bees is perhaps a little more well-known for its lip balm than its Facebook Page, but Facebookers can buy products directly from Burt's Bees Facebook Page’s Shop & Share feature. The company has become one of the leading manufacturers of natural personal care products. With more than 150 products to sell, Facebook is the perfect space for the company to connect with its fans and customers. “Through Facebook, we can introduce new products more interactively than in print or banner ads…and provide a space where [our consumers] can connect with one another,” says Melissa Sowry, the company's social media and content manager. Burt's Bees, nearing 700,000 fans, prides itself on its ability to engage with its customers on Facebook by responding to comments – and allowing customers to lead the conversation. In 2010, the company reported that its Page has doubled the traffic from Facebook to its e-commerce site, and the increase in sales and overall brand awareness from their online marketing test was enough to make it a must-have for future fiscal budgets.
The NY JETS launched their Ultimate Fan social game in September 2010, which was the first revenue-generating Facebook app to be backed by a pro sports team. The application lets football fans do online what they would normally do at home and in stadiums — root for their favorite teams and players, predict game scores, hold a virtual tailgate party and purchase promotional wear. Ultimate Fan sells banner advertising to other firms like Ticketmaster, and has since lured four major sponsors integrating their brands: MetLife, Motorola, SportsNet NY and HotelPlanner.com. Monetize much? Let’s just call this game-changer a blowout.
Whitecaps Foul Weather Gear is a great example of engaging a smaller, niche audience in order to monetize social media. Testing effective email marketing, coupled with social media engagement, Whitecaps saw an increase of $5,000 in less than 30 days, using Facebook to drive sales via a promo code. Now, that really gave folks in the global sailing and boating community something to "Like". The offer was hugely successful using a single platform as the test. (See my blog post "Viral Messaging Spreads Like Wildfire".) Recently, we learned that Constant Contact will promote Liqui-Site's email marketing and social media customization work for Whitecaps Foul Weather Gear, nationally. According to company president, Mark Kamen, “We were thrilled with the test success and we plan to greatly increase our exposure through social media in 2012 and beyond.”
The next question is “Now that we’re increasing revenue through social media, how do we ensure that increase for the long-term – and improve upon it?”
I’ll answer that very question in my next blog post, Social Media Measurability: Part II. To make sure you’re the first to know, you can either bookmark us in your browser, subscribe to our blog via RSS feed or follow us with Google Friend Connect at right. Since this IS all about social media, we’ll also post a link in our social channels on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Any way you see fit, connect with us. We’ll provide tremendous value, just keep the comments and questions coming!
Richard A Feldman
Senior Account Director
Liqui-Site Designs, Inc.
[T] 845 353 7771
[C] 845 548 9679
[E] rfeldman@liqui-site.com
www.liqui-site.com
Follow @Liqui_Site
This is a very interesting article. At The Public Relations and Marketing Group, we agree that social media activity and engagement is important and worth the effort. Over the last few months, we have really worked on our social media presence, as well as for our clients. Feel free to drop by our Long Island Marketing blog at http://longislandmarketingblog.com/ to leave and feedback, comments or questions. Thank you and we look forward to your next entry!
ReplyDeleteThe Public Relations and Marketing Group
Hello John and thanks so much for your comment, though I am curious what you found interesting about the post. You didn't really go into that.
ReplyDeleteWe have found that effective communication with people through social media channels requires three critical elements to be successful - 1) respect for the audience, 2) relevancy of the message and 3) authenticity of the communicator - perhaps even more so than having a 1:1 phone conversation! This is because one of the biggest hurdles is overcoming the impersonal characteristics of the Internet. Some feel the Internet has a long way to go to maturity. Care to comment further?
What has PRMG been working on, specifically your social media presence, as well as your clients? Do you find that one platform works better for clients in a certain industry than others? Let's get a dialog going here.
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this. I found the Burt's Bees facebook page very useful. My goal is to get that level of interaction on Frugaldoo. The coupon offer is right in our wheel house. We can do the same but send the coupon to your phone and avoid the printing and paper.
I think that is an interesting point, it made me think a bit. Thanks for sparking my thinking cap. Sometimes I get so much in a rut that I just feel like a record.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, NY SEO. I’m curious as to specifically what in the article originally caught your eye to make you put your thinking cap on?
ReplyDeleteToday's organic SEO is often confusing and contradictory, even among the industry’s most recognized experts. Organizations, directories, trade events and publishers (online and offline) can endlessly debate the finer points of SEO best (and worst) practices. So what can companies and marketers do to sift through the cacophony of traffic development factors?
While there are nuances to SEO approaches, the fundamental truth is that proper SEO must include efforts in the two primary areas that contribute to a site’s organic search engine rankings - on-page and off-page factors. We generally include authoritative link-building strategies, article marketing, user generated content (UGC), as well as a host of other inbound social media strategies. Have you heard of our new Social ROI program? If not, Social ROI allows you to set up social campaigns within your network channels and measure those results through it’s social network analytics function. This allows you to track your social network accounts just the same way you would track the performance of your websites. Check it out at http://www.liqui-site.com/Liqui-Site-Social-ROI, and let me know if you’d like to talk about it.