In today’s digitally connected world, the social presence of your professional services business is as important as its physical presence. Truth is, your social media ROI has a lot to do with your business success.
Whether you like it or not, you need to work on the social aspect of your professional practice and reach out to your audience through content that matters to them. Social media strategies that are customized to their needs are effective in building up a following. When you run targeted social campaigns, in a sincere and consistent way, it will reflect in your social media ROI. And it will convert into business leads and revenue.
Many professional services businesses have done it, and you can have the same results when you determine the right social media action.
Do you need more clients for your professional services business? Whether you’re a start up or a long-time existing business who’s looking for ways to expand your operation, social media may just be the right tool that you need to attract more people who are already looking for the services you offer. Social media specializes in targeting the right market so they’ll take action the way you want them to.
You can use social media to acquire more leads, increase website traffic, convert more subscribers, build more clients and referrals, and ultimately drive more sales. You can achieve all of this by applying all the information that your social analytics will tell you. You can’t simply hit and miss with all your social marketing campaigns. It will be very costly. Through social analytics, every social media action that you take is sure and increases your chances of success.
It always goes back to trust. People do business with those they trust. They mainly trust those who they have a relationship with. Clients relate only with people, not the business per se. What does it mean? You have to connect with them, be empathic and approachable the best you can. This is where social media comes in. It’s a great venue for you to get social with your potential clients, interact with them and engage them in your industry.
Professional services businesses heavily rely on customer[3] relationships and brand reputation. You need to increase your brand awareness and authority as a business, and get more social content out there where your audience spends their time. You can leverage on the power of social media to build long-term relationships with your clients.
Yes, you need business integrity, excellent service quality, and good credibility to achieve this first. But you can also display these values across social networks, so more people will start to know, like and trust you. When they do, it could be the start of a relationship that may result in a sale.
Your return on investment (ROI) in social media will tell you the impact of all your social media efforts in your business goals. It shows you exact numerical values that confirm whether your social media strategies are helping your business or not. You can draw from it relevant statistics that you can apply to develop a better social media game plan. With the right social ROI software tool, you can have an overview of the results of all of your social media actions and detailed insights of every social campaign executed. Its definition can be as detailed as which Facebook[4] post brought you the most engagement and sales. When you get valuable information like this, you’ll immediately know what to do next. Whether to continue with your current social actions or, modify something in what you’re doing, or completely stop your campaign and do something else.
You can’t afford to launch social campaigns blindly. Much is at stake: your time, budget and resources. Once you start a social media campaign, you need to track what you’re doing in a short period of time, evaluate everything, re-adjust as needed and run with it again. With the right information, you’re on your way to getting more targeted leads and satisfied clients, so your professional services business will reach the next level of success.
To achieve social media ROI, first, you need to set social media goals for your business. It depends on where you are in your business growth. Have you run previous social media campaigns? Or are you a total beginner? Which of the following goals are relevant for you? Take it and customize it according to where you want your online business to go.
It should establish brand loyalty through word of mouth. By sharing your best content in social media, more people will learn about your professional services business. When they do, you can receive more followers, mentions, likes and retweets.
Give a voice to their take on various aspects in your industry through blogs and social content.
Always tailor your social campaigns according to your market’s language. Aim to identify the details they look for when it comes to availing the services that you offer. You can also take a look into what your competitors are doing. Focus on getting insights from your clients by interacting with them via social media.
Now that you have goals, it’s easier to define which social ROI metrics are important. For example, for you to build a good following on Twitter, you need to keep an eye on your Twitter favorites, retweets and followers. Once they keep on increasing, and your followers actively respond to your tweets, it’s safe to say that the campaign you’re running is effectively achieving its purpose. There’s a good return on investment on your social tactics.
Let’s be more specific. Whether you’re a doctor, lawyer, accountant, realtor, plumber, educator or other professional practitioner, those goals listed above can only be attained and deliver a strong social ROI if you know how to tap the power of social media marketing.
And so, we bring you five tips that you can quickly implement, even today, to elevate your business in your audience perception and to compel them to engage with you via social media, which all result in a higher social ROI.
Find out where they are and what they want. Remember that your clients are the true assets of your professional services business. Let your social content be about them. You can start by letting them be familiarized with the members of your professional board. You can feature the members of your team based on what each specializes in and the services they can give to help your prospects.
Now you can start the conversation. You can post different content that is of interest to your audience. It can be industry news, latest research breakthrough, about your individual professional team, about your business’ volunteering, community involvements or any extracurricular work, your latest promotions and it can also be about practical tips about your industry. After posting your content, you can begin asking for comments and questions.
You can turn the most interesting topic into a webinar or a long form blog[5] post, so you can provide more details for your audience. It’s your chance to add your expert advice, so your participants can get expert tips for free. Content like this has high value and tends to attract loyalty that pays off.
Whatever social media strategy you choose to run, it can only turn into a success when you’re able to win your audience’s trust. But to gain their trust, you need to show that your business sincerely wants to help them solve their problems. That’s why it always works when you make the first move to offer something valuable for them in social media. It can be any content that they can use on a daily basis.
Some popular examples are a checklist guide, mind map, cheat sheet, points to consider, mistakes to avoid, top lists, etc. You can relate these resources to your specific industry and personalize it, to your specific clients. The more you’re able to express to them that you’re the help they need, the more they will consider your professional services.
LinkedIn is the social network for professionals. It’s also the best venue to catch up with other professionals whom you’ve briefly met while attending network events. Regardless of where they are, LinkedIn enables you to follow up with them. Who knows? You may be on your way to your next client.
LinkedIn is also a great way to reach out to new potential clients. You can search for them inside the platform, find a touchpoint to initiate a conversation and send a connection request with a short personal message.
