Social media is one of the best marketing campaigns you can tap in to. If you don’t know have experience with social media or have a plan for your social media campaign, you run the risk of sabotaging any possible results you may receive from your efforts. Simplifying, interacting and tracking your return on investment will make for a great campaign.

Simplify!

Many social media campaigns fail before they even take off. Most people think that by simply signing up for Facebook and Twitter accounts and sending out updates, they’ll have an effective campaign. On the flip side, people inundate themselves with a plethora of social networks they want to target yet have no specific goal in mind. The most effective way to operate is to simplify your campaign. Ask yourself: what do you want to accomplish and who do you want to reach? If you’re marketing a new kind of business suit that is extremely light and comfortable to wear when it’s hot, you’ll obviously want to target businessmen that can afford this kind of technology. Where do you think your target audience will be? Hint: it’s not Facebook. Try LinkedIn, a social networking site tailored to professionals, in order to be really effective.

Drawing up a battle plan of whom you want to target and which social networks may cater to that demographic gives you some more control. Just because social media is intangible doesn’t mean it can’t be used effectively. Don’t get overwhelmed, just simplify!

Interact and Follow Up

You’ve got the networks you want to use in order market your new suit all figured out, now you’ll have to interact with people and follow up with them. If you’re messaging a man who travels to Spain frequently, make sure he knows why he should use your suit the next trip he takes (don’t forget to mention that it’s wrinkle resistant) and why it beats suits from Armani (you’re bound to save some money). Don’t spam him, but don’t forget about him either; follow up with him by finding out how he likes the suit and any improvements he would make if he were in your position.

Social media is a two way street, it is best utilized when you use it to create a conversation, particularly when that conversation is about your product. Social media transcends the normal advertising experience by creating a personal and imitate relationship with the clientele you are trying to sell to and breaks down some barriers. It forces you to be human which creates trust in your audience.

Track Your Return on Investment

Return on investment for social media marketing is the hardest factor to track for any campaign because there are so many kinds of metrics you can factor in and not many people are quite sure how to do it. Using the advice of simplifying your social media campaign can really help you track ROI. When you were first conceptualizing your battle plan, you should have realized your ultimate goal — to generate profit or interest in your product. If your investment is “X” amount of dollars, you’ll want at least “X” plus $1 so that you won’t lose money on your campaign. You can very easily track your ROI using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics allows you to create tracking URLs that show where visitors come from and whether they buy something from your online store or even participate in an action that leads to a sale in the future. If your site received 1,000 visits per month before you started your social media campaign, and you only add 80 more visits per month from social media sites, ask yourself how many of those 80 bought a suit? If it’s your original investment plus $1, it’s effective but has room to grow.

If 10 of those people bought a suit at $400 that’s $4,000 generated just from social media — a profit of $1,000 from a very low number of people visiting your site or e-store. This means your campaign has room to grow and even while it’s in its infancy, it’s already making you money.

Using social media along with your current marketing campaign doesn’t have to be difficult. When you simplify things, you can interact with anyone and make it a genuine, personalized experience. Even more important, tracking ROI is easier when you simplify the process and clearly state your goals early on. Now that we’ve broken down some of the concepts of creating a great social media campaign, we’d like to know how you can implement these tactics. Maybe you have more questions? Either way, visit our Facebook or Twitter and let us know, we can’t wait to hear from you!