Social Media Marketing in 2013: The Essentials

What does your social media marketing strategy need to have in 2013 in order for it to be successful?

Social media marketing has, once again, proven to be a crucial tool for a brand’s growth in 2012. The marketing medium has made tremendous strides over the course of the year, and it is sure to grow even larger in the next. As we approach the new year, we thought it might be helpful to take a look at some of the most important items to address with regards to your social media marketing strategy for 2013 in order to see your success grow, too.

1. Set Your Goals and Your Road Map for Achieving Them

As with any venture, social media marketing requires a strategy in order for it to be successful. The concept of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is one that no longer applies in the conventional sense. (RIM, the makers of BlackBerry are a perfect example of this.) The contemporary version of this theory falls more in line with, “if it’s working, figure out a way to get the most out of it” – and that is exactly where your goals should focus if that’s the case. Below are a few pointers to consider when devising your social media marketing strategy for the new year:

• Who is the audience you are looking to target with your social media?
• How effective was your social media marketing in 2012?
• What aspects work, and where does your social media marketing need improvement?
• Are you studying the right data when it comes to analysis of your program?

These pointers follow a general theme, and that brings us to our next point.

2. Before Anything, Evaluate Your Social Media Marketing in 2012

As the pointers above may suggest, evaluating the performance of your social media marketing in 2012 is going to be crucial to the success of your strategy in 2013. Where did you benefit? Where did your stretegy fall short? What were your goals for 2012? Did you achieve them? Why or why not? These questions all need to be answered before devising a strategy for your social media marketing in the coming year. And there are quite a few ways you  can go about doing this.

The first aspect you need to look at are your goals in 2012. Using some of the insights tools available both in social media networks (e.g. Facebook insights) and external tools, you can see where you reached your goals and where you need improvement. Then evaluate each social network individually to see what strategies you employed that were either a success or a bust. Build off of these in order to get the most out of your social media marketing in 2013. Trim the fat where it is necessary and devote those resources to areas that saw success in order to maximize the efficiency of your strategy. Social media marketing is not about quantity necessarily, but about quality. Don’t forget, despite what some people might suggest, social media is not free, and if you are draining resources into something that is not benefitting your brand, you are losing considerably more than you might think.

3. Take SEO Into Consideration in Your Evaluation

SEO has long been a cornerstone of web marketing. And social media plays an integral part in your SEO efforts. In a post last month, we noted why social signals are an ever-growing part of the Google algorithm. It stands to reason that social signals will continue to factor into SEO in a significant way in the coming year, so evaluating your SEO strategy and aligning it with your social media strategy will prove to be crucial in finding success.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ directly impact your search rankings, so look to your keywords to find out how you can capitalize on this reality. Shares and retweets with links work the same way as a backlink, but they make the link-building process infinitely simpler. So use your Google Analytics Webmaster Tools to find your best keywords, and optimize accordingly.

4. Make Sure Your Entire Team Believes in Your Social Media Strategy

What is the biggest hinderance to the success of a social media marketing strategy? Skepticism. For marketing divisions and firms alike, hesitation by management to accept social media as a crucial avenue to a brand’s success has proven time and again to be biggest hurdle when it comes to reaching al of your goals when it comes to social media marketing. So before moving forward, take the steps necessary to ensure that everyone, from the highest level executive to the mailroom clerk believes in the strategy, and you will be able to move forward faster than ever before.

Can you think of other points that will be crucial to the success of your social media marketing strategy in 2013? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!