That’s why you need to work on your LinkedIn profile. First impressions last, especially to your target clients. Put in the time to create a great LinkedIn profile. Use an image that describes what you do in your professional services business. If you can capture your team performing services in action, it will make an authentic background image for your profile. Create a great headline, and use every space available to describe your business. Stand out from your competition by choosing words that your market looks for. Project your authority well while reaching out to them.
If you want to reach more local clients, your business needs to be visible where they gather online. Facebook is the top social networking site with 60 million monthly active users[2]. Most of your prospects must be looking for the services you offer on Facebook! That’s why you need to show yourself to them, tell them where they can find you and what they can expect from your business.
Facebook even has a Professional Services feature, like Yellow Pages, that helps consumers find the best local businesses for their needs. They use Facebook reviews and ratings to determine which companies provide the best services. If you build your Facebook presence and activities, your professional services business can be seen by most of your target market.
There are many ways for your clients to find you on Facebook. They can browse through the top local business categories, or type the service that you provide and the local area in Facebook’s search box. Wherever your office is located, if you’re on Facebook, you can be reached not only by U.S. prospects, but by clients anywhere in the world. Make sure to spend time marketing your professional services business on Facebook.
Aim to add them on your list so you can continue to follow up with them in terms of your content and the services you offer. Never publish content that isn’t focused on your social media goals. Synchronize all your social media content to support your business goals. Study your audience well so every social campaign impacts them in a powerful way and make them feel that you really know them.
When you do this, you’re more likely to get their attention, which can result in an increase in your social media following. As a professional services provider, be consistent in delivering messages that provide solutions to the problems faced in your industry. Stand out from the crowd by highlighting in your social media content about what people can do to overcome different scenarios that are usually faced by clients seeking your services. Be bold, be creative and be authentic. People will naturally see it and your organic reach can instantly grow.
By optimizing your social media efforts, you’re well on your way to a higher social media ROI for your business. Just keep an eye on the metrics that you’ve set at the start of your campaigns, and take action accordingly. By using a sensible social media ROI automation tool, you can track both your social and business metrics without breaking a sweat. It should help you make wise decisions on what to do next with your social media marketing, so that you can expect only good returns.
Social media is an ever-changing landscape. Although professionals are typically busy with their clients, you need to take time to keep up with the way your target market uses social media. In short, you have to know how potential clients use social media. This is vital for your company to thrive in your industry and to make sure that you’ll always have a positive social ROI. Be ready now and be equipped to adapt to whatever social media change may come. Here are five tips that you can implement in your business right now.
Not all social networks are created the same. What’s certain is, there’s a social site that you’ll eventually discover to be the most effective for your market. That’s where they usually gather to connect with each other and talk about things related to your industry. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram[6] or something else, make sure you know what it is. It should be the source of most of your website traffic and conversions. There are tools to make this easy. Sociamonials even provides a dashboard for which social network and which social posts bring in the most professional service inquiries submitted on your website.
Being all around many different social networks may leave your marketing efforts distracted and cumbersome. Let’s face it. We can’t be everywhere all the time. It’s better to focus your impact on the selected few platforms. Make up your list of top 2 or 3 social sites to prioritize.
Now that you’ve come up with a list of social sites where you want to focus on your social media marketing efforts, run through your account and profile on each of these networks. Is your profile optimised? Do you have sufficient information for your audience on each network? How are the social messages you send out? Are they consistent, in a good mix of topics, delivered in the tone of voice that you want? If not, you can start answering these questions and be more effective with your social content.
Depending on your success on each social platform, you may want to use them for different purposes. You can use Facebook to generate more leads, Twitter to engage your followers through tweets about your industry, LinkedIn to increase brand awareness through authority posts. Whatever it is, make sure that it’s clear how you want to use each network to promote your business. And then, align all your social efforts to each specific goal.
As experts in your professional industry, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re also the right person to manage your social media accounts across different networks. Find the right person on your team who has a knack for your service specialization, digital marketing[1] and business. Make sure he or she is also knowledgeable in your business mission and objectives. Remember that this person will be in-charge of reaching out to your most valuable business asset, your clients. If you want to save time and resources and be smart in your online marketing, you may want to consider about getting a social media management software that can also be a big boost in your other digital marketing efforts.
Social media offers a great opportunity for your professional services business to transform your clients’ experiences when it comes to things that matter most in your industry. By using social media to deliver expert advice, practical situation insights, and available help through your services, your business can make a difference in their lives.
Do you know your social media ROI? Does it increase with your social media marketing strategies? What lessons can you apply in your business based on what you’ve learned from this post? Let us know in the comments!
Discover proven ways to achieve higher social ROI by getting more referrals for your existing professional services business. Implement just one of these six time-tested strategies and, it can significantly increase your customer base.
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You can increase brand awareness and reach a wider audience by using social media strategies and implementing social media marketing. It allows you to engage with potential clients and showcase your expertise in professional services.
To measure the success of your social media efforts, professional services businesses should track key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics can help you gauge your social media success and make informed decisions for your business.
To effectively measure social media engagement and evaluate audience interest, focus on metrics like likes, comments, shares, and click-through rates. These indicators help you gauge the level of interaction and interest from your audience.
To effectively measure social media engagement and gauge audience interest, you need to calculate social media reach and impressions. These metrics are crucial for professional services businesses as they provide valuable insights for understanding the effectiveness of your social media efforts.
To track and analyze lead generation and conversion rates resulting from your social media activities, you can implement ROI measurement techniques and utilize lead tracking tools. This will help you understand the impact of your efforts and make informed decisions.
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