Social media shows a friendly face to the people who use it. It’s approachable, intuitive, and simple to use as a networking tool for personal and professional conversations. Why, then, does social media’s intersection with business sometimes feel impersonal? What are some businesses missing that is causing their potential leads to drop out and distance themselves? How can you avoid becoming one of these organizations that are losing out in the hotly contested social media marketing arena?
The answer lies in improved data enhancement technology that takes the chill out of person-to-person communications online and lets you discover more about the people who want to buy from you.
Audience Segmentation
Your audience isn’t a monolith; it’s composed of a diverse array of individual people, each of whom has a specific need he or she is hoping you can fill. Data enrichment guides the professionals in your audience to the market segments that most closely match up their needs with your offers. In its earlier days, social media just blasted out a message to an entire audience regardless of its relevance. While that method reaches the people it needs to reach, it also causes the rest of your audience to downgrade your social media stream’s relevance.
Social media platforms now give you segmentation tools that group your audience in logical ways so you can serve each segment’s needs more precisely. Data enhancement services help you build account files that are more complete, allowing you to segment audiences more precisely and accurately.
Platform Knowledge
Not all social media platforms function in the same way, so understanding where each channel you use excels is vital to personalizing your social media marketing campaigns. Platforms differ in the information contained in user profiles, types of media available, and demographics of the overall user base. LinkedIn, for example, is an essential professional tool while Instagram and Snapchat offer a more casual social connection. Knowledge of platform demographics can also help with segmentation.
Campaign Integration
Social media marketing shouldn’t take place in a vacuum. It’s part of your larger marketing strategy. Too often, social media data is siloed; it doesn’t connect to the information you’ve gathered from leads on your official website or email list. Data enhancement traces the lines between these isolated points to create an integrated network of customer care designed to foster individual, person-to-person connections between your leads and you.
Growth over Time
Social media channels are anything but static. They wax and wane in usefulness over time, and the platform that used to deliver consistent results may no longer be your source of golden leads as users migrate to new platforms. With data enhancement, you remain tapped into your customer base and can follow them as they adopt new social media personas on different channels.
Too many companies use social media because they feel they have to without making it a part of the larger realms of lead nurturing and customer care. When you understand social media channels and the people who use them with a data-driven strategy that informs your choices, you’re able to make the most of this powerful social tool set.
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