3 Social Media Marketing Questions Every Marketer Wants Answered
In the ever changing world of social media marketing, 
marketers express their top 3 social media questions.
Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner, revealed "The State of Social Media Marketing Industry" report findings during a HubSpot webinar. He provided valuable insight for marketers to measure their social media, find their audience, and engage with their customers.
Stelzner surveyed several marketers asking them what is their top social media questions they would like answered. He provided expert advice while answering every marketer's top 3 social media questions.
#1 How do I Measure the Effect of Social Media?
This question has held the top spot for number one question about social media for the past 3 years. In this economic time, you want to invest your marketing money wisely and see a return on investment (ROI). Since social media takes up a large amount of valuable time for marketers, a common question people are now asking is, is this actually impacting my sales? If you look at traditional internet marketing, such as Google and PPC, it provides detailed insight and analytics to show you how your labor is paying off. Social media is different because there are several platforms available and they aren’t all linked together.
According to Stelzner, he does think there is room for a business to come in and make social media simple, uniformed, and easy for everybody to use. He finds that right now there aren’t enough tools for marketers to measure their success with social media and this is an area that needs improvement.
#2 How do I Find my Target Audience?
Do you find yourself asking where are my customers or prospects hanging out? As Stelzner pointed out, chances are, you already have customers, therefore you need to research your reach and think about where they are hanging out. For example, say you have a large female customer base that is interested in crafts. Knowing this information, Pinterest would be a great social media platform for your company to use.
Even though there are several social media platforms available, it doesn’t mean every platform will work for your company. You need to do the research and put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
Once you have an idea where you can find them, that is when you choose the appropriate social media platforms. Social media has come a long way and sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have ads that are very precise at targeting your customers. Sites like these are great options for you to target potential customers.
#3 What are the Best Ways to Engage my Audience with Social Media?
Social media allows you to make physical connections with your customers. It is the same as meeting people and interacting with them at an event, you want to leave an impression. Look at how the individuals in your community work; do they prefer visuals, statistics, or informative content? Take this data you have gathered from your customers and use it to engage with them.
If you can take away one thing from Stelzner’s report, it is that engagement is not a one-way street. Your customers expect you to reply to comments they leave on your blog or social media sites. Not responding to your customers will do you a disservice in the long run.
Post by: Sarah Papachristos